Position in chronology
ARET 03, 158
About this tablet
A broken corner of a large administrative tablet from the palace archives of Ebla in western Syria, written around 2400 BCE. It belongs to the thousands of accounting fragments recording how the palace distributed textiles and precious-metal objects to named individuals — here a run of personal names (Alradamu, Idanikimu, Ilum-ahu, Dagmul-damu, Magašadu) and a single silver object. These fragments, though individually modest, are the raw material from which the economy and prosopography of one of the earliest Semitic-speaking states has been reconstructed.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
What survives is a list of people and one entry of goods. Several names can still be read — someone whose name ends in -du, then Alradamu, Idanikimu, and Ilum-ahu. After a gap the text continues: to (or from) Dagmul-damu, one silver zimu-object was drawn out or issued. Another gap follows, and then two more names, Magašadu and a second person whose name begins Maga- before the tablet breaks off. The beginning and end of the account are lost, so we cannot say what occasion prompted these disbursements.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Fragment; beginning lost) [...]-du, Alradamu, Idanikimu, Ilum-ahu, (Break) Dagmul-damu: 1 zimu (object/ornament) of silver he drew forth (išrud). (Break) Magašadu, Maga-[...] (Remainder lost)
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
[...]-du al6#!-ra-da-mu i-da-ni-ki-mu i3-lum-a-hu [...] dag!(E2)-mulx(|AN&AN.AN&AN|)-da-mu 1(asz@c) _zi-mi! ku3:babbar_ isz-ru12-ud# [...] ma-ga-sza-du ma-ga-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 158. 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 (P242350) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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