Position in chronology
ARET 03, 258
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative textile account from the palace archives of Ebla in northern Syria, written around 2350 BCE. It lists named individuals — including men with good Semitic names like Enna-Dagan and Ilba-malik — and records a standard set of garments issued to them: cloaks, wraps, and fine multicoloured kilts. Such three-piece clothing allotments were the currency of prestige at Ebla, handed out to officials, messengers, and dependents; the closing month name shows the disbursement was logged in the local Eblaite calendar. Thousands of tablets like this were found burned in the ruined palace, together forming the richest economic archive of the third millennium.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a clothing-issue record. It names a group of men — BE-su-du, Ibdur-išar, Enna-ni-il, Enna-Dagan, and Ilba-malik — then, after a break, an official whose name is partly lost, identified as an agent of Enna-ni-il. He (or his group) was issued the standard outfit: three guzitum cloaks, three aktum wraps, and three fine multicoloured kilts. The next lines are lost. The date notation at the end places the transaction in the month of za-lul of the Ebla calendar.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse, column i) BE-su-du (BE-su₃-du₁₀), Ibdur-išar, Enna-ni-il, Enna-Dagan, Ilba-malik, (Break) (column ii) ...-KA-zi, the man of Enna-ni-il: 3 guzitum-garments, 3 aktum-garments, 3 fine multicoloured kilts, (Break) [Month: za]-lul.
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
BE-su3-_du10_ ib-dur-i-szar en-na-ni-il en-na-da-gan il2-ba-ma-lik [...] x-KA-zi _lu2_ en-na-ni-il 3(asz@c) gu-zi-dum 3(asz@c) _aktum_ 3(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar sa6 tug2_ [...] [ITI za]-LUL
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 258. 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 (P242451) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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