Research session 6 · Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk
Labels or names: the archaic name entries behave as a naming system
Within the same script and archives, the archaic names use a much smaller, more concentrated sign vocabulary than ordinary administrative entries and repeat whole names more often, as real names do. With the earlier benchmarks, the names look like a genuine naming system, but not a Sumerian one.
Archaic name entries concentrate their signs like real names (top-10 coverage 31.7%, Early Dynastic names 32–37%) and unlike the administrative entries on the same tablets (19–24%): they behave as a naming system, not as labels.
Together with the Sumerian benchmarks, the names point to a non-Sumerian naming tradition in Uruk III administration; which one is the next question.
What this changes: Central question: new suggestive evidence against H-NOTATION (for names specifically) and for H-UNKNOWN. Names question: one more piece of evidence against H-NAMES-STOCK.
Score the archaic names against Early Dynastic Semitic names (Abu Salabikh, Biggs 1967; Oracc PN lemmata tagged akk) with a Semitic element list (il, ilum, sarrum, abum, ahum and their logograms), to test the most obvious non-Sumerian candidate.
Taken up
Mark names in the 394 Archaic Ur tablets and score them in the same convention, to time the switch to Sumerian-pattern names and see whether any archaic name elements carry over.
Compare how archaic names reuse their elements (type-token growth, share of elements in two or more distinct names, recurring element pairs) with Early Dynastic Sumerian and Semitic names at matched sample sizes. Linguistic names reuse a small vocabulary productively; ad hoc labels should not.
Next steps live on their questions, where anyone can take one up. Ranked by how likely each is to move a key question, for the time it takes.
What was done
Question. Session 5 left two readings of the non-Sumerian name profile [@damerow2006origins] [@englund2009smell]. Either non-Sumerian name-givers produced the names, or the entries are labels rather than spelled names. Real names in any language reuse a small vocabulary. Ad hoc administrative designations should look like the rest of the administrative record.
Design (fixed before computing). Entries were treated as unordered sign sets, since transliteration order is partly editorial. Samples were matched at 1,103 sign tokens, the archaic names' total, with 200 subsamples of each reference: archaic administrative entries (labels) and Early Dynastic I–II, IIIa and IIIb lemmatized names. Five metrics were scored, and a majority decides.
Result. Three metrics came out name-like, two undecided and none label-like, so the overall verdict is name-like. The ten commonest signs cover 31.7% of name tokens, against 19–24% for labels and 32–37% for Early Dynastic names. The type-token ratio is 0.191 (labels 0.24–0.27, Early Dynastic 0.15–0.21). Whole-name repetition is 30% (labels 21–27%). Recurring sign pairs put the names between labels and Sumerian names.
::: figure 1
Reading. The contrast within one script is the strong part. Same sign inventory, same conventions, same tablets, yet the names form their own concentrated vocabulary. Combined with sessions 3 to 5, the archaic names look like a genuine naming system that is not Sumerian. Of the readings left open, a non-Sumerian naming tradition fits best. The language is not identified.
Five order-free reuse metrics at matched token count (1,103), archaic names against 200 subsamples each of archaic administrative entries and Early Dynastic names
Archaic Uruk III administrative non-name entries of length 1–7 (labels) · Early Dynastic I–II, IIIa, IIIb lemmatized personal names (names)
NAME-LIKE by the pre-declared majority rule: three metrics name-like, two undecided, none label-like. The archaic name entries behave as a naming system, not as ordinary administrative designations.
Mysteries Department. (2026). Session 6: Labels or names: the archaic name entries behave as a naming system [Research session SES0DG2MKAN4VC4]. https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DG2MKAN4VC4/session-6-labels-or-names-the-archaic-name-entries-behave-as
@misc{SES0DG2MKAN4VC4,
title = {Session 6: Labels or names: the archaic name entries behave as a naming system},
author = {Mysteries Department},
year = {2026},
url = {https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DG2MKAN4VC4/session-6-labels-or-names-the-archaic-name-entries-behave-as}
}