Position in chronology
ARET 03, 015
About this tablet
An administrative tablet from the palace archives of Ebla in northern Syria, about 2350–2300 BCE, recording issues of clothing. The named authority is Ibrium, the powerful chief minister of Ebla under king Išar-damu, who here hands out sets of garments to named men — Irigunu, Dubišum, Igduru — in connection with a journey or campaign. The standard Eblaite outfit appears in full: an 'à-da-um cloak, an aktum tunic, and a multicoloured íb kilt, plus linen, a breast-band and a gu-zi-dum item. Thousands of such textile-issue records survive from Ebla, and together they show how the palace clothed its officials and envoys as an instrument of state.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ibrium issued clothing to Irigunu of the É×PAP for a journey: one 'à-da-um cloak, one aktum tunic and one three-band kilt of fine coloured cloth. A further entry, headed Kum-NE, lists another aktum tunic and two coloured kilts, together with a piece of linen, a breast-band and a gu-zi-dum garment. The names Dubišum and Igduru follow, with the amounts assigned to them lost in the breaks. The reverse of the fragment is blank or worn smooth, so the record ends here.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineIrigunu, of the É×PAP (building/shrine), Ibrium gave (it) to him on the journey (campaign) [...] 1 'à-da-um garment (one), 1 aktum garment, 1 íb+3 multicoloured fine textile Kum-NE [...] 1 [n] aktum garment, 2 íb+3 multicoloured fine textiles 1 linen (cloth), 1 níg-lá of the breast (breast-band) 1 gu-zi-dum, [...] textile [...] Dubišum [...] Igduru[...] (Reverse: uninscribed / effaced apart from a ruled band at the top; nothing legible.)
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
i-[ri2]-gu2-nu |e2xPAP| ib-ri2-um _in-na-szum2_ in KASKAL [...] 1(asz@c) 'a3-da-um 1(disz@t) 1(asz@c@90) _aktum_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(disz@t)| dar sa6 tug2_ kum-NE [...] 1(asz@c) [n] _aktum_ 2(asz@c@90) _|IB2+3(disz@t)| dar sa6 tug2_ 1(asz@c) _gada_ 1(asz@c@90) _nig2-la2 GAB@t_ 1(asz@c) gu-zi-dum [x x] tug2 [...] du-bi2-szum [...] ig-du-[ru12 ...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 015. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum of Syria, Idlib, Syria (P242195) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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