Discovery Unveils Private Homes at Assyrian merchant colony in Anatolia
Archaeologists working at the renowned Kultepe archaeological site in central Turkey have achieved a significant breakthrough, uncovering private residences on the main mound for the first time in decades of excavation.
Editor's pick This post is part of hand-picked stories from across the web, curated by the editors of the Assyria Post.
"The newly discovered houses predate the arrival of Assyrian merchants by several centuries, challenging earlier assumptions that only grand structures occupied the summit of Kultepe. Professor Kulakoglu explained that Kultepe has been home to successive monumental buildings since at least the third millennium BC, with palaces and temples being destroyed and rebuilt multiple times throughout its long history. "This shows Kultepe has been a major center not only during the Assyrian merchants' time but long before, from around 6,000 years ago," he noted.
The discovery represents what Kulakoglu describes as "a new event" for the archaeological team. The presence of private homes among the palaces suggests a more complex urban layout than previously understood. These residential structures contained distinctive ceramics and architectural elements that set them apart from other areas of the settlement, indicating possible social stratification among the inhabitants. The houses likely belonged to administrators, craftsmen, and other professionals who worked within the monumental complexes but needed to live nearby."
In a collaboration between Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and the University of Baghdad, an ancient Babylonian hymn dating back over two millennia has been rediscovered and fully deciphered.
The new AI tool “Palaeographicum” is revolutionizing research into the cultures of the Ancient Near East: It identifies individual variations of cuneiform signs—a huge step forward for academia.
The Shamash Gate in ancient Nineveh has revealed rare evidence of two violent chapters separated by more than 2,500 years: the fall of the Assyrian capital in 612 B.C. and the battle to free Mosul from ISIS in 2017.
Assyrian News Broadcasting (ANB) has announced that it has temporarily suspended publishing news on its Facebook page due to an ongoing dispute over the platform's media identity and intellectual property rights.
Swiss-Assyrian artist Shamiran Istifan is receiving widespread acclaim for her latest exhibition at the Aargauer Kunsthaus, where her installations explore themes of beauty, migration, identity and censorship through striking visual symbolism.
In a major policy announcement, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi declared that facilitating the return of Assyrians who fled the country during two decades of conflict is now a "national and government priority."
Gary Manners
