The story of Kaman-Kalehöyük

In the top layer of this mound, excavators found a fragment of 17th-century Chinese porcelain and a European silver coin from the same century. Rising 3 km east-northeast of Kaman on the road to Çağırkan village, the hill is about 280 metres across and 16 metres high.

Japanese teams led by Sachihiro Omura have been digging here since 1986. Beneath your feet lie four layers of civilisation: the Ottoman period, the Phrygian phase of the Iron Age, the Middle and Late Bronze Age including the Hittite Empire and the Assyrian Trade Colonies era, and at the bottom the Early Bronze Age of the 3rd millennium BC. Around hearths set into Ottoman walls, diggers found iron slag, iron horseshoes and tools, suggesting mining workshops.

Five hookah pieces, agate beads and clay pipes turned up too. Look at the mound and picture a layered cake of history.