Editing Kültepe (section)

=== ''Kārum'' Kaneš ===
The quarter of the city that most interests historians is the ''kārum'', a portion of the city that was set aside by local officials for the early Assyrian merchants to use without paying taxes as long as the goods remained inside the ''kārum''. The term ''kārum'' means "port" in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], the ''lingua franca'' of the time, but its meaning was later extended to refer to any trading colony whether or not it bordered water.

Several other cities in Anatolia also had a ''kārum'', but the largest was Kaneš, whose important ''kārum'' was inhabited by soldiers and merchants from [[Assyria]] for hundreds of years. They traded local tin and wool for luxury items, foodstuffs, spices and woven fabrics from the Assyrian homeland and [[Elam]].

The remains of the ''kārum'' form a large circular mound 500&nbsp;m in diameter and about 20&nbsp;m above the plain (a tell). The ''kārum'' settlement is the result of several superimposed stratigraphic periods. New buildings were constructed on top of the remains of the earlier periods so there is a deep [[stratigraphy]] from prehistoric times to the early Hittite period.

The ''kārum'' was destroyed by fire at the end of levels II and Ib. The inhabitants left most of their possessions behind, as found by modern archaeologists.

The findings have included numerous baked-clay tablets, some of which were enclosed in clay envelopes stamped with [[cylinder seal]]s.<ref name="Strupler2021_Sealing">{{Cite conference | last1 = Strupler | first1 = Néhémie | title = An Overview of Sealing Practices at Kültepe| book-title = Cultural Exchange and Current Research in Kültepe and its Surroundings Kültepe | date = 2021 | publisher = Brepols | pages =181-196 |location =Turnhout | url=https://hal.science/hal-03440315v1/file/Strupler2021--KIM4_10_N%C3%A9h%C3%A9mie%20Strupler_Manuscript.pdf}}
</ref> The documents record common activities, such as trade between the Assyrian colony and the city-state of [[Assur]] and between Assyrian merchants and local people. The trade was run by families rather than the state. The '''Kültepe texts''' are the oldest documents from Anatolia. Although they are written in Old Assyrian, the [[Hittite language|Hittite]] loanwords and names in the texts are the oldest record of any Indo-European language.<ref>[[Calvert Watkins|Watkins, Calvert]]. "Hittite". In: ''The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor''. Edited by Roger D. Woodard. Cambridge University Press. 2008. p. 6. {{ISBN|978-0-511-39353-2}}</ref> Most of the archaeological evidence is typical of Anatolia rather than of Assyria, but the use of both cuneiform and the dialect is the best indication of Assyrian presence.