Acemhöyük

Türkiye · Aksaray

SettlementUnknown
Approximate period3,000 BCE — 1,700 BCEEarly Bronze Age and Assyrian Trading Colonies period; approximate beginning See on the map ↓

In brief

Acemhöyük in Yeşilova is a large Bronze Age settlement consisting of a mound and a lower town. Seal impressions and vessels made from valuable materials found in the palaces demonstrate the settlement's connections with distant regions.

What was found?

  • 1Sarıkaya Palace

    Storage spaces occupy the preserved lower floor of the two-storey palace. The building and the valuable objects inside it show the scale of the palace economy.

  • 2Hatipler Palace

    A second monumental building resembling Sarıkaya Palace. The presence of more than one large palace in the same city reveals that the settlement was one of the powerful administrative centres.

  • 3Clay lumps bearing seal impressions

    The bullae found in the palaces bring together different sealing traditions. Their impressions allow us to investigate Acemhöyük's political and commercial relationships.

  • 4Rock crystal vessels

    Fragments of goblets and vases made from transparent quartz were found. The delicate working of a hard material demonstrates the skill of the stoneworkers.

  • 5Obsidian vessels

    Vases and fragments of plates and rhyta made from volcanic glass were recovered from Sarıkaya Palace. According to researchers, craftspeople using local material successfully reproduced the vessel forms of the period in stone.

What does it point to?

The palaces, sealings, and valuable vessels indicate powerful administration connected with trade and specialised crafts. The combination of storage and the use of valuable objects within the same palace organisation suggests that resources were concentrated around the palace.

What did it teach us?

  1. The existence of large palace complexes in Anatolia during the Assyrian Trading Colonies Period was documented.
  2. Seal impressions provided tangible evidence of the city's relationships with the Anatolian and Mesopotamian worlds.
  3. The use of rock crystal and obsidian in vessel production was demonstrated through examples of advanced stoneworking.

Images

Remains of the Sarıkaya palace, Acemhöyük, Turkey
Elizabeth Simpson · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Acemhöyük03
Ingeborg Simon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Record

Culture
Anatolian Bronze Age communities; Assyrian trade network
First modern dig
1962
Team / historical
Aliye Öztan / Ankara University
Coordinates
38.4116°, 33.8355°

Sources

  1. aksaray.ktb.gov.tr
  2. belleten.gov.tr
  3. en.wikipedia.org
  4. Türk Tarih Kurumu, Belleten — Acemhöyük Taş Kapları
  5. Türk Tarih Kurumu, Belleten — Sarıkaya Sarayı'ndan iki taş tabak

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