# EN-name frequency differs between archives, not between single tablets > EN occurs in 0–7% of names on the excavated Jemdet Nasr tablets and 16–33% on most Schøyen and Brussels tablets; heterogeneity across all 41 tablets is… Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DFVQBQ58B0S/en-name-frequency-differs-between-archives-not-between Publisher: Mysteries Department Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page) --- [Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform)Evidence Evidence · Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk # EN-name frequency differs between archives, not between single tablets EN occurs in 0–7% of names on the excavated Jemdet Nasr tablets and 16–33% on most Schøyen and Brussels tablets; heterogeneity across all 41 tablets is modest (chi-square 51.2 on 40 df, p = 0.11; between-tablet SD of the rate 0.019), and removing the two largest contributors lowers the pooled rate only from 16.7% to 14.4%. Suggestive0 ## 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 Part of it[Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) 5 answers, none ahead yet **Open** unchanged Answer this evidence bears on[None of these.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/answers/ANS0DFQRV8050RY/none-of-these) Supports1 for, none against **Still possible** was No evidence yet What it implies 1. Name studies should be stratified by archive; pooling the Schøyen accounts with excavated Jemdet Nasr material mixes at least two naming populations.For: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern? ## Next steps 12 1 Screen continuity matches against archaic lexical spellings Adds evidenceGood odds~2 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) **20** score Details Go through the 27 matched archaic-to-ED names. Drop any that depend on a spelling first attested after ED I-II, such as the EN.E2 spelling of Enlil, and rerun the null comparison. If the excess over the null holds, continuity stands. 2 Archive-level name profiles Adds evidenceGood odds~3 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts)Set by this evidence **19** score Details Compare the full sign profiles of Schøyen/Brussels names and excavated Jemdet Nasr/Uruk names (shared vocabulary, Jensen-Shannon distance against a permutation null) to see whether they form two distinct naming populations. 3 Per-match chance calibration Adds evidenceGood odds~3 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) **19** score Details For each matched name, estimate the probability of a chance match from the frequency of its signs in ordinary entries and in Early Dynastic names, and rank the matches by strength. 4 Rare-sign name bridge with an order constraint Could shiftFair odds~3 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) **19** score Details Repeat the bridge only for archaic names that contain a sign occurring in under 1% of names, weighting each match by how unlikely it is under the shuffle null. A surplus there would point to real survivals; none would leave the names with no route to a reading. Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes[All 12 on the question](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts#next) ## How it was found 1 run [Per-tablet heterogeneity of EN in the archaic names](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DFVQREA5Q7V/per-tablet-heterogeneity-of-en-in-the-archaic-names) Method [Name-element enrichment against a corpus baseline](https://mysteriesdept.com/methods/MTH0DFQRJYNCY4T/name-element-enrichment-against-a-corpus-baseline) · [Session 3](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DFVRK8PYQFX/session-3-the-archaic-names-benchmarked-against-real) **Result.** The EN excess is spread across the unprovenanced Schøyen and Brussels tablets and absent from the excavated Jemdet Nasr ones. It is an archive-level difference, not the product of one or two tablets.. 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}** The EN excess is spread across the unprovenanced Schøyen and Brussels tablets and absent from the excavated Jemdet Nasr ones. It is an archive-level difference, not the product of one or two tablets. [Archaic personal names in proto-cuneiform (editor-marked, CDLI)](https://mysteriesdept.com/datasets/DAT0DFQRBEXWTK9/archaic-personal-names-in-proto-cuneiform-editor-marked-cdli)[en_heterogeneity.py][1 output](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DFVQREA5Q7V/per-tablet-heterogeneity-of-en-in-the-archaic-names#outputs) ## Sources 2 [Gender, age, and labour organization in the earliest texts from Mesopotamia and Iran (c. 3300–2900 BC)](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFQR2G4EYKD/gender-age-and-labour-organization-in-the-earliest-texts) Kelley 2018 SRC [The Smell of the Cage](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDHS1CGJMA/the-smell-of-the-cage) Englund 2009 SRC ## Cite it ``` Mysteries Department. (2026). EN-name frequency differs between archives, not between single tablets [Evidence EVD0DFVQBQ58B0S]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DFVQBQ58B0S ``` Key **EVD** 0DFVQBQ58B0S Kind Evidence Tier Suggestive Found in [Session 3](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DFVRK8PYQFX/session-3-the-archaic-names-benchmarked-against-real) · 2 Nov 2026 Version 1 Added by [apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo) The record Every record is open data. Take this one as JSON, with its links and its history. [JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/api/v1/records/EVD0DFVQBQ58B0S)