Position in chronology
ARET 03, 070
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative tablet from the great palace archive of Ebla in Syria, written around 2400–2300 BCE. It lists men by name — among them 'great singers,' the palace musicians — followed by an allotment of textiles of two qualities, the standard currency of reward at the Ebla court. It is a scrap of the world's oldest well-documented state bureaucracy, showing that even court entertainers were tracked and paid in cloth. One name, Išra-il, has drawn attention for its striking resemblance to the later name Israel, centuries before any biblical context.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a payroll fragment. It names a group of men — Išar-malik and others identified as the senior singers, then [...]-malik, Za'arum, Gu-NE-du, Išra-il, and, after a gap, Ir'am-da'ar, Igbul-malik, and Ibhur — who received an issue of cloth: four coarse-weave textiles and four fine garments. In effect: 'Issued to the palace musicians and associates, eight pieces of cloth, four rough and four fine.' The edges of the tablet are broken away, so the rest of the roster and any totals are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse, column fragmentary) [I]šar-malik, the great singers [...] [...]-malik, Za'arum, Gu-NE-du, Išra-il, [...] (Break) Ir'am-da'ar, Igbul-malik, Ib[hur] (received?); 4 coarse-fibre (gu-mug) textiles, 4 fine (SAL) garments. [...] (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
[i]-szar-ma-lik _nar-nar mah#_ [...] [...]-ma-lik za-a-rum2 gu2-NE-du isz-ra-il [...] ir3-am6-da-ar ig-bu3-ul-ma-lik ib-[hu-ur2] ! 4(asz@c) _gu-mug_ 4(asz@c) _SAL_ [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 070. 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 (P242255) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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