Position in chronology
ARET 03, 025
About this tablet
An accounting fragment from the palace archives of Ebla in western Syria, written around 2350 BCE. It records large payments of silver — weighed by the 'Dilmun standard,' the international weight norm of the day — as the purchase price for hundreds of textiles, including kilts explicitly said to come from the city of Mari on the Euphrates. It is a snapshot of long-distance commerce: the Ebla court buying fine garments in bulk and paying in silver, with a named official recorded as handing over the goods.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a purchase ledger. Zekam(?) made the handover. One entry lists 13 minas of an unnamed commodity and 9 minas 42 shekels of silver (Dilmun weight standard) as the purchase price of goods now lost in a break. The next entry itemizes the merchandise: 4 top-quality sashes, 2 white triple-band kilts from Mari, 103 fine SAL-textiles plus one NI-NI garment, and 149 multicolored kilts. For these, 20 minas and 12 shekels of silver — again on the Dilmun standard — were paid as the purchase price, covering 23 dul-garments and 16 ʾadaʾum cloaks. The rest of the tablet is broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Obverse) Zekam(?): handed over (šu mu-tag). 13 minas [of ...], 9 minas 42 shekels of silver by the Dilmun standard — the purchase price [...] (Break) 4 first-quality sashes (nig-la), 2 white triple(-band) kilts of Mari, 1 hundred 3 SAL(-textiles), 1 NI-NI-garment, 1 hundred 50 minus 1 (= 149) multicolored kilts [...], 20 minas 12 shekels of silver by the Dilmun standard — the purchase price of 23 dul-garments, 16 ʾadaʾum-cloaks [...] (text breaks off)
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
ze2-kam4 _szu mu-tag4_ 1(u@c) 3(asz@c) _ma-na_ [...] 9(asz@c) _ma-na_ SZA-PI-2(disz) gin2 dilmun _ku3:babbar_ _nig2-sa10_ [...] 4(asz@c) _nig2-la2 sag_ 2(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| babbar tug2_ ma-ri2 1(asz@c) mi-at 3(asz@c) _SAL_ 1(asz@c) TUG2-NI-NI 1(asz@c) mi-at 5(u@c) _la2_ 1(disz@t) _|IB2+n(DISZ@t)| dar_ [...] 2(u@c) _ma-na_ 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) gin2 dilmun _ku3:babbar_ _nig2-sa10_ 2(u@c) 3(asz@c) _dul3_ 1(u@c) 6(asz@c) 'a3-da-um [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 025. 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 (P242205) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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