Archaeologists find Assyrian tablets in Turkey, some about women’s rights

Ancient Assyrian tablets, dictating social arrangements including women’s rights, dating back to 4,000 years have been excavated in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri, a local newspaper reported Thursday.

Prof. Fikri Kulakoğlu of Ankara University told Doğan News Agency that the Kultepe-Kanis-Karum trade colony site where the tablets were unearthed was remarkable.

He said the tablets revealed detailed information about the Assyrians, spanning from commercial trade to the nitty-gritty of the local social life.

“From women’s rights to the adoption of children and marriages arranged at birth, the tablets include all kinds of civilizational and social data from Anatolia 4,000 years ago,” he said.

He added: “There is also an emotional letter from a woman to her husband and a letter from another woman who complains about her mother-in-law. You can’t find such things in an empire’s official archive.”

However, most of the 23,500 cuneiform tablets found were about commerce.

“Kultepe is where the Anatolian enlightenment began. The people in this area were literate much earlier than other places in Anatolia, including its west,” he said.