Evidence · Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk

Kushim: confined to one archive, absent from the title lists, often written beside SANGA

KU.ŠIM is on 23 tablets, all but two in the MSVO 3 group attributed to Uruk. It is not an entry in any witness of the archaic professions (Lu2 A) or Officials lists. In 5 of its 28 entries it is written beside SANGA in either order, the way a name stands beside a title. Names and titles in this corpus cannot be told apart by how spread out they are (both have a median of 2–3 sites, n = 4 and 6), so this rests on the list absence and the SANGA pattern and is weak.

Suggestive0

What it means

Key questionWhat language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record?

5 answers, none ahead yet

Openunchanged

Part of itDo the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?

5 answers, none ahead yet

Openunchanged

Part of itIs KU.ŠIM ('Kushim') in the Uruk III barley accounts a person's name or an office?

2 answers, none ahead yet

Openwas No evidence yet

Answer this evidence bears onA person

Supports1 for, none against

Still possiblewas No evidence yet

What it implies

Kushim leans toward a person's name: it behaves like the name half of 'SANGA + name' and is not a listed title; it is not settled.For: Is KU.ŠIM ('Kushim') in the Uruk III barley accounts a person's name or an office?

Next steps 2

Slot test: what fills the SANGA + X slot

Could shiftFair odds~2 h

On: Is KU.ŠIM ('Kushim') in the Uruk III barley accounts a person's name or an office?Set by this evidence

17score

Details

Collect every Uruk III entry with SANGA and one other sign group. If the other groups are mostly marked names, Kushim in that slot is a name; if they are mostly institutions or goods, it is an office or unit.

Read the Kushim tablets' headers and totals

Adds evidencePoor odds · needs a person~4 h

On: Is KU.ŠIM ('Kushim') in the Uruk III barley accounts a person's name or an office?

3score

Details

Do a close reading of the MSVO 3 Kushim tablets (photos on CDLI). If KU.ŠIM stands where seal-holders or responsible persons stand, it is a person; if it stands where institutions or recipients stand, it is an office.

Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes

How it was found 1 run

Kushim tests: archive concentration and the SANGA slot

Method Within-name position test against a shuffle · Session 9

Result. Kushim is more concentrated in one archive (10 of 11 tablets) than any recurrent name or title; it is not in the title lists; and the SANGA + X slot it occupies is filled 24% by titles, 14% by names and 61% by other terms. By the rule set in advance, undecided.

Share of a type's tablets in its largest publication volume / provenience0.909Undecided; the distribution features cannot separate names from titles in this corpus (too few recurrent marked names).

Archaic personal names in proto-cuneiform (editor-marked, CDLI)kushim_test.py kushim_test_prov.py sanga_slot.py 3 outputs

Sources 1

Texts from the Late Uruk Period

Englund 1998

SRC

Cite it

Mysteries Department. (2026). Kushim: confined to one archive, absent from the title lists, often written beside SANGA [Evidence EVD0DG367HPYKNT]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DG367HPYKNT

@misc{mysteriesdept_evd0dg367hpyknt,
  title     = {Kushim: confined to one archive, absent from the title lists, often written beside SANGA},
  author    = {{Mysteries Department}},
  year      = {2026},
  note      = {Evidence, catalog key EVD0DG367HPYKNT},
  url       = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DG367HPYKNT}
}