About Kültepe
Near Kayseri, Kültepe-Kanesh is a major Bronze Age centre whose thousands of cuneiform tablets document early writing and international trade in Anatolia. Palaces on the mound and the lower-town kārum quarter reveal the lives of Anatolian and Mesopotamian merchants.
History
Kültepe developed in the third millennium BCE and became the capital of Kanesh and the main Assyrian trading colony in the early second millennium. Merchants brought tin and textiles to Anatolia in exchange for silver and gold. Private household archives record contracts, debts, family affairs and court decisions. Kanesh and its kārum were repeatedly destroyed by fire and rebuilt. The tablet archives entered UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2015.
Highlights and principal structures
- Kanesh mound
- Lower-town kārum
- Palace of Warshama
- Merchants' houses and archives
- Temples and workshops
- Cuneiform tablets
Historical period
Bronze Age–Assyrian Trading Colonies