My favorite subject: Archeology(Kultepe and Asikli Hoyuk)

Kultepe translates as Ash Hill, the local name given to the burnt remains of the ancient city of Kanesh, 20km NE of Kayseri. The mysterious fire that destroyed the city must have spread very quickly as the inhabitants fled leaving all kinds of beautiful household objects for archaeologists to find. Although this site was occupied from the Bronze Age to the end of the Roman period, its fame came from its Karum, or trading centre, run by the Assyrians from northern Mesopotamia. They imported tin, garments and cloth on caravans of 200 or so camels, horses, mules and donkeys, and exchanged these goods for gold or silver. The Karum at Kanesh was the biggest and most important, controlling all the other Karums in Anatolia.
Kultepe's greatest contribution to history is the 300 or so Assyrian cuneiform clay tablets found at the Karum, which included a divorce document and the freedom paper of a slave as well as numerous trade agreements. Excavations have been carried out for the last 100 years and are still ongoing.


Asikli Hoyuk

Asikli Hoyuk (pronounced a-shik-le-who-yook), in today's province of Aksaray, was a thriving town between 8,400 and 7,400 BCE, well before Catalhoyuk came into existence. Today, only foundations exist, but in Aceramic Neolithic times it had a defensive stone wall as well as a main thoroughfare. Its similarities with Catalhoyuk suggest a cultural link; homes were entered via the roof and the people buried their dead under the floors of their living rooms. There is also speculation that the painting of a town in front of an erupting volcano which was found at Catalhoyuk, now in the museum in Ankara, is a folk memory from Asiki Hoyuk. I think this is possibly the case because this town is closer to the volcano Mount Hasan and the perspective seems right from this spot.
Asikli Hoyuk is most famous, though, for being the place where the earliest confirmed example of trepanation was found. Trepanation is not a brain operation but the removal of a small piece of the skull, possibly to cure severe headaches (!) or even to release evil spirits. The young woman concerned died a few days after the operation, although possibly not as a result of the trepanation. Also, traces of the world's first autopsy were seen on the jaw bone of another woman. I wonder who this Neolithic doctor was and what discoveries were made!

Kültepe/Kaniş is nocated near the city of Kayseri. It was excavated by one of the most valuable archaeologists in Turkey, Tahsin Özgüç.

The importance of that place derives from Assyrian Trade Colony Period between the dates of 1950-1800 B.C.

the Assyrian trade colonies from Mesopotamia used Kültepe as a market place and sold their products in here.

There are many numerous tablets found in here and it's approx. 150,000 tablets. most of the tablets are about trade aggreements. These tablets give us the existence of trading in central Anatolia. I went there...

I also went to Aşıklıhöyük. it's located in Aksaray near a river. there are many layers found at there and show the continuity of settling down. Especially if we look at the mud-brick houses, we can clearly see the continuity. The fundamentals of the houses were used for constructing the following house, and the layers of the walls prove this observation. The dates of this site is approx. 2000-1900 B.C. we also see the obsidian tools that were used for cutting and hunting. this site was excavated by Işın Metin.

both of these sites should be visited to gain remarkable information about Anatolian Archaeology in Paleolithic times.

I am sure I posted this some time ago:
www.archatlas.org/Trade/Trade.php

wonderful topic in Anatolian Archaeology..

Artemis of Ephesus

http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/gallery/artemisephesus.jpg

Etruscans:
http://www.maravot.com/Translation_ShortScripts_c.html

Censorship in Aphrodisias: A censorship from the antique times. Someone wrote some texts on a column, and another one came later and was not happy with, what was written there. He took his hammer and chissel and censored the text, or as been done in modern times, he "tippexed" it.
There are many similarities to be seen in Aphrodisias. Mainly after 3rd century ad, early christians censored all inscriptions; mainly the name of Aphrodite (the goddes of the city) was erased. Shortly afterwards the name of the city got Stavropolis (city of the cross), instead formerly "City of Aphrodite" . Again a good sample that nothing is new under the sun ; Nihil nove sub sole !

Aphrodisias
The release of Prometheus

This is one of about 122 reliefs (out of 88 pieces are allready been excavated and repaired) showing mythological scenes, as well as scenes from the life of deified Roman emperors. Those were been decorating the walls of the famous temple called Sebasteion of the antique city of Aphrodisias.
This shows Prometheus, chained on top of Caucasus mountains.
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is the Titan chiefly honored for stealing fire from Zeus in the stalk of a fennel plant and giving it to mortals for their use. For that, Zeus ordered him to be chained on top of the Caucasus. Every day an eagle would come and eat his liver, but since Prometheus was immortal, his liver always grew back, so he was left to bear the pain every day. This relief is showing this myth. The feathers of the death eagle can be seen in the lower part of the relief.

Read more:

http://www.tejones.net/courses/201/gods/Artemis.html

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://thumb13.webshots.net/t/38/39/9/20/82/301092082HJJvOQ_th.jpg&imgrefurl=http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/301086589uDIvCP&h=75&w=100&sz=2&hl=en&start=18&um=1&tbnid=n5LrEkKIf6pIoM:&tbnh=62&tbnw=82&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dprometheus%2Bchained%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN