Acemhöyük

Acemhöyük is an archaeological site in Turkey. The tell is located near the village of Yeşilova in Merkez district, Aksaray Province. The Bronze Age name for the place was probably Purušḫanda/Purušḫattum or Ullama. The site was important during the Early Bronze Age as part of the Anatolian Trade Network and the Middle Bronze Age as a colony in the Assyrian Trade Network, with a trading post called Karum.

Acemhöyük is located 18 km northwest of Aksaray, on the southeastern end of the Tuz Gölü, in a fertile plain on the Uluirmak or Melendiz. The ruins are arranged, like those of Kültepe, into two parts: a settlement on a hill, measuring 700 m east–west and 600 m north–south, and a lower city, which is partially covered by the modern village of Yeşilova. According to Nimet Özgüc, the extent of the lower city is of a similar size. The highest point, the citadel, rises 20 metres above the surrounding land and is now called Sarikaya (yellow cliff) on account of the gleaming yellow mudbricks. The tell is to the south of the modern village and in the centre of it there was (or is?) a modern cemetery. Joost Blasweiler (2019) offers detailed arguments that Acemhöyük was the location of the city of Purushanda known from many cuneiform texts. While Acemhöyük was fully a member of the Old Assyrian trade network, Konya-Karahöyük, a major settlement located to the west near Konya city, seems to have been at the western limits of that network. According to Blasweiler (2018), the Assyrian caravans probably did not reach Karahöyük, itself, on a regular basis.

Recent excavations indicated that the town had a long history before the Assyrian Trade Colonies period. The mound was excavated by Nimet Özgüç and Aliye Öztan between 1962 and 2019.

"The architectural sequence of the Early Bronze Age settlement was recovered at the southern slope of the mound. According to the current state of research, the mound has several Early Bronze Age layers (Levels XII-IV), corresponding to a period spanning from the Early Bronze Age II (2700-2450 BC) to the end of Early Bronze Age III (2450-2000 BC) during Anatolia's 3rd millennium BC chronology."

In the Early Bronze, Acemhöyük was a central hub in the Anatolian Trade Network which reached Troy and the Cyclades in the west, and Mesopotamia in the east. In the mid-3rd millennium BC, Acemhöyük emerged with connections with West Anatolia and Syria.

Some 'Syrian bottles' have been discovered here in Level XI of the settlement. Such items indicate the wide interregional commercial relations of Acemhöyük during the Early Bronze Age III period. They are similar to the Unguentarium bottles of the later historical periods. Syrian bottle is a specific type of a bottle that was widespread in Syria, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. A fine example of a Syrian bottle from Acemhöyük has been dated to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age III (2450-2300 BC). The vessel appears to have been imported, and it may be related to the flat- and ring-based flasks from Northwestern Syria and areas nearby. Such items reflect cultural and commercial connections of the settlement, as well as its chronology. These small bottles appear mainly in funerary contexts, and sometimes also in domestic and public contexts. Their shapes can be either of a long alabastron type, or of a globular type. These bottles were probably used as containers for medicinal oils or perfumes. Syrian bottles from ancient Anatolia were made of clay or even from metal. They originated in Mesopotamia around the mid 3rd millennium BC.

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).