Position in chronology
ARET 03, 141
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative record from the palace archives of Ebla in northern Syria, around 2400–2300 BCE. It logs deliveries of luxury textiles — cloaks, aktum-cloths, and fine multicoloured sashes — handed over by named individuals, including men connected with the city of Nirar and with the king. Thousands of such tablets from Ebla reveal a sophisticated textile economy in which fine garments circulated as diplomatic gifts and payments among the courts of Early Bronze Age Syria.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Inventory note: nine aktum-cloths and nine fine multicoloured sashes, along with a cloak (quantity lost in the break). Delivered by ʾA-zi, Agušum, Dubuhu-ʾAda, and Dubi-zikir — the latter an agent of a lord whose name is broken — from the city of Nirar. A further entry mentions Gula-ʾadum, the king, and sheep, but the middle of the tablet is too damaged to read. The final surviving line counts 63 pieces of coarse gu-mug cloth.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Obverse, beginning broken) [...] ʾa-da-um cloak(s), 10 minus 1 (= 9) aktum-textiles, 10 minus 1 (= 9) fine multicoloured sashes: ʾA-zi, Agušum, Dubuhu-ʾAda, Dubi-zikir, the man of EN-[...], (of) Nirar — he/they delivered (them). Gula-ʾadum, the king [...] sheep in/at [...] (after the break:) 63 gu-mug (coarse) textiles.
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
[...] 'a3-da-um 1(u@c) _la2_ 1(disz@t) _aktum_ 1(u@c) _la2_ 1(disz@t) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar sa6 tug2_ 'a3-zi a-gu2-szum du-bu3-hu-'a3-da du-bi2-zi-kir _lu2_ EN-[...] NI-ra-ar# _szu mu-tag4_ gu-la-'a3!-dum _en_ [...] UDUA in [...] 1(gesz2@c) 3(asz@c) _gu-mug_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 141. 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 (P242330) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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