Witness Tablets That Chronicled Lives in Ancient Iraq

The Old Assyrian Merchant Archives consist of tablets that constitute a unique textual corpus in world history. In the first quarter of the 2nd Millennium B.C. a community of about 900 traders and their families came from Assur (modern-day Iraq) and settled in Kanesh, now the archaeological site of Kültepe (modern day Turkey).

Almost 4,000 years ago a community, from the 2nd Millennium, of about 900 traders and their families came from the city-state of Assur, modern-day Iraq, and settled in the central Anatolian city of Kanesh, now the archaeological site of Kültepe. 

This Assyrian merchant settlement formed the hub of an extensive trading network that ultimately connected the most of the Asian continent in an East-West axis, from China’s western frontier to the Balkans.

Some 66 seasons of archaeological excavation undertaken at this site have produced the remarkable remains of a densely settled urban center destroyed in a huge conflagration, including the houses of the Assyrian merchant colony.

Assyrian trade and the daily intricacies of the local population’s families lives, private dealings, and commercial activities are detailed in the Merchant Archives. It provides a dense social and commercial history incomparable to anything else from the ancient world.

Most fascinating is perhaps the large number of private letters found in the merchant houses. So far, some 7,000 individual letters have been identified. It’s not uncommon to have several hundred letters relating to and written by a single individual.    

A large part of the population settled there could write themselves. This includes groups that we do not otherwise normally find directly represented in ancient textual sources, such as local people, women, and slaves.

The Old Assyrian Merchant Archives of  Kültepe stand out as completely unique in ancient history.