Position in chronology
ARET 03, 267
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative textile account from the palace archives of Ebla in western Syria, around 2350 BCE. It records small deliveries of garments between named individuals, including Ibrium — the powerful chief minister who effectively ran the Ebla state under its kings. Tablets like this, thousands of which were found in the burnt palace archive, show how meticulously the Ebla bureaucracy tracked even a single cloth or kilt as it changed hands.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Samu handed the goods over to Dara'um. One SU7-garment of his went to (or was recorded under) Ibrium, the minister. After that the tablet breaks off. When the text resumes, it notes another transaction made through a party called AN-'arum: one NI-NI textile and one multicoloured kilt. The rest of the entry is lost where the tablet is broken.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineSamu to Dara'um gave (it). 1 SU7-garment of his — Ibrium. [... (Break) ...] by/from AN-'arum: 1 NI-NI textile, 1 multicoloured kilt [...]
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
sa-mu-u3 da-ra-um _in-na-szum2_ 1(asz@c) SU7-su3 ib-ri2-um [...] in AN-'a3-rum2 1(asz@c) tug2-NI-NI 1(asz@c@90) _|IB2+n(disz@t)|# dar_ [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 267. 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 (P242460) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
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