# The archaic texts show no grammar, no fixed sign order within cases and little or no phonetic coding, and their sign…

> The archaic texts show no grammar, no fixed sign order within cases and little or no phonetic coding, and their sign meanings are confined to a few…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDXN80K013/the-archaic-texts-show-no-grammar-no-fixed-sign-order-within  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform)Evidence

Evidence · Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk

# The archaic texts show no grammar, no fixed sign order within cases and little or no phonetic coding, and their sign…

The archaic texts show no grammar, no fixed sign order within cases and little or no phonetic coding, and their sign meanings are confined to a few administrative dimensions.

Supported0

## What it means

Key question[What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT73JJJ1B/what-language-if-any-do-the-proto-cuneiform-texts-record)

5 answers, none ahead yet

**Open** unchanged

Answer this evidence bears on[Proto-cuneiform is a language-independent notation (proto-writing)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/answers/ANS0DEDW4J8QZXQ/proto-cuneiform-is-a-language-independent-notation-proto)

Supports1 for, none against

**Still possible** unchanged

## Next steps 3

1

Extract the archaic personal names (the slave-name set in Englund 2009 plus any name-position entries) from the CDLI bulk ATF, tabulate their sign structure, and run a permutation test against Early Dynastic Sumerian names (Fara, Abu Salabikh) and Early Dynastic Semitic names for shared elements and positional patterns.

~30 h

[On: What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT73JJJ1B/what-language-if-any-do-the-proto-cuneiform-texts-record)

**—** not judged

2

Build a sign-frequency and collocation table from the CDLI bulk ATF under the four counting conventions of Born and Kelley 2021, split by Uruk IV and Uruk III, and compare positional statistics (case-initial, case-final, co-occurrence entropy) with the same measures for the Archaic Ur texts and for proto-Elamite, to see whether Uruk III moves toward the pattern of a language-bound script.

~20 h

[On: What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT73JJJ1B/what-language-if-any-do-the-proto-cuneiform-texts-record)

**—** not judged

3

Compile every rebus spelling proposed for Uruk IV and Uruk III texts (Steinkeller 1995, Wilcke 2005, Monaco 2014, Krispijn, Johnson) as a table with the tablet P-number, the sign, the proposed Sumerian value and Whittaker's or Englund's objection, so the live cases can be checked against CDLI contexts one by one.

~12 h

[On: What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT73JJJ1B/what-language-if-any-do-the-proto-cuneiform-texts-record)

**—** not judged

Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes

## Sources 2

[Archaic Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDH93HGNQS/archaic-bookkeeping-early-writing-and-techniques-of-economic)

Nissen et al. 1993

SRC

[The Origins of Writing as a Problem of Historical Epistemology](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDHS8P4A8J/the-origins-of-writing-as-a-problem-of-historical)

Damerow 2006

SRC

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). The archaic texts show no grammar, no fixed sign order within cases and little or no phonetic coding, and their sign… [Evidence EVD0DEDXN80K013]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DEDXN80K013
```

Key

**EVD** 0DEDXN80K013

Kind

Evidence

Tier

Supported

Found in

[Session 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DEDZMVP66KE/session-1-proto-cuneiform-seeded-corpus-readings-and-open) · 31 Oct 2026

Version

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