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Photo: Klaus-Peter Simon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Important Bronze Age administrative center in Turkey
Kültepe, ancient name Kaneš or Neša (Nesha), was a Bronze Age settlement and trading center on the Central Anatolian plateau in modern Turkey. It was a major settlement in the early 3rd millennium, and is particularly renowned for its regional importance in the early 2nd millennium. The archaeological site consists of a large mound, and a lower city, where a kārum was established in the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The over 23,000 cuneiform tablets recovered from residences at Kültepe constitute the largest collection of texts found in non-administrative locales of the ancient Near East. In 2014, the archaeological site was inscribed in the Tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Turkey.
