Position in chronology
ARET 03, 136
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative tablet from the palace archives of Ebla in western Syria, written around 2400–2300 BCE. It records deliveries — likely of textiles or valuable objects, including a vessel — involving the household of Ibrium, the powerful vizier of Ebla, his wife among the recipients or parties, along with named officials and a 'commissioner' who supervised the transaction. Even broken, it is a small window into how the great families of one of the earliest Syrian states moved goods through their bureaucracy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
What survives reads like a delivery docket: an item connected with the wife of Ibrium (the vizier); then two men, Iti-agu and Harada-miki, listed with the title of commissioner — the officials responsible for the transaction. After a gap, the record notes that Enna-NI handed over the goods, and mentions a BUR-KAK vessel in connection with NI-da-KUL of the town of Luban. The beginning, several middle lines, and the end are broken away, so the quantities and the full list of goods are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(column i) The wife of Ibrium [...] ... [...] Iti-agu and Harada-miki, the commissioner(s) [...] (column ii) Enna-NI delivered (it). A BUR-KAK vessel (for/of) NI-da-KUL (of) Luban [...]
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
_dam#_ ib-ri2-um [x x] NI [...] i-ti-a-gu2 wa ha-ra-da-mi-ki _maszkim_ [...] en-na-NI _szu mu-tag4_ BUR-KAK NI-da-KUL lu-ba-an [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 136. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum of Syria, Idlib, Syria (P242324) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.