Plants, people and environment at Kültepe/Kanesh from 3800-1700 BC

Andrew Fairbairn, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia (a.fairbairn@uq.edu.au)

January 13th, 2026, 6.15pm, G6 UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square. Online participation should be possible. Check here for an Eventbrite link nearer the time.

Kültepe (Kayseri, Türkiye) is the site of ancient Kanesh, a Middle Bronze Age city state and home to a community of Assyrian traders from c. 1900-1830 BC whose tablet archives are one of the world’s great records of historical trade. Archaeobotanical research provides evidence for plant use during that period, and before, including seed and wood charcoal analysis of food and fuel supplies as well as seed stable isotopes tracking the growth conditions of crops. Evidence for early plant trade, agricultural change and differences in local plant economies will be discussed and the future of research in this remarkable site and how a combination of archaeological science and analysis of text is combining to improve our understanding of plant histories there.