# Only texts with later duplicates can be read

> Still possible: Early Dynastic literary texts without a later duplicate cannot be read with confidence by any method, because the spelling omits what…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/answers/ANS0DEDWX41X1XH/only-texts-with-later-duplicates-can-be-read  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

---

[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)[Why do the Early Dynastic literary texts from Fara and Abu Salabikh resist reading, and can they be read without later duplicates?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT3AM4NHK/why-do-the-early-dynastic-literary-texts-from-fara-and-abu)Answer

Answer · Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian

# Only texts with later duplicates can be read

Early Dynastic literary texts without a later duplicate cannot be read with confidence by any method, because the spelling omits what grammar needs; only compositions with Old Babylonian parallels will ever be secure.

**Still possible** Answers **1** question0

## Where it stands

**Still possible** Two pieces of evidence for, none against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- No full, agreed translation of a Zame hymn or UD.GAL.NUN myth appears without the discovery of a later duplicate.
- Any newly excavated Old Babylonian duplicate of an Early Dynastic composition immediately changes its reading substantially.

## What would rule it out

- A complete UD.GAL.NUN substitution table plus internal analysis produces a translation of a duplicate-less composition that specialists accept as secure.

## Evidence 2 for · none against

[Cooper judges the UD.GAL.NUN compositions very hard to understand and thinks they left the curriculum before Ur III…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDYSNXZZ9Q/cooper-judges-the-ud-gal-nun-compositions-very-hard-to)

Suggestive

FOR

[The Abu Salabikh Kesh Temple Hymn is readable because its Old Babylonian duplicate of eight centuries later matches it…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDYS8MZGTA/the-abu-salabikh-kesh-temple-hymn-is-readable-because-its)

Supported

FOR

## The questions it answers

[Why do the Early Dynastic literary texts from Fara and Abu Salabikh resist reading, and can they be read without later duplicates?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT3AM4NHK/why-do-the-early-dynastic-literary-texts-from-fara-and-abu)

Open3 answers, none ahead

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Only texts with later duplicates can be read [Answer ANS0DEDWX41X1XH]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0DEDWX41X1XH
```

Key

**ANS** 0DEDWX41X1XH

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Proposed

[Session 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DEE9K0P47XS/session-1-the-unread-cuneiform-seeded-corpus-readings-and) · 31 Oct 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/ANS0DEDWX41X1XH)