Position in chronology
ARET 03, 227
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative record from the palace archives of Ebla in western Syria, around 2350 BCE — one of the thousands of tablets that document the gift-economy of one of the earliest great cities outside Mesopotamia. It logs luxury items — fine multicoloured kilts and an 'Amorite-style' dagger — issued as ceremonial gifts, one occasion tied to a presentation made to (or by) the king, and another kilt going to a man named Ibgi-damu, a name typical of the Eblaite elite. Such tablets show how textiles and weapons circulated as diplomatic and courtly currency long before coined money existed.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a torn page from Ebla's palace ledger of ceremonial handouts. The readable entries say: a quantity of garments, one fine multicoloured kilt, one ASAR item, and one Amorite-style dagger were issued as a gift. Another entry names a man, Adu-NE, in connection with the day the gift for the king was formally handed over. A final surviving line records one more multicoloured kilt for Ibgi-damu, described as an ab2-zu. The beginning, several middle passages, and the end of the tablet are broken away and lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse, fragmentary) [...] ... garment(s), 1 fine multicoloured kilt (íb-III-TÚG dar sa6), 1 ASAR(-garment/object), 1 Martu-dagger: gift. (Break) Adu-NE, on the day (when) the gift (of) the king was handed over. (Break) 1 multicoloured kilt (íb-III-TÚG dar): Ibgi-damu, the ab2-zu. (Break — the remainder of the tablet is 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
[...] x _tug2_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar sa6 tug2_ 1(asz@c) ASAR 1(asz@c) _gir2 mar-tu_ _nig2-ba_ [...] a-du-NE in _u4_ _nig2-ba_ _en_ _szu mu-tag4_ [...] 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ ib-gi-da-mu ab2-zu [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 227. 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 (P242419) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.