Position in chronology
ARET 03, 239
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative textile account from the palace archives of Ebla in western Syria, written around 2350 BCE — among the oldest bureaucratic records outside Mesopotamia proper. It lists standard sets of garments (a guzitum robe, a zara-cloth, an aktum-cloth, and a colorful sash) issued to named individuals, with a 'commissioner' named as the responsible official. Such lists, produced monthly by the Ebla chancery, show how a Bronze Age palace tracked its wealth in cloth, one of its chief commodities and diplomatic gifts. The piece is broken, so we see only a slice of a much longer roster.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a page from a clothing-issue ledger, broken at both ends. What survives reads roughly: an entry mentioning the 'house of BAD' and someone called Ugulzadu; one fine garment issued to the son of Aha-ra-malik; then, after a gap, an issue for Sidarin — a full outfit of one guzitum robe, one zara-cloth, one aktum-cloth, and one fine multicolored sash — handled by the commissioner Hal-NE-a. Two fine garments go to Šarhu, two more to Sidarin, and the last legible line begins another garment entry before the tablet breaks off.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(beginning of fragment) BAD-E₂ (the "house of the elder"? — or part of a name), Ugulzadu (?); 1 fine (SAL) garment — (for) the son of Aha-ra-malik; [... break ...] (for) Sidarin; 1 guzitum-garment, 1 zara-garment, 1 aktum-garment, 1 fine multicolored triple-wrapped sash — (via) the commissioner Hal-NE-a; 2 fine (SAL) garments — (for) Šarhu; 2 fine (SAL) garments — (for) Sidarin; 1 gu[zitum-garment ... (fragment breaks off)]
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
BAD-E2 u3-gul-za-du 1(asz@c) _SAL_ _dumu-nita_ a-ha-ra-ma-lik# [...] si-da-ri2-in 1(asz@c) gu-zi-dum 1(asz@c) _zara6_ 1(asz@c) _aktum_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| sa6 dar_ _maszkim_ hal-NE-a 2(asz@c) _SAL_ szar-hu 2(asz@c) _SAL_ si-da-ri2-in 1(asz@c) gu-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 239. 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 (P242431) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
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.