Carchemish

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Coordinates: 36°49′47″N 38°00′54″E / 36.82972°N 38.015°E / 36.82972; 38.015

Map of Syria in the second millennium BC, showing the location of Carchemish, or "Karkemish."

Carchemish (Hittite: Kargamiš;[1] Greek: Εὔρωπος; Latin: Europus) was an important ancient city of the Mitanni, Hittite and Neo Assyrian Empires, now on the frontier between Turkey and Syria. It was the location of an important battle between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible. The city is said to be known locally as Jarablos (also Jarâblos) [2], linking it to the Biblical city of Jerablus; a corrupted form of the name is Djerabis. Indeed, just to the south of the Turkish-Syrian border lies the town of Carablus; the other side of the border hosts the Turkish town of Karkamis.

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[edit] History

The site has been occupied since the Neolithic period, with pottery finds from ca. 3000 BC and tombs from ca. 2300 BC (Early Bronze Age). The city is mentioned in documents found in the Ebla archives of the 3rd millennium BC. According to documents from the archives of Mari and Alalakh, dated from ca. 1800 BC, Carchemish was then ruled by a king named Aplahanda, and an important center of timber trade. It had treaty relationships with Ugarit and Mitanni (Hanilgalbat). In ancient times, the city commanded the main ford in the region across the Euphrates, a situation which must have contributed greatly to its historical and strategic importance.

King Yariris and Kamanis, son of Astiruwas (Orthostat, c.a. 800 BC).

Pharaoh Thutmose I of the Eighteenth Dynasty erected a stela near Carchemish to celebrate his conquest of Syria and other lands beyond the Euphrates. Around the end of the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten, Carchemish was captured by king Suppiluliuma I of the Hittites (ca. 14th century BC), who made it into a kingdom ruled by his son Piyashshili.

The city became one of the most important centres in the Hittite Empire, during the Late Bronze Age, and reached its apogee around the 11th century BC. While the Hittite empire fell to the Sea Peoples during the Bronze Age collapse, Carchemish survived the Sea People's attacks to continue to be the capital of an important "Neo-Hittite" kingdom in the Iron Age, and a trading center. Although Ramesses III states in an inscription dating to his 8th Year from his Medinet Habu mortuary temple that Carchemish was destroyed by the Sea Peoples, the city evidently survived the onslaught of the Sea Peoples.[2] King Kuzi-Tesup I is attested in power here and was the son of Talmi-Teshub who was a contemporary of the last surviving Hittite king, Suppiluliuma II.[3] He and his successors ruled a small empire stretching from Southeast Asia Minor to Northern Syria and the West Bend of the Euphrates.[4] under the title of 'Great Kings.' This suggests that Kuzi-Tesub saw himself as the true heir of the line of the great Suppiliuma I and that the central dynasty at Hattusa was now defunct.[5] This Empire lasted from c.1175 to 990 BC when it lost control of its imperial possessions and became a mere local city state centered around Carchemish.[6]

The patron of Carchemish under the Hittites was Kubaba, a goddess of apparently Hurrian origins. She was represented as a dignified woman wearing a long robe, standing or seated, and holding a mirror.

In the 9th century BC, the city paid tribute to Kings Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III of Assyria, and was conquered by Sargon II in 717 BC, in the reign of King Pisiris.

In the summer of 605 BC (or 607 BC by some sources), the Battle of Carchemish was fought there by the Babylonian army of Nebuchadrezzar II and that of Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt and the remnants of the Assyrian army. (Jer. 46:2). The aim of Necho's campaign was to contain the Westward advance of the Babylonian Empire and cut off its trade route across the Euphrates. However, the Egyptians were defeated by the unexpected attack of the Babylonians and were eventually expelled from Syria.

[edit] Archaeology

Officers' procession (ca. 700 BC).

Carchemish is now an extensive set of ruins, located on the West bank of Euphrates River, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) southeast of Gaziantep, Turkey and 100 kilometres (62 mi) northeast of Aleppo, Syria. The site lies in Turkish territory near the frontier between the two countries. A Turkish military base has been built on the Carchemish acropolis and Inner Town, and access to the site is presently restricted. Most of the Outer Town lies in Syrian territory.

T. E. Lawrence and Leonard Woolley (right) in Carchemish, Spring 1913

Carchemish has always been well-known to scholars because of several references to it in the Bible (Jer. 46:2; 2 Chr. 35:20; Isa. 10:9) and in Egyptian and Assyrian texts. However, its location was identified only in 1876 by George Smith. The city had been previously identified, incorrectly, with Circesium at the confluence of the Chebar and the Euphrates.[7] It has also been identified with the Hierapolis Bambyce of the Greek, although the modern Pamukkale in Turkey also had that name.

The site was excavated by the British Museum, in 1876 by George Smith, 1881 by Patrick Henderson, 1911 by D. G. Hogarth and R. C. Thompson, and from 1912 to 1914 and again in 1920 by C. L. Woolley, and T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"). [8] [9] [10] Excavations were interrupted in 1914 by World War I and then ended with the Turkish War of Independence. [11] These expeditions uncovered substantial remains of the Assyrian and Neo-Hittite periods, including defensive structures, temples, palaces, and numerous basalt statues and reliefs with Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Though the site itself is off limits to archaeology, work in the surrounding region has added more insight to Carchemish. [12] With the completion of mine clearing operations on the Turkish portion of the site, archaeological work is expected to proceed there shortly. [13]

[edit] Kings of Carchemish

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Kargamiš." Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie. Walter de Gruyter (1980).
  2. ^ Gary Beckman, "Hittite Chronology", Akkadica, pp.119–120 (2000), p.23
  3. ^ K.A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, William B. Eerdsman Publishing Co, pp.99 & 140
  4. ^ Kitchen, op. cit., p.99
  5. ^ Trevor R. Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites, Oxford University Press, p.384
  6. ^ Kitchen, op. cit., p.100
  7. ^ CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Circesium
  8. ^ D.G. Hogarth, Carchemish I: Introductory, The British Museum Press, 1969
  9. ^ Sir L.Woolley, Carchemish: Town Defences Pt. 2: Report on the Excavations at Jerablus on Behalf of the British Museum, British Museum Press, 1969, ISBN 0714110027
  10. ^ Sir L.Woolley & R.D.Burnett, Carchemish: Excavations in the Inner Town Pt.3: Report on the Excavations at Jerablus on Behalf of the British Museum, British Museum Press, 1978, ISBN 0714110035
  11. ^ H. G. Güterbock, Carchemish, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 102-114 , 1954
  12. ^ Edgar Peltenburg, Euphrates River Valley Settlement: The Carchemish Sector in the Third Millennium BC, Oxbow Books, 2007, ISBN 1-84217-272-7
  13. ^ [1] Mine-clearing work in Karkamış nears completion

[edit] See also

Babylonlion.JPG Ancient Near East portal

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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