The Central Archive of Ebla (24th century BC) preserved two series of annual documents which allow us to reconstruct on the one side the incomes of metals and garments to the Central Administration, and on the other side the expenditures of metals, mostly in the shape of objects and pieces of jewelry, beside weapons and tools in copper and bronze, mostly decorated with precious metals. Silver was also given as money to be expended at the markets. This documentation covers about forty-six years: an unparalleled sequence in the entire body of cuneiform literature. The series concerning the incomes have been published in ARET XIV.
This is the first of the three volumes devoted to the expenditures of metals. It includes twenty-one annual documents concerning the eighteen years that Ibrium served as minister, which coincides with the first half of Išᶜar-damu’s reign. Four further tablets are added to complete the documentation of this period.
The other two volumes will concern the eleven years of the reign of Irkab-damu (Išᶜar-damu’s father), and the last seventeen years of the city, when minister was Ibbi-zikir, Ibrium’s son.