Clay tablets of ancient times

Kultepe, ancient Kanesh, 20km NE of modern Kayseri, in Turkey was a major trading centre from the end of the Early Bronze Age and into the period of the Hittite Empire around 4,000 years ago. We know that the trade was mostly with the Assyrians, but also with local Anatolians. We can thank the special properties of clay for this knowledge.

In ancient times in Anatolia (modern Turkey) clay tablets were used for writing messages. While the clay was still damp it was marked with a series of indentations representing letters of the alphabet, an alphabet we know as Cuneiform writing.

In the normal way these tablets were not fired and would have been discarded when they were no longer needed. However, in Kultepe, there was an important archive of tablets stored as we today would store our business records. A massive fire destroyed the city and the heat was sufficient to act like a giant kiln and turn the clay tablets into baked pottery, preserving all the messages contained on the tablets. A few of the tablets actually still have a clay "envelope", which allowed for privacy, just as a modern paper envelope does today.

After the fire the town was clearly abandoned. The site has been excavated by Tahsin Ozguc of the University of Ankara. Well over 12,000 of these tablets have been discovered, stored away from the main city centre in an area which was obviously the marketplace.

Archaeologists have been able to decipher the cuneiform writing, which is in the Old Assyrian language, and have learned that many Assyrian merchants were actually living in Kanesh and conducting business from there. The tablets are not records of great deeds of the people, but are a record of small everyday dealings and contracts, which allow historians to build up an excellent picture of what life in Kanesh was like at that period. Many of these tablets are now displayed at the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations at Ankara.

What good fortune that clay has the property of turning to pottery when subjected to a major fire.