Mysteries Department
Sign inRequest access
MethodsEpigraphy; onomastics; statisticsName-element enrichment against a corpus baseline
Method · epigraphy; onomastics; statistics

Name-element enrichment against a corpus baseline

Turn the claim that archaic names 'lack' the elements of later Sumerian names into a test that can fail, without needing to read the names.

Epigraphy; onomastics; statisticsVersion 1.0Licence MIT10 runsUsed on 1 mystery

Questions it answers

Code Python

Download module (.py)names_test.pyView source

Runs and results 10 runs · 6 shown

RunMysteryMeasuredResultAgainstDate
RUN0DFQT81BSPP3Proto-cuneiform:Share of names containing at least one listed element, against a resampling null; token odds ratio with a tablet-cluster bootstrap{'S_vs_B1': {'or_95': [1.09, 1.6], 'null_95': [0.074, 0.124], 'decision': 'NO PREFERENCE', 'observed': 0.124, 'odds_ratio': 1.35, 'null_median': 0.098}, 'S_vs_B2': {'or_95': [0.7, 1.38], 'null_95': [0.104, 0.159], 'decision': 'NO PREFERENCE', 'observed': 0.124, 'odds_ratio': 0.97, 'null_median': 0.13}, 'S+EN_vs_B1': {'or_95': [1.31, 2.2], 'null_95': [0.137, 0.2], 'decision': 'ENRICHED', 'observed': 0.265, 'odds_ratio': 1.8, 'null_median': 0.169}, 'S+EN_vs_B2': {'or_95': [0.79, 1.51], 'null_95': [0.215, 0.285], 'decision': 'NO PREFERENCE', 'observed': 0.265, 'odds_ratio': 1.11, 'null_median': 0.25}}B1: 17,976 Uruk III administrative non-name entries · B2: 300 non-name entries on the 41 name tablets
RUN0DFVQR5WN96FProto-cuneiform:Share of names containing at least one of Englund's elements against a length-matched null; token odds ratio with a text-cluster bootstrap{'ED_I-II': {'names': 326, 'or_95': [4.66, 7.12], 'observed': 0.402, 'odds_ratio': 5.84, 'null_median': 0.089}, 'ED_IIIa': {'names': 11799, 'or_95': [4.71, 5.01], 'observed': 0.465, 'odds_ratio': 4.86, 'null_median': 0.14}, 'ED_IIIb': {'names': 31083, 'or_95': [4.39, 4.55], 'observed': 0.528, 'odds_ratio': 4.47, 'null_median': 0.184}, 'Uruk_III_archaic': {'names': 540, 'or_95': [1.09, 1.6], 'observed': 0.124, 'odds_ratio': 1.35, 'null_median': 0.098}}Each corpus's own non-proper-noun lemmatized words (ED) or non-name administrative entries (Uruk III)
RUN0DFVQREA5Q7VProto-cuneiform:Pearson chi-square of EN-name counts against a common rate; method-of-moments between-tablet SD; leave-one-tablet-out rates{'p': 0.11, 'df': 40, 'chi2': 51.2, 'MS3035_rate': 0.238, 'pooled_rate': 0.167, 'MRAH_O4995_rate': 0.206, 'between_tablet_sd': 0.019, 'Ashm_1926-0566_rate': 0, 'rate_without_top2_tablets': 0.144}A common EN rate across all 41 name tablets
RUN0DG2CWRH4M9PProto-cuneiform:Token odds ratio of Englund's Sumerian name elements in dependent workers' names against the period's other words; share of names with at least one element against a length-matched null{'D2_strict': {'n': 5142, 'null': 0.217, 'or_95': [4.45, 4.77], 'share': 0.65, 'texts': 88, 'odds_ratio': 4.6}, 'ED_IIIb_all': {'n': 31083, 'or_95': [4.39, 4.55], 'share': 0.528, 'odds_ratio': 4.47}, 'D3_line_level': {'n': 35, 'null': 0.171, 'or_95': [1.57, 5.08], 'share': 0.429, 'texts': 22, 'odds_ratio': 3.25}, 'D1_ration_lists': {'n': 6894, 'null': 0.209, 'or_95': [4.57, 4.87], 'share': 0.603, 'texts': 99, 'odds_ratio': 4.72}, 'Uruk_III_archaic': {'n': 540, 'or_95': [1.09, 1.6], 'share': 0.124, 'odds_ratio': 1.35}}Non-proper-noun lemmatized words of ED IIIb
RUN0DG2F4F55YJ8Proto-cuneiform:Element odds ratio (Englund's list without EN) per context group, with a tablet-cluster bootstrap; compared with the Early Dynastic benchmark{'OTHERS': {'n': 269, 'or_95': [0.93, 1.65], 'odds_ratio': 1.27}, 'TITLED': {'n': 61, 'or_95': [0.6, 2.34], 'odds_ratio': 1.38}, 'WORKERS': {'n': 245, 'or_95': [0.88, 1.77], 'odds_ratio': 1.4}, 'NO_HEADER': {'n': 26, 'or_95': [0.52, 3.62], 'odds_ratio': 1.93}, 'ED_dependents': 4.72, 'ED_benchmark_range': [4.47, 5.84]}Uruk III administrative non-name entries · Early Dynastic Sumerian benchmark from RUN0DFVQR5WN96F and RUN0DG2CWRH4M9P
RUN0DG2MEXJ8YZHProto-cuneiform:Five order-free reuse metrics at matched token count (1,103), archaic names against 200 subsamples each of archaic administrative entries and Early Dynastic names{'m3_ttr': {'ED': [0.149, 0.211], 'names': 0.191, 'labels': [0.242, 0.272], 'verdict': 'NAME-LIKE'}, 'overall': 'NAME-LIKE', 'm1_reuse': {'ED': [0.54, 0.671], 'names': 0.569, 'labels': [0.505, 0.601], 'verdict': 'UNDECIDED'}, 'm2_top10': {'ED': [0.315, 0.373], 'names': 0.317, 'labels': [0.194, 0.236], 'verdict': 'NAME-LIKE'}, 'm4_pairs': {'ED': [0.478, 0.66], 'names': 0.382, 'labels': [0.249, 0.379], 'verdict': 'UNDECIDED'}, 'm5_repeat': {'ED': [0.198, 0.342], 'names': 0.3, 'labels': [0.208, 0.268], 'verdict': 'NAME-LIKE'}}Archaic Uruk III administrative non-name entries of length 1–7 (labels) · Early Dynastic I–II, IIIa, IIIb lemmatized personal names (names)

Applied to

Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk
3 datasetsArchaic personal names in proto-cuneiform (editor-marked, CDLI), Early Dynastic Sumerian personal names, lemmatized (Oracc ePSD2 admin corpora ED I–II, IIIa, IIIb), Nino-cunei/uruk: the Uruk IV-III corpus in Text-Fabric

References

  1. Englund's fullest statement of the case against assuming Sumerian: about 440 probable slave names with no Sumerian divine or ur-/amar- elements, qualifier-before-noun syntax, and criticism of Rubio, Wilcke and Steiner. Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2009:4. CC BY 4.0.
  2. Updated sign-frequency list for the whole CDLI proto-cuneiform corpus (6,726 artifacts, 5,274 with readable signs, about 53,000 non-numerical tokens as of May 2020), an open counting tool, and a test showing the Tribute list's first section uses sign pairs rare in administrative texts. Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin 2021:6.
  3. Jakob Andersson 2012. Kingship in the Early Mesopotamian Onomasticon 2800–2200 BCE.
Private beta Downloads are for beta members

We're in a private beta while we get things right. Everything here is free to read; downloading datasets, sources and code is open to members for now.

Apply to the betaSign in
It takes a couple of minutes. We'll reply by email.