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Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of UrukEvidence
Evidence · Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk

Scored in the archaic sign-name convention, Archaic Ur names keep their Sumerian profile; the contrast is not a…

Converted to the CDLI proto-cuneiform sign names and scored with exactly the element list used for Uruk III, the 326 Archaic Ur (ED I–II) names give an odds ratio of 3.82 (95% 2.75–4.89) with the most conservative conversion and 5.84 (4.68–7.06) with a declared four-sign crosswalk (AMA, AMAR, NIN, NANNA), against 1.35 (1.09–1.60) for Uruk III.

Supported0

What it means

Openunchanged
Openunchanged
Answer this evidence bears onThe names lack the Sumerian name profile
Supports5 for, none against
Still possibleunchanged
What it implies
  1. The switch to Sumerian-pattern names between Uruk III and Archaic Ur holds in a single transliteration convention.For: When and how did phonetic spelling begin in Mesopotamian writing?

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?
20score
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
19score
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
19score
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
19score
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 takesAll 12 on the question

How it was found 1 run

Result. Semitic: the archaic names match the Akkadian signature no better than the Sumerian one, and far below either language's own names. That counts against H-OTHER's prediction, with low power. Archaic Ur: the Uruk III / Archaic Ur contrast holds in one convention under both conversions. Carry-over: there is a sharp turnover in name vocabulary between Uruk III and Archaic Ur..
Odds ratio of data-driven Akkadian and Sumerian name signatures in the Uruk III names; odds ratio of Englund's elements in ED I–II names converted to the proto-cuneiform convention; cosine similarity of name sign profiles across periods{'uruk3': {'95': [1.09, 1.6], 'OR': 1.35}, 'cosine': {'ed12_names_vs_ed3a_names': 0.73, 'uruk3_names_vs_ed12_names': 0.47, 'uruk3_names_vs_ed12_words': 0.28}, 'AKK_signature': {'uruk3_95': [1.48, 2.06], 'uruk3_OR': 1.76, 'train_names': 852, 'heldout_OR_akk': 12.31, 'heldout_OR_sux': 1.29}, 'SUX_signature': {'uruk3_95': [1.49, 2.67], 'uruk3_OR': 2.1, 'heldout_OR_akk': 5.4, 'heldout_OR_sux': 70.17}, 'ED12_pc_crosswalk': {'95': [4.68, 7.06], 'OR': 5.84}, 'ED12_pc_conservative': {'95': [2.75, 4.89], 'OR': 3.82}}Semitic: the archaic names match the Akkadian signature no better than the Sumerian one, and far below either language's own names. That counts against H-OTHER's prediction, with low power. Archaic Ur: the Uruk III / Archaic Ur contrast holds in one convention under both conversions. Carry-over: there is a sharp turnover in name vocabulary between Uruk III and Archaic Ur.
Figure 1

Neither a Sumerian nor an Akkadian name signature is present in the Uruk III names at anything like native strength

Odds ratio of each data-driven signature (15 signs) in names against non-name words; held-out Old Akkadian-period names and Uruk III names, 95% intervals for Uruk III

051015odds ratio (names vs other words)Akkadian signature in Akkadian names (held out)Akkadian signature in Uruk III namesSumerian signature in Uruk III namesEnglund's list, Archaic Ur names, archaic conventionEnglund's list, Uruk III names
051015odds ratio (names vs other words)Akkadian si…Akkadian si…Sumerian si…Englund's l…Englund's l…
odds ratio95% low95% high
The Sumerian signature reaches 70 in held-out Sumerian names (off the scale). The Akkadian signature is mostly syllabic signs, so its absence from pre-phonetic names is weak evidence.
Drawn by the site with Semitic signature test and Archaic Ur in the archaic convention
Archaic personal names in proto-cuneiform (editor-marked, CDLI)Early Dynastic Sumerian personal names, lemmatized (Oracc ePSD2 admin corpora ED I–II, IIIa, IIIb)semitic_and_ur.pynames_test.py2 outputs

Sources 3

SRC
SRC
SRC

Cite it

Mysteries Department. (2026). Scored in the archaic sign-name convention, Archaic Ur names keep their Sumerian profile; the contrast is not a… [Evidence EVD0DG2PRS1VS3M]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DG2PRS1VS3M
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