Position in chronology
ARET 03, 198
About this tablet
A fragment of a textile-distribution record from the royal palace archives of Ebla in western Syria, written around 2400–2300 BCE. Palace scribes tracked every garment issued — cloaks, belts, fine aktum-cloths, linen — noting the recipient and his role: a courier, an agent, and finally Ibrium, who was the powerful vizier of Ebla, second only to the king. Tablets like this, dug up at Tell Mardikh in the 1970s, revealed a sophisticated bureaucracy managing textile wealth as a form of currency and diplomatic gift-giving.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a page from the palace clothing ledger. An unknown number of NI-NI garments and one multicolored triple-banded sash went to the courier who acts as agent for Ri-i-Malik, the man who stood surety for the transaction. One heavy cloak — the rest of that entry is broken away — went to a man named Luban. And fifteen aktum-cloths plus one linen garment were issued to Ibrium, the vizier himself. The tablet is only a fragment; whatever entries came before and after are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse, fragmentary) [n] NI-NI textiles, 1 multicolored triple-(band) belt of cloth: (for) the courier (mazalum), the agent (maškim) of Ri-i-Malik, the guarantor (šu-du₈). 1 cloak (gu-dul₃) [...]: (for) Lu-ba-an. 15 aktum-cloths with ti, 1 linen garment, its ti: (for) Ibrium.
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
[n] TUG2-NI-NI 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ ma-za-lum _maszkim_ ri2-i3-ma-lik _szu-du8_ 1(asz@c) _gu-dul3_ [...] lu-ba-an 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) _aktum ti_ 1(asz@c) _gada nig2-tug2 ti_-su3 ib-ri2-um
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 198. 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 (P242391) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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