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Archaeologists marking the 20th year of excavations at Oymaagac Hoyuk—identified as the Hittites’ sacred city of Nerik in Türkiye—say a 3,000-year-old hazelnut shell and a rare wooden hoe have turned up among a cache of organic finds.
The team has carried on fieldwork for two decades with specialists from the U.S., Australia, Germany, and Türkiye.
According to excavation director Professor Rainer M. Czichon, 26 cuneiform tablet fragments refer to Nerik’s weather god, which helped confirm the site.
Researchers located a sacred spring mentioned in the tablets and spent nine years clearing an underground tunnel that leads to it.
Work inside a 52-step tunnel linked to the spring revealed a set of botanical and wooden materials, including loom parts, a yoke piece, and a sling tip—all preserved in water.
Czichon noted that the wooden hoe found there is one of only three known worldwide, with the other two in Egypt.
He added that these items date to the Iron Age, as the spring was reused and later served as a storage area.
The team reports that the hazelnut shell and wooden pieces, some cut with bronze tools, were recovered from the same context.
Radiocarbon analysis points to the 15th century within the Hittite period, leading Czichon to say the oldest known hazelnut from the Black Sea region comes from Oymaagac.
The “Oymaagac Hoyuk–Nerik Excavations 20th Anniversary Vezirkopru Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Workshop” opened at Samsun Museum and runs for two days, with closing events at the site.
The first session featured presentations by Sezer Secer Fidan (PhD) on a cult city and a “mysterious people” and by Professor Yilmaz Selim Erdal with Melis Koruyucu (PhD) on two individuals from Oymaagac assessed through bioarchaeology.
Attendees included Deputy Governor of Samsun Hancer Basturk, Ondokuz Mayis University Vice Rector Professor Ayse Pinar Sumer, Provincial Culture and Tourism Director Suleyman Demirtas, Samsun Metropolitan Municipality Social Services Department Head Eyup Cakir, Samsun Museum Director Kenan Surul, and Deputy Head of Oymaagac Hoyuk Excavation Association. Professor Mehmet Ali Yilmaz.
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