Turkey
Kültepe
Four-thousand-year-old clay tablets with the oldest written contracts in human history, still being unearthed.
Four thousand years ago, Assyrian merchants sat in this settlement and pressed their cylinder seals into clay tablets to authorise shipments of tin and textiles. The tablets are still here — 23,000 of them — the oldest commercial contracts in human history. The mound rises from the Kayseri plain, unremarkable until you understand what it contains.
Kültepe (ancient Kanesh) near Kayseri in central Turkey is the site of the largest archive of Old Assyrian cuneiform tablets ever discovered — over 23,000 clay documents recording commercial contracts, loans, debt notices, and personal letters between Assyrian merchants and local Anatolians from approximately 2000 to 1750 BCE. The settlement operated as a trading colony (karum) linking Mesopotamia to Anatolia. Active excavations continue annually, with new tablets and seal impressions still being uncovered. The Kayseri Archaeological Museum houses the major finds.
Solo
Kültepe is for the traveller obsessed with origins — standing where the first written contracts were signed, where international trade was born. The site is not dramatic; the idea is everything.
- The site contained over 23,000 cuneiform tablets — the largest archive of Old Assyrian trade records ever found.
- Tablets record commercial contracts, loans, and letters between Assyrian merchants and local Anatolians.
- The settlement dates to approximately 2000-1750 BCE, making it a key link between Mesopotamia and Anatolia.
- Active excavations continue annually — new tablets and seal impressions are still being uncovered.
Pastırma — air-dried beef coated in fenugreek paste, a Kayseri speciality sliced paper-thin.
Mantı dumplings in garlic yoghurt, each one pinched so small a spoonful holds a dozen.
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