Acemhöyük

Acemhöyük is a Bronze Age settlement mound — a tell — located in the village of Yeşilova near Aksaray in central Anatolia. During the early second millennium BCE, an Assyrian karum, or merchant colony, operated here, part of a long-distance trade network in which Mesopotamian merchants exchanged tin and textiles for gold and silver with local Anatolian rulers, as attested by cuneiform tablets found at related sites like Kültepe. The ancient name of the city remains disputed: scholars propose either Purušḫanda or Ulama, both known from textual sources but not yet definitively located. Excavations uncovered palace structures, ivory carvings, and seal impressions pointing to deep ties with the Old Assyrian commercial world. Today the site is a quiet, sparsely developed earthen monument that draws primarily archaeologically minded visitors.