Position in chronology
ARET 03, 275
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative record from the great palace archives of Ebla in northern Syria, written around 2350 BCE. It belongs to the palace's textile accounts: sets of cloaks, fine garments, colourful belts — and here even bracelets — issued to named individuals, some identified by their hometown or by the official they served. Thousands of such tablets survive from Ebla, and together they map the web of gifts and payments that tied the kingdom's court, towns, and agents together.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a page from the palace clothing ledger, though its edges are broken away. One entry issues a multicoloured belt to Enna-NI from the town of Dulu; the next lines listed more garments, but they are too damaged to read. Further down, a man whose name ends in '-il' appears, and then Ignadar, an employee of Miga-il, receives a full outfit: a heavy cloak, a fine garment, a multicoloured belt, plus two bracelets. The last readable lines mention Dara'um, serving as the agent of someone named Ir-..., before the tablet breaks off.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse, first preserved column) [...] one multicoloured belt (ib-III-TÚG dar), (for) Enna-NI of (the town of) Dulu. ... GU-garment(?), [x] garment(s), [x x] garment(s) [...] (Break) [...]-il. One gu-dùl cloak, one fine (SAL) garment, one multicoloured belt, two bracelets [...] (for) Ignadar, the man of Miga-il. (Break) [...] Dara'um, the agent (maškim) of Ir-[...].
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
[...] _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ en#-na-NI du#-lu GU [x] TUG2 [x x] TUG2 [...] [...]-il 1(asz@c) _gu-dul3_ 1(asz@c) _SAL_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ 2(asz@c) gu2-li-lum [...] ig-na-da-ar _lu2_ mi-ga-il [...] da-ra-um _maszkim_ ir3#-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 275. 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 (P242468) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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