Position in chronology
ARET 03, 175
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative record from the palace archives of Ebla in Syria, around 2350 BCE — one of the thousands of tablets that document the city's textile economy. It lists standardized sets of garments (a cloak, a tunic, and a multicoloured kilt) issued to named individuals, one of them connected with the town of Burman, a place in Ebla's political orbit. Such garment distributions were a form of diplomatic gift and payment, and these lists let historians reconstruct the network of towns and officials tied to the Eblaite court.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a clothing-issue ledger, broken at the edges. Each entry records a standard outfit handed out to a named person: Guša of Burman received a cloak, a tunic, and a fine multicoloured kilt; Ibdur-išar received a tunic and a multicoloured kilt. After a gap, a man named Ra-ʾag received two fine multicoloured kilts, and a final entry begins recording a double-weight cloak, a tunic, and another fine kilt before the text breaks off.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(column i) 1 ʾà-da-um cloak [...], 1 aktum tunic, 1 kilt (íb+III), multicoloured, of fine quality: (for) Guša of Burman. 1 aktum tunic, 1 kilt (íb+III), multicoloured: (for) Ibdur-i[šar]. [...] (Break) [...] 2 kilts (íb+n), multicoloured, of fine quality: (for) Ra-ʾag. 1 double ʾà-da-um cloak, 1 aktum tunic, 1 kilt (íb+II), multicoloured, of fine quality [...] (the rest is 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) 'a3-da-um [...] 1(asz@c@90) _aktum_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar sa6 tug2_ gu2-sza bur-ma-an 1(asz@c) _aktum_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ ib-dur-i-[szar] [...] [...] 2(asz@c) _|IB2+n(DISZ@t)|# dar sa6 tug2_ ra-'a3-ag 1(asz@c) 'a3-da-um 2(disz@t) 1(asz@c@90) _aktum_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+2(DISZ@t)| dar sa6 tug2_ [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 175. 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 (P242367) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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