An ancient note from a teen annoyed at his mum is being shared on TikTokA lot of things have changed in the past 4,000 years, but one thing has stayed the same: the utter wrath and contempt of teens.
Academic and author of Kinky History Dr Esmé Louise James recently shared a TikTok video explaining how, thousands of years ago, one teen chiseled a furious message to his mother in clay because he was mad about the state of his clothes.
And best of all, his mum kept the note. (Because of course she did!)
The ancient relic is from the ancient Mesopotamian civilisation, Dr James said, adding that the letter is “essentially just this brat of a teenage boy complaining to his mother about the quality of his clothing”.
@dr.esme.louise brat anthem of the Ancient World ???? #KinkyHistory#stitch with @Pat Mandziy Translation: Oppenheim, A. Leo (1967). Letters from Mesopotamia: Official, Business, and Private Letters on Clay Tablets from Two Millennia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. #AncientWorld#History
♬ original sound - Dr. Esmé Louise James
Student Iddin-Sin was away from his mother Zinu when he wrote the scathing letter, which has been translated as saying: “From year to year, the clothes of the young gentleman here become better. But my clothes get worse from year to year.
“Indeed, you persist in making my clothes poorer and more scanty at a time when, in our house, wool is used up like bread.
“You have made me poor clothes. The son of Adad-iddinam, whose father is only an assistant to my father, has two new sets of clothes while you fuss even about a single set of clothes for me.”
And then came the real theatrics...
“In spite of the fact that you bore me, and his mother only adopted him, his mother loves him while you... you do not love me,” he wrote.
The ever-grateful teen also included the following in his note, which is quite possibly the pinnacle of passive aggression: “May the gods keep you forever in good health, for my sake.”
Dr James said of the note: “Humans have always been human. The centuries may separate us but brattiness remains.”
People were highly amused by the finding. One person commented on the video: “I’m obsessed with the fact that he spent the time chiselling this.”
Another mentioned that he had a right to be angry: “He was so real tho... Like damn get him a second set [of clothes].”
Parents of teens (and tweens) also related hard to the historic note. One replied: “I love this though! Teens be teens (sincerely, the mom of two preteens).”
