# Name vocabulary turns over sharply between Uruk III and Archaic Ur, far more than between Archaic Ur and Fara > In a shared sign-name convention, the sign-frequency profile of Uruk III names has a cosine similarity of 0.47 with Archaic Ur names, against 0.73… Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DG2PSG85PGC/name-vocabulary-turns-over-sharply-between-uruk-iii-and 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 # Name vocabulary turns over sharply between Uruk III and Archaic Ur, far more than between Archaic Ur and Fara In a shared sign-name convention, the sign-frequency profile of Uruk III names has a cosine similarity of 0.47 with Archaic Ur names, against 0.73 between Archaic Ur and ED IIIa names; 8 of the 20 commonest Uruk III name signs are among the 20 commonest Archaic Ur name signs, all of them common logograms (A, AN, E2, EN, GI, HI, SAG, SI). 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 Answer this evidence bears on[The language is unknown (Englund's agnosticism)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/answers/ANS0DEDW4E48QNF/the-language-is-unknown-englunds-agnosticism) Supports4 for, 1 against **Still possible** unchanged What it implies 1. The break in naming falls between Uruk III and Archaic Ur, the gap the site's open questions should now target.For: When and how did phonetic spelling begin in Mesopotamian writing? ## Next steps 14 1 Labels or names: element reuse against Early Dynastic Could shiftGood odds~4 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) **40** score Details Compare how the archaic names reuse their elements (type-token curves, share of elements in two or more distinct names, compositional pairs) with Early Dynastic names at matched sample sizes; linguistic names, of any language, reuse a small vocabulary productively, while ad hoc labels should not. 2 Test the numeral-order argument on Sumerian accounts Could shiftGood odds~6 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) **34** score Details Englund argues that putting the numeral before the noun is un-Sumerian; Dahl notes that account formats may have their own order. In Early Dynastic administrative texts written in Sumerian (Fara and later, from CDLI or Oracc), measure how often the numeral precedes the counted noun. If Sumerian accounts also put it first, the syntax argument drops out and the Sumerian answer loses one objection; if they put it after, the archaic order stays as evidence for the unknown answer. 3 Officials' names in Uruk III Could decideFair odds~10 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) **28** score Details Identify name-like entries attached to officials and institutions in Uruk III (heads of households, seal owners, officials in the Professions-list vocabulary) and score them against the Early Dynastic benchmark. Sumerian-pattern officials with non-Sumerian dependents point to a foreign workforce; non-Sumerian officials point to non-Sumerian scribes or a labelling notation. 4 Officials' names Could decideFair odds~10 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) **28** score Details Test name-like entries attached to officials and institutions in Uruk III, to separate the scribes' own naming culture from the listed workers'. Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes[All 14 on the question](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT73JJJ1B/what-language-if-any-do-the-proto-cuneiform-texts-record#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 2 [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). Name vocabulary turns over sharply between Uruk III and Archaic Ur, far more than between Archaic Ur and Fara [Evidence EVD0DG2PSG85PGC]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DG2PSG85PGC ``` Key **EVD** 0DG2PSG85PGC Kind Evidence Tier Suggestive 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/EVD0DG2PSG85PGC)