Position in chronology
ARET 03, 122
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative record from the great palace archive of Ebla in northwestern Syria, written around 2400–2300 BCE. It logs an outlay of luxury goods — fine garments, a coloured sash, and two copper-and-gold bracelets — issued to a man named Asi-malik, identified by his father's name. Thousands of such dockets survive from Ebla, and together they map the flow of textiles and precious metals that the palace used to reward officials, envoys, and allies.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a disbursement slip from the Ebla palace stores. It records the issue of one aktum-cloak, one fine multicoloured belt, two bracelets made of copper worked with gold, and one gu-mug cloth. The recipient is Asi-malik, listed as the son of a man whose name begins Ri- but is broken away. Part of the entry — including a note about some number of workmen — is lost where the tablet has chipped, and the rest of the record does not survive.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[1] aktum-garment, 1 multicoloured, fine-quality sash (belt of four strands), 2 bracelets of agar-copper (plated with) gold, [x] young men [...], 1 gu-mug-textile: (for) Asi-malik, son of Ri-... [...] (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
[1(asz@c)] _aktum_ 1(asz@c@90) _|IB2+4(DISZ@t)| dar sa6 tug2_ 2(asz@c) gu2-li-lum _a#-gar5-gar5 ku3#-sig17_ [x] _gurusz_ [...] 1(asz@c) _gu-mug_ a#-si-ma-lik _dumu-nita_ ri2-x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 122. 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 (P242310) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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