Position in chronology
ARET 03, 027
About this tablet
A fragment of a textile-distribution record from the palace archives of Ebla in western Syria, written around 2400–2300 BCE. The clerks of Ebla tracked every garment the palace handed out — here sets of cloaks, tunics, and colorful belts issued to named individuals, including a man from the town of Ša'um and, apparently, a king. These accounts, thousands of which survive, are our main window into the diplomacy and economy of the earliest great Syrian state.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a clothing-issue slip from the Ebla palace stores. Enna-NI, the representative from the town of Ša'um, is on the books, and one fine cloth plus one multicolored belt go to a man named Šeš-mu. After a gap where the tablet is broken, another standard outfit is logged — one gu-dul cloak, one aktum tunic, and one multicolored belt — issued to the king. The rest of the account is lost where the tablet breaks off.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineEnna-NI, the man of Ša'um: 1 fine (SAL) textile, 1 multicolored belt-cloth — (for) Šeš-mu. [Break] 1 gu-dul cloak, 1 aktum garment, 1 multicolored belt-cloth — (for) the king (en). [Break]
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
en-na-NI LU2 sza-u3-um 1(asz@c) _SAL_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ szesz-mu [...] 1(asz@c) _gu#-dul3_ 1(asz@c) _aktum_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ _en_ [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 027. 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 (P242207) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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