Position in chronology
ARET 03, 058
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative account from the royal archives of Ebla in northwestern Syria, around 2400–2300 BCE. It belongs to the palace's textile bookkeeping: individual belts and garments of graded quality are issued to named persons and officials — a man called Zikiar attached to the palace complex (the 'sa-za'), a woman connected with wine delivery, a 'holder' official, and a commissioner. Thousands of such fragments survive from Ebla, and together they map out how a Bronze Age palace clothed and rewarded its personnel.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a torn page from Ebla's palace ledger of clothing issues. Zikiar, a man on the palace administration's rolls, gets one fine multicolored belt-garment; a gap follows. Then an entry involving GIŠ-DUG-DU: one woman, connected with Dub, made a handover — wine is mentioned. One item (illegible) goes to the 'holder' official, and one triple-grade multicolored belt-garment goes to the commissioner overseeing the transaction. The rest of the tablet is broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineZikiar, of the sa-za (palace administration): 1 fine multicolored ib-textile (belt/kilt); [...] GIŠ-DUG-DU; 1 woman (of/from) Dub — handed over (šu mu-tag4); wine; 1 ... [...] (for) the šu-du8 official; 1 triple-quality(?) multicolored ib-textile (for) the commissioner (maškim); [...] (rest 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
zi-ki-ar sa-zax(LAK384) 1(asz@c) _ib2 dar sa6 tug2_ [...] GISZ-DUG-DU 1(asz@c) _SAL_ du-ub _szu mu-tag4_ _gesztin_ 1(asz@c) x [...] _szu-du8_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ _maszkim_ [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 058. 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 (P242243) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
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