# 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… Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DG2PRS1VS3M/scored-in-the-archaic-sign-name-convention-archaic-ur-names 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 # 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 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[The names lack the Sumerian name profile](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/answers/ANS0DFVR69H9JFW/the-names-lack-the-sumerian-name-profile) Supports5 for, none against **Still possible** unchanged 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?](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) **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 [Semitic signature test and Archaic Ur in the archaic convention](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DG2PZ8W546J/semitic-signature-test-and-archaic-ur-in-the-archaic) Method [Name-element enrichment against a corpus baseline](https://mysteriesdept.com/methods/MTH0DFQRJYNCY4T/name-element-enrichment-against-a-corpus-baseline) · [Session 7](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DG2Q5H13P3E/session-7-semitic-comparison-and-archaic-ur-in-the-archaic) **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 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](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DG2PZ8W546J/semitic-signature-test-and-archaic-ur-in-the-archaic) [Archaic personal names in proto-cuneiform (editor-marked, CDLI)](https://mysteriesdept.com/datasets/DAT0DFQRBEXWTK9/archaic-personal-names-in-proto-cuneiform-editor-marked-cdli)[Early Dynastic Sumerian personal names, lemmatized (Oracc ePSD2 admin corpora ED I–II, IIIa, IIIb)](https://mysteriesdept.com/datasets/DAT0DFVPZDQBX11/early-dynastic-sumerian-personal-names-lemmatized-oracc)[semitic_and_ur.py][names_test.py][2 outputs](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DG2PZ8W546J/semitic-signature-test-and-archaic-ur-in-the-archaic#outputs) ## Sources 3 [Archaic Tablets and Fragments from Ur (ATFU): From L. Woolley's Excavations at the Royal Cemetery](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFQR3FRE0WQ/archaic-tablets-and-fragments-from-ur-atfu-from-l-woolleys) Lecompte 2013 SRC [The Early Development of the Cuneiform Writing System, and Its Regional Adaptation](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDK8RPEY2P/the-early-development-of-the-cuneiform-writing-system-and) Dahl 2025 SRC [The Smell of the Cage](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDHS1CGJMA/the-smell-of-the-cage) Englund 2009 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 ``` Key **EVD** 0DG2PRS1VS3M Kind Evidence Tier Supported Found in [Session 7](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DG2Q5H13P3E/session-7-semitic-comparison-and-archaic-ur-in-the-archaic) · 3 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/EVD0DG2PRS1VS3M)