Position in chronology
ARET 03, 017
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative account from the royal archives of Ebla in northern Syria, written around 2350 BCE. It records luxury goods — a fine garment and two gold daggers in the 'Amorite' style — issued to Ibrium, the powerful vizier who effectively ran the Eblaite state, and to Hazir, a personal attendant in his household. Such texts, thousands of which survived the burning of Ebla's palace, document how prestige objects circulated among the court elite.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a disbursement record from the palace at Ebla. On the occasion of a delivery ceremony, Ibrium — the vizier — received one high-quality zara-garment, and two gold daggers of the Amorite style were issued as well; the line saying who got the daggers is broken away. The record then names Hazir, apparently a physician and personal attendant in Ibrium's service, as a further recipient or party to the transaction. The rest of the tablet is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineGIŠ-DUG-DU (delivery/ceremonial occasion): 1 fine zara-garment — Ibrium. 2 gold daggers of Amorite type [...] and Hazir, the AZU-E (physician?), the pa₄-šeš attendant of Ibrium. [...] (remainder broken)
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
GESZ-DUG-DU 1(asz@c) _zara6 sa6_ ib-ri2-um 2(asz@c) _gir2 mar-tu ku3-sig17_ [...] wa ha-zi#-ir AZU-E _pa4!:szesz_ ib-ri2-um [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 017. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum of Syria, Idlib, Syria (P242197) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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