Position in chronology
ARET 03, 280
About this tablet
A fragment of the palace bookkeeping of Ebla, a powerful Syrian city of the 24th century BCE whose archive of thousands of tablets was discovered at Tell Mardikh. This piece records issues of clothing — tunics and coloured sashes, the standard 'currency' of Eblaite diplomacy and payroll — handed over to the agents of named officials at specific towns. It is everyday paperwork, but multiplied across the archive such records map the network of people and places bound to the Ebla court.
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. In the first entry, a man named Gi-NI-LUM, acting as the agent of Dubuhu-Malik, took delivery of goods in the town of Dusig; the items themselves are lost in a break. In the second entry, four aktum-tunics and four multicoloured sashes were handed over to the agent of Iram-Malik, who received them in the town of Uru. The tablet breaks off after that, so any further entries are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Column i) Dubuhu-Malik: Gi-NI-LUM, his agent (maškim), took delivery (šu-du8) in Dusig. (Break) (Column ii) 4 aktum-tunics, 4 multicoloured sashes, (for/of) the agent (maškim) of Iram-Malik, taken delivery of (šu-du8) in Uru. (Break)
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
du-bu3-hu-ma-lik gi-NI-LUM _maszkim_-su3 _szu-du8_ in du-si-ig [...] 4(asz@c) _aktum_ 4(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ _maszkim_ ir3-am6-ma-lik _szu-du8_ in u9-ru12 [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 280. 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 (P242473) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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