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

Alster raised the Emesal hypothesis in 1982 as a question; it has been neither confirmed nor refuted since, because…

Alster raised the Emesal hypothesis in 1982 as a question; it has been neither confirmed nor refuted since, because the texts omit the grammatical elements by which Emesal is identified in later periods.

Speculative0

What it means

Key questionWhy do the Early Dynastic literary texts from Fara and Abu Salabikh resist reading, and can they be read without later duplicates?

3 answers, none ahead yet

Openunchanged

Answer this evidence bears onUD.GAL.NUN hides an early Emesal

Bears onnone for, none against

Still possiblewas No evidence yet

Next steps 1

Compile the full UD.GAL.NUN substitution table from Krecher, Krebernik and Lisman and test its regularity across the Fara and Abu Salabikh tablets on CDLI.

~20 h

On: Why do the Early Dynastic literary texts from Fara and Abu Salabikh resist reading, and can they be read without later duplicates?

—not judged

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

Sources 2

Emesal in Early Dynastic Sumerian? What is the UD.GAL.NUN-Orthography?

Alster 1982

SRC

Sumerian language (Wikipedia article)

contributors 2026

SRC

Cite it

Mysteries Department. (2026). Alster raised the Emesal hypothesis in 1982 as a question; it has been neither confirmed nor refuted since, because… [Evidence EVD0DEDYRQK753M]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DEDYRQK753M

@misc{mysteriesdept_evd0dedyrqk753m,
  title     = {Alster raised the Emesal hypothesis in 1982 as a question; it has been neither confirmed nor refuted since, because…},
  author    = {{Mysteries Department}},
  year      = {2026},
  note      = {Evidence, catalog key EVD0DEDYRQK753M},
  url       = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DEDYRQK753M}
}