21 May 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The history of Kültepe Mound in central Turkey goes back another 300 years

In Kültepe, where the first written documents of Anatolia were unearthed, the date based on 5 thousand years was updated to 5 thousand 300 years with the excavations carried out this year.

Archaeological excavations at Kültepe Kaniş/Karum Mound, 21 kilometers northeast of Kayseri city center, have been going on for 73 years.

The region now called Kültepe, which was the capital of the kingdom of the period, also known as Kaneš or Neša, flourished as an important Hittite city, containing a large kārum (merchant colony) of the Old Assyrian Empire from the 21st to 18th centuries BC. This kārum appears to have served as “the administrative and distribution center of the entire Assyrian colony network in Anatolia”.

About 23,500 tablets have been excavated to date in the excavations in the mound.

Kültepe Kaniş/Karum Mound entered the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2014, while the Kültepe tablets were registered in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2015.

the Kültepe tablets were registered in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2015.
The Kültepe tablets were registered in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2015.

Ankara University Faculty of Language, History and Geography Department of Archeology Lecturer Prof. Dr. Fikri Kulakoğlu told Anadolu Agency (AA) that they closed the excavation area in Kültepe as of November due to weather and terrain conditions.

Kulakoğlu stated the importance of this year’s excavations with the following words:

“We found really special data in these areas. We always told the history of Kültepe as a center of 5,000 years. As a result, we can say that it has a history of at least 5,300 years. In the middle of the mound, we were able to reach the earliest data of 5300 years ago. In these data, we obtained data from other regions near us, from Malatya, Niğde, and the Adana region, about earlier periods that we know.

Among them, we encountered a large monumental building. This was the initial work, we will be able to fully understand its plan next year.”

Kulakoğlu said that next to the temples built by King Anitta, there was another building related to the temples and that they found bones of large animals such as a lion and bear, deer, and mountain sheep in that building. He stated that the studies on these structures are important in terms of showing that the colonial age in Kültepe did not cease immediately, but continued.

“This is a discovery that concerns not only the history of Kültepe, as well as the history of Syria and Mesopotamia. It is also important in terms of illuminating the history of Anatolia,” he said.

Related Articles

The place of Puduhepa’s hometown Lawazantiya will be illuminated with Tatarlı Höyük

9 November 2021

9 November 2021

Excavations at Tatarlı Höyük (mound) are trying to reach findings that will enable the determination of the location of Lawazantiya,...

A basement discovered on the premises of the ruins of Hitoyoshi Castle in Japan could be a Jewish bathing facility!

7 December 2022

7 December 2022

Experts are still indecisive about why there was a bathing area in the basement which was discovered on the site...

A Medieval Necropolis Discovered During Excavations at the site of the Future Bus Station in Sozopol, Bulgaria

4 April 2024

4 April 2024

A medieval necropolis was discovered during excavations at the construction site of a bus station in the old seaside town...

3,000-Year-Old Hazelnut Shells Discovered in the Sacred Hittite City of Nerik

30 July 2024

30 July 2024

In the sacred Hittite city of Nerik, located in the northern Vezirköprü district of Samsun province in the Central Black...

A 2,000-year-old Street from the Roman Period has been Discovered in Southeastern Turkey

19 April 2021

19 April 2021

A 2,000-year-old street from the Roman period has been discovered in southeastern Turkey. Excavation to unearth historical street in the...

Three Roman Graves Uncovered in Portugal

17 April 2024

17 April 2024

Three burials dating to the 5th or 6th century AD have been unearthed in the ancient Roman city of Ossónoba...

Two mysterious stone balls were found buried in a tomb dating to 3500 BC in Orkney

2 September 2021

2 September 2021

In Orkney, archaeologists discovered two carved stone balls in a tomb dating from 3500 BC. Archaeologists are on-site at Tresness,...

The Ground Zero of History: Göbeklitepe Site Targets 1M Visitors in 2021

3 April 2021

3 April 2021

Göbeklitepe, which is called “the zero point of human history” and “The place where civilization was born’’, is located takes...

New Study Reveals the Contribution of Female Scribes in Medieval Manuscript Production

2 April 2025

2 April 2025

A recent study sheds light on the often-overlooked contributions of women in the production of handwritten manuscripts during the Middle...

3,000-year-old ‘charioteer belt’ discovered in Siberia

21 July 2023

21 July 2023

Russian archaeologists uncovered the grave of a Late Bronze Age man buried wearing a “charioteer’s belt”, a flat bronze plate...

An engraving on an almost 2,000-year-old knife believed to be the oldest runes ever found in Denmark has been discovered by archaeologists

22 January 2024

22 January 2024

Archaeologists have found a small knife with a completely unique runic inscription that can be dated almost 2000 years ago....

Oregon may be home to oldest human occupied site in North America

12 July 2023

12 July 2023

Where and when the first humans appeared in North America is a contentious issue that many disagree on, and this...

An Urartian female executive grave was found at the Çavuştepe Mound

9 September 2021

9 September 2021

The grave of an Urartian, who was buried with his horse, cattle, and dog, had been found recently. Today, another...

1000-Year-Old Tomb Found in Perre Ancient City in southeast Turkey

1 July 2021

1 July 2021

A 1,000-year-old tomb was unearthed in the ancient city of Perre in Adiyaman province. Perre is one of the five...

Ancient tombs discovered at Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral

15 March 2022

15 March 2022

Archaeologists discovered several graves and a leaden sarcophagus possibly dating from the 14th century at Paris’ Notre Dame church, France’s...