Position in chronology
ARET 03, 049
About this tablet
A fragment of a textile-account tablet from the palace archives of Ebla in western Syria, written around 2400–2300 BCE. It records deliveries or disbursements of wool and dozens of finished garments — including the distinctive multicoloured belt-like 'ÍB' textiles that appear constantly in Ebla's records — associated with a man named Adasin, dated by the local month za-LUL. Tablets like this, found by the thousands at Tell Mardikh in the 1970s, reveal Ebla as a major hub of the ancient Syrian wool and cloth trade.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is an inventory entry concerning the man of Adasin. It lists one measure of first-grade combed wool, then — after a broken stretch — at least ten TUG2-NI-NI garments, twenty-seven fine multicoloured belt-textiles, and thirty-nine more multicoloured belt-textiles (written the ancient way, as 'forty minus one'). The record is dated to the month of za-LUL and closes with the name Irmi. The beginning and part of the middle of the account are lost to breakage.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Obverse) Man of Adasin: 1 (unit of) wool, KIN-quality, first-grade; (Break) [...] 1[+n] tens of TUG2-NI-NI textiles; 27 fine multicoloured ÍB+III (belt/kilt) textiles; 40 minus 1 (= 39) multicoloured ÍB+III textiles. Month: za-LUL. Irmi.
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
_lu2_ a-da-si-in 1(asz@c) _siki_ KIN SAG [...] 1(u@c) [n] TUG2-NI-NI 2(u@c) 7(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar sa6 tug2_ 4(u@c) _la2_ 1(disz@t) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ ITI za-LUL ir-mi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 049. 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 (P242234) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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