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Carchemish (called Europus by the Greco-Romans
Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
) was an important ancient city of the Mitanni
Mitanni

Mitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking Hittite vassal state in northern Syria from ca. 1500 BC-1300 BC."The Assyrians called the lands of Mitanni Hanigalbat while to the Hittites it was the land of the Hurrians....
 and Hittite
Hittites

The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a Hittite language of the Anatolian languages of the Indo-European languages family, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia ca....
 empires, now on the frontier between Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
 and Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
. It was the location of an important battle
Battle of Carchemish

The Battle of Carchemish was fought about 605 BC between the allied armies of History of ancient Egypt and Neo-Assyrian Empire against Neo-Babylonian Empire....
 between the Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
ians and Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
ians, mentioned in the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
. The city is said to be known locally as Jarablos (also Jarāblos) , linking it to the Biblical
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 city of Jerablus; a corrupted form of the name is Djerabis.






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Carchemish (called Europus by the Greco-Romans
Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
) was an important ancient city of the Mitanni
Mitanni

Mitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking Hittite vassal state in northern Syria from ca. 1500 BC-1300 BC."The Assyrians called the lands of Mitanni Hanigalbat while to the Hittites it was the land of the Hurrians....
 and Hittite
Hittites

The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a Hittite language of the Anatolian languages of the Indo-European languages family, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia ca....
 empires, now on the frontier between Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
 and Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
. It was the location of an important battle
Battle of Carchemish

The Battle of Carchemish was fought about 605 BC between the allied armies of History of ancient Egypt and Neo-Assyrian Empire against Neo-Babylonian Empire....
 between the Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
ians and Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
ians, mentioned in the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
. The city is said to be known locally as Jarablos (also Jarāblos) , linking it to the Biblical
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 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
Carablus

Carablus is a town in Syria lying on the western bank of the River Euphrates. It is in the administrative region of Syria with the centre in the town of Aleppo....
; the other side of the border hosts the Turkish town of Karkamis.

The site

Karkemish 1
Carchemish is now an extensive set of ruins, located on the West bank of Euphrates River, about 60 km southeast of Gaziantep
Gaziantep

Gaziantep , previously and as still used informally; Antep), is the List of cities in Turkey of Gaziantep Province in Turkey. It is considered to be among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world....
, Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
 and 100 km northeast of Aleppo
Aleppo

Aleppo is a city in northern Syria, capital of the Aleppo Governorate; the Governorate extends around the city for over 16,000 km? and has a population of 4,393,000, making it the largest Governorate in Syria by population....
, Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
. The site lies in Turkish territory near the frontier between the two countries. A Turkish military base has been built on the Carchemish acropolis
Acropolis

Acropolis literally means city on the edge . For purposes of defense, early settlers naturally chose elevated ground, frequently a hill with precipitous sides....
, and access to the site is presently restricted. Part of the location of the city may also lie on Syrian territory.

In ancient times, the city commanded the main ford across the Euphrates
Euphrates

The Euphrates is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia which flows from Anatolia....
, a situation which must have contributed greatly to its historical and strategic importance.

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
Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistory, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifact s....
). The city is mentioned in documents found in the Ebla
Ebla

Ebla was an ancient city about southwest of Aleppo. It was an important city-state in two periods, first in the late 3rd millennium BC, then again between 1800 BC and 1650 BC....
 archives of the 3rd millennium BC. According to documents from the archives of Mari
Mari, Syria

Mari was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria....
 and Alalakh
Alalakh

Alalakh , is the name of an ancient Amorite city and its associated city-state of the Amuq River, located in the Hatay Province region of southern Turkey, now represented by an extensive city-mound....
, 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
Ugarit

Ugarit was an ancient cosmopolitan port city, sited on the Mediterranean coast. Ugarit sent tribute to Ancient Egypt and maintained trade and diplomatic connections with Cyprus , documented in the archives recovered from the site and corroborated by Mycenaean Greece and Cypriot pottery found there....
 and Mitanni
Mitanni

Mitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking Hittite vassal state in northern Syria from ca. 1500 BC-1300 BC."The Assyrians called the lands of Mitanni Hanigalbat while to the Hittites it was the land of the Hurrians....
 (Hanilgalbat).

Karkemish 2
Pharaoh
Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
 Thutmose I
Thutmose I

Thutmose I was the third Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt of History of Ancient Egypt. He was given the throne after the death of the previous king Amenhotep I....
 of the Eighteenth Dynasty
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Eighteenth Dynasty is perhaps the best known of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt. As well as a number of Egypt's most powerful pharaohs, it included Tutankhamun, whose tomb, uncovered by Howard Carter in 1922, was one of the greatest of all archaeological discoveries, being completely undisturbed by tomb robbers....
  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
Akhenaten

Akhenaten , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, who died 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for attempting to compel the Egyptian population in the monotheism worship of Aten, although there are doubts as to how successful he was at this....
, Carchemish was captured by king Suppiluliuma I
Suppiluliuma I

Suppiluliuma I was king of the Hittites . He achieved fame as a great warrior and statesman, successfully challenging the then-dominant New Kingdom for control of the lands between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates....
 of the Hittites
Hittites

The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a Hittite language of the Anatolian languages of the Indo-European languages family, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia ca....
 (ca. 14th century BC), who made it into a kingdom ruled by his son Piyashshili
Piyashshili

Piyashshili was a Hittites prince, and a middle son of King Suppiluliuma I; younger than the heir Arnuwanda II, but older than the eventual successor Mursili II and probably older than the doomed Zannanza too....
.

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
Sea Peoples

The Sea Peoples is the term used for a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt, and especially during Year 8 of Ramesses III of the Twentieth dy...
 during the Bronze Age collapse
Bronze Age collapse

The Bronze Age collapse is the name given by those historians who see the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, as violent, sudden and culturally disruptive, expressed by the collapse of palace economy of the Aegean Region and Anatolia, which were replaced after a hiatus by the isolated village cultures of the Dark Ages of the Ancie...
, Carchemish survived the Sea People's attacks to continue to be the capital of an important "Neo-Hittite
Neo-Hittite

The states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian language, Aramaic and Phoenician languages-speaking political entities of Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC....
" kingdom in the Iron Age
Iron Age

In archaeology, the Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose main ingredient was iron were prominent....
, 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. King Kuzi-Tesup I is attested in power here and was the son of Talmi-Teshub
Talmi-Teshub

Talmi-Teshub was "the great-great-great-grandson of Suppiluliuma I" and a viceroy at Carchemish in Syria under Suppiluliuma II. According to royal seal impressions found at Lidar H?y?k found in 1985 on the east bank of the Euphrates river, Talmi-Teshub was succeeded by his own son, Kuzi-Teshub....
 who was a contemporary of the last surviving Hittite king, Suppiluliuma II
Suppiluliuma II

Suppiluliuma II, the son of Tudhaliya IV, was the last known king of the New Kingdom of the Hittite Empire, ruling ca. 1207 ? 1178 BC , contemporary with Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria....
. He and his successors ruled a small empire stretching from Southeast Asia Minor to Northern Syria and the West Bend of the Euphrates. 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. This Empire lasted from c.1175 to 990 BC when it lost control of its imperial possessions and became a mere local city state centred around Carchemish.

The patron of Carchemish under the Hittites was Kubaba
Kubaba

Kubaba is the only queen on the Sumerian king list. She was monarch in the 3rd Dynasty of Kish , reigned in the "Early Dynastic III" period of History of Sumer and is listed to have reigned for 100 years....
, a goddess of apparently Hurrian
Hurrians

The Hurrians were a people of the Ancient Near East, who lived in northern Mesopotamia and areas to the immediate east and west, beginning approximately 2500 BC....
 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
Shalmaneser III

Shalmaneser III was king of Assyria , and son of the previous ruler, Ashurnasirpal II.His long reign was a constant series of campaigns against the eastern tribes, the Babylonians, the nations of Mesopotamia and Syria, as well as Kizzuwadna and Urartu....
 of Assyria
Assyria

Assyria was a political state centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history....
, and was conquered by Sargon II
Sargon II

Sargon II was an Neo-Assyrian Empiren king. Sargon II became co-regent with Shalmaneser V in 722 BC, and became the sole ruler of the kingdom of Assyria in 722 BC after the death of Shalmaneser V....
 in 717 BC, in the reign of King Pisiris.

In the summer of 605 BC (or 607 BC by some sources), an important battle was fought there by the Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
ian army of Nebuchadrezzar II
Nebuchadrezzar II

Nebuchadnezzar II, also called King Nebuchadnezzar The Second , was a ruler of Babylon in the Chaldean Dynasty, who reigned c. 605 BC-562 BC....
 and that of Pharaoh Necho II
Necho II

Necho II was a king of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt , and the son of Psammetichus I by his Great Royal Wife Mehtenweskhet. His prenomen or royal name Wahemibre means "Carrying out the Wish of Ra Forever." Necho played a significant role in the histories of the Assyrian Empire, Babylonia and the Kingdom of Judah....
 of Egypt (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
Egyptians

Egyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to the Geography of Egypt, dominated by the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the Cataracts of the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea and enclosed by desert both to the Easte...
 were defeated by the unexpected attack of the Babylonians and were eventually expelled from Syria.

Rediscovery and exploration

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
George Smith (assyriologist)

George Smith , was a pioneering England Assyria who first discovered and translated the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest-known written work of literature....
. The city had been previously identified, incorrectly, with Circesium
Circesium

Circesium is a Catholic titular see. The original diocese was in Osrhoene, in a city going by the names Kerkesion etc. It is in in the east of contemporary Syria, at Buseira in the region of Deir ez-Zor....
 at the confluence of the Chebar
Khabur River

The Khabur River is a river that begins in southeastern Turkey and flows south to eastern Syria, where it empties into the Euphrates River near the town of Busayrah....
 and the Euphrates. It has also been identified with the Hierapolis Bambyce of the Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
, although the modern Pamukkale
Pamukkale

Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish language, is a natural site and attraction in south-western Turkey in the Denizli Province. Pamukkale is located in Turkey's Inner Aegean Sea region, in the B?y?k Menderes River valley, which enjoys a temperate climate over the greater part of the year....
 in Turkey also had that name.

The site was initially excavated by the British Museum
British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than 7 million Object , are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present....
, chiefly between 1911 and 1914, by D. G. Hogarth
David George Hogarth

David George Hogarth was a British people archaeologist and scholar associated with T. E. Lawrence and Arthur Evans.Between 1887 and 1907, Hogarth travelled to excavations in Cyprus, Crete, Egypt, Syria, Melos, and Ephesus ....
, R. C. Thompson
Reginald Campbell Thompson

Reginald Campbell Thompson was a United Kingdom archaeologist, assyriologist, and Cuneiform script. He excavated at Nineveh, Ur, and Carchemish among many other sites....
, C. L. Woolley, and T. E. Lawrence
T. E. Lawrence

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence Order of the Bath, Distinguished Service Order , known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British people soldier renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt of 1916–18....
 ("Lawrence of Arabia"). 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.

Kings of Carchemish

  • Piyassilis, or Sharri-Kushukh, son of the Hittite king Suppiluliumas (d. ca. 1315)
  • [...]sharruma, son of Piyassilis
  • Sharkhurunuwa, son of Piyassilis
  • Ini-Teshub I (fl. ca. 1230s)
  • Talmi-Teshub
    Talmi-Teshub

    Talmi-Teshub was "the great-great-great-grandson of Suppiluliuma I" and a viceroy at Carchemish in Syria under Suppiluliuma II. According to royal seal impressions found at Lidar H?y?k found in 1985 on the east bank of the Euphrates river, Talmi-Teshub was succeeded by his own son, Kuzi-Teshub....
     (fl. ca. 1200)
  • Kuzi-Teshub
    Kuzi-Teshub

    Kuzi-Teshub was the son of Talmi-Teshub who was both the last viceroy of the Hittite Empire at Carchemish under Suppiluliuma II, and a direct descendant of Suppiluliuma I....
     (fl. ca. 1170), claimed the title of "Great King" after the fall of Hatti
  • Ini-Teshub II (fl. ca. 1100)
  • Tudhaliya
    Tudhaliya

    Tudhaliya is the name of several Hittite kings*Tudhaliya is a hypothetic pre-Empire king of the Hittites. He would have reigned in the late 17th century BC ....
     (ca. 1100, either before or after Ini-Teshub II)
  • [...]pazitis
  • Ura-Tarhunzas
  • Suhis I
  • Astuwatamanzas
  • Suhis II
  • Katuwas (fl. ca. 900)
  • Sangara
    Sangara

    Sangara was a king of Carchemish, he first appears in Assyrian documents as paying tribute to Ashurnasirpal II in 882. In 857 he paid tribute again, this time to Shalmaneser III, who had just completed his conquest of the Syro-Hittite states....
     (870-848)
  • Astiruwas (ca. 840)
  • Yariris or Araras (ca. 815)
  • Kamanis (ca. 790)
  • Sasturas (ca. 760)
  • Pisiris (fl. 730s), the last king, defeated in 717 by Sargon II
    Sargon II

    Sargon II was an Neo-Assyrian Empiren king. Sargon II became co-regent with Shalmaneser V in 722 BC, and became the sole ruler of the kingdom of Assyria in 722 BC after the death of Shalmaneser V....
    .

Books

  • C. L. Woolley, Carchemish. British Museum (1914–1952).
  • C. W. Ceram
    C. W. Ceram

    C. W. Ceram was the pseudonym of German journalist and author Kurt Wilhelm Marek, known for his popular works about archaeology.In 1949, Ceram wrote his most famous book, G?tter, Gr?ber und Gelehrte ? published in English as Gods, Graves and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology ? a classic account of the historical development...
    , The Secret of the Hittites: The Discovery of an Ancient Empire. Phoenix Press (2001), ISBN 1-84212-295-9.
  • J. D. Hawkins, Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions I/1. de Gruyter, Berlin 2000, ISBN 978-3-11-010864-4.


See also

  • Cities of the ancient Near East
    Cities of the ancient Near East

    Uru was the Sumerian language term for a city or city state, written with the cuneiform ideogram URU .In Akkadian language and Hittite orthography, URU became a determinative sign denoting a city, or combined with KUR "land" the kingdom or territory controlled by a city, e.g....


External links