Kitchen ware, from Kültepe, Assyrian Trade Colonies period, 1950-1700 BC

Kültepe (= Ash Hill) is an archaeological site located about 20 km southwest of Kayseri (city). It consists of a tell, the actual Kültepe, and a lower town where an Assyrian settlement was found. The ancient name of the place was Kaneş. It was inhabited continuously from the Chalcolithic period (or ‘Copper age’, 5500-3000 BC) to Roman times, flourished as an important Hatti/Hittite/Hurrian city, which contained a large merchant quarter (kârum) of the Old Assyrian kingdom, from ca. 20th to 16th centuries BC. In the 17th century BC, the kings of Kaneş moved their capital to Hattusa (Boğazkôy, Çorum province), thus founding the line of Hittite kings.

In 1925, the Czech archeologist Bedřich Hrozný excavated Kultepe and found over 1000 cuneiform tablets, some of which ended up in Prague and some in Istanbul. Modern archaeological work began in 1948 when Kültepe was excavated (and still is) by a team from the Turkish Historical Society and the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen
Sources: ‘Guides Bleus: Turquie’ – Edition 1986 & Wikipedia .