# Correction: archaic names match Sumerian names no more often than shuffled names do > When the archaic name signs are reshuffled across names, keeping each sign's frequency and each name's length, the reshuffled names match attested Early… Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DG360TEAHCH/correction-archaic-names-match-sumerian-names-no-more-often 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 # Correction: archaic names match Sumerian names no more often than shuffled names do When the archaic name signs are reshuffled across names, keeping each sign's frequency and each name's length, the reshuffled names match attested Early Dynastic/Old Akkadian names as often as the real ones (10.9% of types vs a null median of 11.3%, p = 0.63; 12.5% of tokens vs 12.8%, p = 0.58). The session 8 excess over ordinary entries comes from which signs names use, not from particular names surviving. 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 records Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/answers/ANS0DEDW4B5BNA0/proto-cuneiform-records-sumerian) Counts against3 for, 6 against **Still possible** unchanged What it implies 1. The 'minority layer of Sumerian names' claim is withdrawn: the archaic names give no positive sign of Sumerian once the sign stock is held fixed.For the key question: What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record? 1. Single matched names (giri3-ni, e2-zi, en-ki) are not candidate readings; a reading needs a match the shuffle null cannot produce, e.g. a rare-sign combination or an order constraint.For: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern? ## 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 [Name bridge against a sign-preserving shuffle null](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DG377KDWWGK/name-bridge-against-a-sign-preserving-shuffle-null) Method [Within-name position test against a shuffle](https://mysteriesdept.com/methods/MTH0DFQRKBRYDX3/within-name-position-test-against-a-shuffle) · [Session 9](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DG38A190RRC/session-9-brute-force-checks-of-the-candidate-readings-sign) **Result.** Real archaic names match later Sumerian names no more often than random recombinations of the same signs: 10.9% vs 11.3% of types (p = 0.63) and 12.5% vs 12.8% of tokens (p = 0.58); allowing for unwritten grammar, 13.2% vs 11.8% (p = 0.14). Share of Uruk multi-sign name types whose sign multiset equals an ED/OAkk PN, vs names rebuilt by shuffling name signs**0.109** Withdraw the session 8 continuity claim: the excess over ordinary entries reflects the name sign stock, not surviving names. Figure 1 Archaic names match later Sumerian names at the shuffle rate Share of 311 Uruk III multi-sign name types matching an ED I–OAkk personal name; null from 1,000 shuffles of name signs The session 8 comparison with ordinary entries (4.2%) measured the sign stock, not survival. Drawn by the site with [Name bridge against a sign-preserving shuffle null](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DG377KDWWGK/name-bridge-against-a-sign-preserving-shuffle-null) [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)[brute_match.py][brute_match_rate.py][ni_values_ed.py][names_test.py][2 outputs](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DG377KDWWGK/name-bridge-against-a-sign-preserving-shuffle-null#outputs) ## Sources 1 [The Smell of the Cage](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDHS1CGJMA/the-smell-of-the-cage) Englund 2009 SRC ## Cite it ``` Mysteries Department. (2026). Correction: archaic names match Sumerian names no more often than shuffled names do [Evidence EVD0DG360TEAHCH]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DG360TEAHCH ``` Key **EVD** 0DG360TEAHCH Kind Evidence Tier Supported Found in [Session 9](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DG38A190RRC/session-9-brute-force-checks-of-the-candidate-readings-sign) · 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/EVD0DG360TEAHCH)