4000 year old clay tablets discovered in central Turkey

[Imperial Dave]

https://www.dailysabah.com/history/2017/09/07/4000-year-old-clay-tablets-discovered-in-central-turkey

early form of writing discovered in central Anatolia

[Patrick Waterson]

These are not actually 4,000 years old but 2,750 or so, and have quite a late style of cuneiform, in use in middle to late 8th century BC Assyria.  Although originally assumed to be the relics of an Assyrian trade colony which was assumed to have existed (and used middle 8th century BC Assyrian) some 1,300 years before the 8th century BC Neo-Assyrian Empire, epigraphically these tablets exhibit style, not to mention content, from the reign of Sargon of Assyria* (722-705 BC) and not Sargon of Akkad (24/23rd century BC) or Assyria's less-known Sargon I (20/19th century BC).

Still, good to see someone is still bothering to excavate them.  Thanks, Dave, for letting us know.

*For example, Sargon II's chief of bodyguards, Mannu ki-Ashur, is specifically mentioned by name.