Position in chronology
ARET 03, 262
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative textile account from the palace archives of Ebla in northern Syria, written around 2350 BCE. It records outlays of garments and wool — belts, cloaks, and coarse cloth counted by the dozen — in connection with named individuals, including Ibrium, the powerful vizier who effectively ran the Ebla state under its king. Tablets like this, thousands of which were found in the burned palace archive, document how the palace distributed textiles, its chief form of wealth and diplomatic currency.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a page from Ebla's palace ledgers. On a particular occasion the administration issued one multicolored belt-garment and four measures of wool — apparently in connection with the assembly — plus an entry involving a chariot. The vizier Ibrium is named, along with a man called Wabarum, in connection with a wool consignment. After a gap, the counts continue: eighteen coarse-fiber cloths; thirteen guzitum garments and double cloaks under the name AN-še-gu; and seventeen aktum garments. The rest of the tablet is broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineOn the day (when) [...] 1 multicolored íb-belt textile, 4 kin-measures of wool — of the assembly(?) — 1 chariot ... 2 (two-wheeled?); Ibrium (and) Wabarum, the shearing(?)/gathering [...] (Break) 20 less 2 (= 18) gu-mug (coarse-fiber) textiles; AN-še-gu: 13 guzitum-textiles (and) double ʾadaʾum-cloaks; 20 less 3 (= 17) aktum-textiles [...] (remainder 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
in _u4_ [...] 1(asz@c) _|IB2+n(DISZ@t)|# dar tug2_ 4(asz@c) KIN SIKI _UKKEN-ak_ 1(asz@c) GIGIR2 2(disz@t) ib-ri2-um wa-ba-rum2 UR4# [...] 2(u@c) _la2_ 2(asz@c) _gu-mug_ AN-SZE3-GU2 1(u@c) 3(asz@c) gu-zi-dum 'a3-da-um 2(disz@t) 2(u@c) _la2_ 3(disz@t) _aktum_ [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 262. 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 (P242455) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.