# Press kit: Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk > Names on 5,000-year-old tablets from Uruk don't look like Sumerian names. Sumerian-style names only appear around 2800 BC, centuries after writing began. Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/press-kit/1.0 Publisher: Mysteries Department Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page) --- Version 1.0 · 3 November 2026**SRC** 0DGCNJMWNZS2 [Brief (PDF)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/brief/1.0.pdf)[Download everythingZIP](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/press-kit/1.0.zip) ## Press release [Copy text][Text](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/press-kit/1.0/press-release.txt) For release 3 November 2026 ### The earliest known writers may not have spoken Sumerian, contrary to what the textbooks and most scholars say Names on 5,000-year-old tablets from Uruk don't look like Sumerian names. Sumerian-style names only appear around 2800 BC, centuries after writing began. The personal names recorded on some of the world's first written documents, clay tablets from Uruk in southern Iraq written around 3100 BC, do not follow the pattern of Sumerian names, according to an analysis published today by Mysteries Department, an open research platform for unsolved mysteries. Sumerian names use their stock parts, such as "king", "mother" and the names of gods, four to six times more often than ordinary words do. The Uruk names use them 1.35 times as often, barely more than chance. The Sumerian pattern is fully present in the Archaic Ur texts of about 2800 BC, when the first spellings by sound also appear. An independent re-analysis, built from the raw data without access to the original code or results, reproduced the finding. The gap is not explained by the social class of the people named, by officials' names, or by an Akkadian naming pattern. The result supports the view of Robert Englund, who edited most of these tablets, that the language of the first writers is unknown, against the long-standing assumption that they were Sumerian speakers. It does not identify their language, and no word of the tablets has yet been read as sound. The work is open research and has not been peer-reviewed; every test, dataset and result is public at mysteriesdept.com. Notes for editors **Proto-cuneiform** The earliest writing of Mesopotamia: about 6,000 clay tablets from Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, Umma and other sites, c. 3350–3000 BC, almost all administrative. Their numbers can be read; their words cannot be sounded out. **Mysteries Department** An open research platform for the world's unsolved mysteries. Sources, data and methods are shared, and every result can be rerun from its code and data. This release Mystery Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk Version 1.0 Date 3 Nov 2026 Findings 53, of which 2 established Questions 10; 5 key Editor [apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo) [Read the mystery page](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform) [What's changed since](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform#releases) ## Key facts **~6,000** clay tablets and fragments, c. 3350–3000 BC **540** personal names marked by the editors, on 41 tablets **1.35** Sumerian name signal in the Uruk names (rebuilt blind 1.34) **4.5–5.8** the same signal in Sumerian names, c. 2800–2400 BC **349** tests run on the site ## Images Free to use with the credit shown on each.[All images (ZIP)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/press-kit/1.0-images.zip) ![Proto-cuneiform account of barley distribution, c. 3100–2900 BC, probably Uruk](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/site/pc-met-1988-433-1.jpg)tablet Proto-cuneiform account of barley distribution, c. 3100–2900 BC, probably Uruk Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988.433.1 _CC0_ JPG[Download](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/site/pc-met-1988-433-1.jpg) ![A list of three people, traced: Louvre AO 19936, c. 3100 BC](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/site/pc-fig-tablet.jpg)traced A list of three people, traced: Louvre AO 19936, c. 3100 BC Credit: Photo Mbzt (Wikimedia Commons), trace and labels Mysteries Department _CC BY 3.0_ JPG[Download](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/site/pc-fig-tablet.jpg) ## Charts CC BY 4.0. Credit Mysteries Department.[All charts (ZIP)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/press-kit/1.0-charts.zip) ![The earliest names lack the Sumerian name signal that appears three centuries later](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/site/pc-chart-signal.png)signal The earliest names lack the Sumerian name signal that appears three centuries later Credit: Mysteries Department _CC BY 4.0_ PNG[Download](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/site/pc-chart-signal.png) ![Names on the Uruk tablets and in later Sumerian archives, and how the test works](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/site/pc-chart-names.png)names Names on the Uruk tablets and in later Sumerian archives, and how the test works Credit: Mysteries Department _CC BY 4.0_ PNG[Download](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/site/pc-chart-names.png) ## Documents **[Mystery brief](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/brief/1.0)** Four pages: where it stands, the evidence, and every reading so far. v1.0 [PDF · 743 KB](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/brief/1.0.pdf) **[The First Names](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/book/1.0)** The report: the tablets, a century of scholarship, every analysis and every run 56 pages. v1.0 [Preview](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/book/1.0) **Logos** Mysteries Department mark and wordmark, on light and dark. SVG [ZIP](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/press-kit/1.0.zip) ## Using these **Tablet images** The Met photograph is public domain (CC0). The traced Louvre tablet is CC BY 3.0; credit the photographer and us. ``` Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988.433.1 (CC0) · Photo Mbzt, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0), trace Mysteries Department ``` **Text, charts and the brief** CC BY 4.0. Copy, adapt and republish, with credit and a link. ``` Mysteries Department, mysteriesdept.com (CC BY 4.0) ``` **Our logo** Use it to refer to us, unchanged. Don't use it to suggest we endorse something. ## How to cite ``` Mysteries Department. (2026). Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk: Press kit (Version 1.0) [SRC0DGCNJMWNZS2]. https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/releases/press-kit/1.0 ``` ## Earlier versions 1.03 Nov 2026First releaseCurrent **Press contact** [press@mysteriesdept.com](mailto:press@mysteriesdept.com) · We reply within two working days [RSS for this mystery's releases](https://mysteriesdept.com/news.xml)