In the Oymaağaç Mound, located in Samsun’s Vezirköprü district and confirmed over the past 20 years to be the sacred city of “Nerik” belonging to the Hittites, this year's excavations have revealed traces of the indigenous Anatolian people known as the Kaška (Kaşkalar).
Archaeological excavations have been ongoing at the Oymaağaç Mound, situated in Oymaağaç Neighborhood, since 2005. The site has been identified as the sacred city of “Nerik” of the Hittites, and findings from the Middle Bronze Age and Iron Age continue to emerge.
Associate Professor Dr. Mehmet Ali Yılmaz, faculty member of the Department of Archaeology at OMU’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Vice President of the Excavation Team, told Anadolu Agency that the excavation work at Oymaağaç Mound has reached its 20th year.
He explained that for the last four years, their team has focused efforts on the northwest section of the mound:
“Previously, we excavated the hilltop section of the mound and uncovered important information about the Hittites. We unearthed the temple dedicated to the Hittite storm god and obtained conclusive evidence that this was indeed Nerik. But other questions remained: When was the settlement originally established? We only had surface-level findings related to this. We now have artifacts and radiocarbon dates pointing to periods as early as 4500 BC, but to better understand these early phases, broader excavation work was necessary. We are now continuing this research with a larger team under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as part of the Heritage for the Future Project.”
Yılmaz noted that they initially focused on the Iron Age, the last settlement phase of the mound:
“We identified Iron Age architecture across a broad area, and we observed that this architectural style closely aligns with the region’s traditional architecture. We see the beginnings of these traditions here. Just like in the Hittite period, the use of wood, mudbrick, and stone in combination is evident. Even today, the same architectural elements can still be seen in local villages. But we didn’t stop at the Iron Age. We were also curious about a much earlier period that was previously barely understood—the Middle Bronze Age. We knew the Late Bronze Age was associated with the Hittites, but was there a settlement here before that? That was one of our key questions.”
Yılmaz emphasized that although they had limited findings from the Middle Bronze Age in the past, new excavations are yielding much more material:
“Previously, we had only a handful of artifacts from the Middle Bronze Age, but now our recent work has produced a full repertoire of pottery from this period. This is a significant new development, and we continue to integrate this information into our ongoing research. These excavations could shed light on this previously obscure period and answer important questions about the early sacred identity of Nerik.”
“We believe the sanctity of a place is a continuous concept, and the Kaška were the indigenous people living here before the Hittites. The Kaška are known to us from Hittite texts as a local people active in this region. Our big question is: What sacred element drew the Hittites here and led them to take this place from the Kaška and establish control over it as their northern frontier? And who exactly were the Kaška? What was their material culture like? Where did they live? What kinds of homes did they build? These are the questions we are trying to answer, as they were the region’s original inhabitants. I believe that future excavations will greatly expand our knowledge of this local population.”
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