Some of the earliest evidence about this province comes from outside it. At Çatalhöyük near Konya, where the first traces of Anatolian civilisation appear in the Neolithic between 7000 and 6000 BC, there is material relating to Hasandağı and so to Aksaray: an incised painting there is read as a depiction of Hasandağı erupting. Aksaray and its surroundings were settled in the Neolithic. Whether they were settled in the Chalcolithic and the early Iron Age is not known, though pottery of that date has turned up in the villages of Böget and Koçaş.
Between 3000 and 2000 BC the Hatti lived in Anatolia, and Assyrian merchants traded here. What we know of Aksaray in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages comes from the excavations at Acemhöyük and from antiquities bought by the museum directorate. In this period Assyrian traders coming up from Mesopotamia began setting up trading posts in the outskirts of the cities.
