Carchemish

Geography of the site

Carchemish is now an extensive set of ruins (90 hectares, of which 55 lie in Turkey and 35 in Syria), located on the West bank of the Euphrates River, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) southeast of Gaziantep, Turkey, and 100 kilometres (62 mi) northeast of Aleppo, Syria. The site is crossed by the Berlin–Baghdad railway that currently forms the border between Turkey and Syria. The site includes an acropolis along the river, an Inner Town encircled by earthen ramparts and an Outer Town (most of which is situated in Syrian territory). A Turkish military base has been established at the site.

History of research

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. In 1874, James H. Skene, British Consul at Aleppo proposed its identification. This was confirmed in 1876 by George Smith. Carchemish had been previously identified, incorrectly, with the Classical city of Circesium, at the confluence of the Khabur River and the Euphrates.

Between 1878 and 1881 soundings were conducted by Consul Patrick Henderson on behalf of the British Museum. Between 1911 and 1914 full excavations were conducted under the direction of D. G. Hogarth. In 1911 on the field there were D. G. Hogarth himself, R. C. Thompson, and T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), from 1912 to 1914 C. L. Woolley and T. E. Lawrence, while a last campaign took place in 1920 with C. L. Woolley and Philip Langstaffe Ord Guy. Excavations were interrupted in 1914 by World War I and then ended in 1920 with the Turkish War of Independence. 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. Between 1956 and 1998, the whole site had been mined by the Turkish Land Forces.

With the completion in February 2011 of mine clearing operations on the Turkish portion of the site, archaeological work was resumed in September 2011. Excavations in the Inner and Outer Towns were carried out by a joint Turco-Italian team from the Universities of Bologna, Gaziantep, and University of Istanbul under the direction of Prof. Dr. Nicolò Marchetti.

The second season, from August to November 2012, brought several new art findings and archaeological discoveries, the most remarkable of which is Katuwa's Palace (c. 900 BC) to the east of the Processional Entry.

The third season, from May to October 2013, extended the exposure of Katuwa's palace, retrieving a cuneiform tablet with an exorcism in the name of the god Marduk, as well as the ruins of Lawrence's excavation house in the Inner Town, from which literally hundreds of fragments of sculptures and hieroglyphic inscriptions have been retrieved.

Current status

Conservation and presentation works have now been completed and the archaeological park at the site is finally open since 13 July 2019, thanks to the support also of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality and Gaziantep Province: the site may be visited between 9 am and one hour before sunset through guided tours every two hours for security reasons. Financial support has been received by the three Universities mentioned above, by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Sanko Holding, with the technical support also of Şahinbey Municipality and Inta A.Ş.

The Outer Town area lying in Syria has been designated, already before the Syrian Civil War, an endangered cultural heritage site and labelled "at risk" by the Global Heritage Fund, due to agricultural expansion and, especially, urban encroachment. The field assessment of the Syrian part of the Outer Town documented that parts of the modern border town of Jerablus encroached upon the Outer Town. In July 2019, a scientific visit to the outer town in Syria by the Turco-Italian Archaeological Expedition at Karkemish, entailed the protection of the area from further encroachment by the sprawling town of Jerablus and by the facilities for trucks which were being built to the South of the border: the City Council of Jerablus declared all the area enclosed by the Iron Age city walls a "first degree protected site", meaning the complete ban of any activity on it.

In February 2016, a prefabricated security wall (one with no foundations that could have damaged the ancient site) was completed by the Turkish Army to the south of the railway, stretching between the Euphrates bridge and the train station of Karkamış.

History

The site has been occupied since the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (pot burials).

Early Bronze

In the late Early Bronze, cist tombs dating to around 2400 BC have been found.

The city is mentioned in documents found in the Ebla archives of the 3rd millennium BC.

Middle Bronze

According to documents from the archives of Mari and Alalakh, dated from c. 1770s-1760s BC and contemporary with king Zimri-Lim of Mari. Carchemish was ruled by a king named Aplahanda, followed by his son, Yatar-Ami, and was an important center of timber trade. It had treaty relationships with Ugarit and Mitanni (also known as Hanilgalbat). Another ruler of Carchemish in that period was Iahdun-Lim. 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. After about 1745 BC, and the reign of Yahdul-Lim, not much is further known about Carchemish.

Little is known until the 1620s, when the city is mentioned in connection with the siege of Urshu (Ursha) by the Hittite king Hattusili I. At that time, Carchemish was allied with the kingdom of Yamhad, centered in Aleppo, in supporting Urshu, but their efforts were unsuccessful, and the city fell, along with many other Syrian cities. Hattusili and his successor Mursili I campaigned several years against Yamhad. Also Hantili I conducted a campaign to Carchemish to face the Hurrians.

Late Bronze

Pharaoh Thutmose I of the Eighteenth Dynasty erected a stele near Carchemish to celebrate his conquest of Syria and other lands beyond the Euphrates.

Under the Mitanni Empire, the city was a stronghold of Tushratta of Mitanni until its siege and conquest by Šuppiluliuma I (c. 1345 BC).

Around the end of the reign of Pharaoh Tutankhamen, Carchemish was captured by king Šuppiluliuma I of the Hittites (c. 14th century BC), who made it into a kingdom ruled by his son Piyassili.

Piyassili (Šarri-Kušuḫ) was followed by his son Shakhurunuwa (Sahurunuwa), about whom relatively little is known. He participated in the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BC). He was followed by Ini-Teššub.

Iron Age

The city became one of the most important centres in the Hittite Empire, during the Late Bronze Age, and reached its apogee around the 13th century BC. While the Hittite empire fell to the Sea Peoples during the Bronze Age collapse, Carchemish survived the Sea Peoples' 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.

King Kuzi-Teshub (Kuzi-Tesup) is attested in power here and was the son of Talmi-Teshub who was a contemporary of the last Hittite king, Šuppiluliuma II. He and his successors ruled a "mini-empire" stretching from Southeast Asia Minor to Northern Syria and the West bend of the Euphrates under the title "Great King". This suggests that Kuzi-Tesub saw himself as the true heir of the line of the great Šuppiluliuma I and that the central dynasty at Hattusa was now defunct. This powerful polity lasted from c. 1175 to 975 BC when it began losing control of its farther possessions and became gradually a more local city state centered around Carchemish.

After Kuzi-Teshub, some of the kings of Carchemish, such as Tuthaliya I, Sapaziti, and Ura-Tarhunza, continued to use the title ‘Great King’ in order to advance their power interests.

Suhi I was the first known ruler of the dynasty of Carchemish that followed. He ruled in early 10th century BC, and was followed by Astuwalamanza.

Katuwa, son of Suhi II, is the best known ruler of this dynasty as known in the Hieroglyphic Luwian sources. He reigned around 880 BC.

In the mid-13th century BC, after the fall of the Mitanni, Shalmaneser I visited Carchemish together with Prince Tukultī-Ninurta.

In the 9th century BC, King Sangara (870-848 BC), the last member of the dynasty, paid tribute to Kings Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III of Assyria.

Kings of Carchemish

This is a list of kings of Carchemish.

Goddess Kubaba

The patron goddess of Carchemish was Kubaba, a deity of apparently Hurrian origins. She was represented as a dignified woman wearing a long robe, standing or seated, and holding a mirror. The main male deity of the town was Karhuha, akin to the Hittite stag-god Kurunta.

Kubaba was also the goddess of Alalakh, located in the coastal Amik Valley.

In 2015, a basalt stele of Kubaba, originally from Karkemish, was assembled back together from six separate broken pieces currently housed in three different museums around the world. This stele was originally made by king Kamani of Karkemish around 790 BC. The Luwian hieroglyphic inscription on this stele can now be read more fully, and it carries some important information about Karkemish history.

Kubaba appears to be one of the three main deities worshipped in Carchemish during the Middle Bronze Age. The other two were Nergal and Nubandag. The chief god was the Mesopotamian-influenced Nergal, who was the city-god of Carchemish. He was also called Il-Karkamis, “God of Karkemish”, as is evidenced on an Old Babylonian hematite cylinder seal in the British Museum collections (BM 89172).

The warrior god Nubandag has Hurrian roots. According to the Mari texts, he was worshipped at Carchemish in the Old Babylonian period along with Nergal.

Later, beginning in the mid-14th century BC, the city-god of Carchemish became the warrior god Karhuha, similar to Kurunta (god). He was seen as a Stag-god, and his cult was probably introduced to Carchemish under the Mitannian influence.

These deities clearly reflect the geographical position of Carchemish at the crossing of important trade routes; because of this, the city became a mixed cultural and religious centre.

Material Culture

Among the many artefacts recovered at Karkemish, typical of this territory are the Handmade Syrian Horses and Riders and the Syrian Pillar Figurines. These are clay figurines dating from mid-8th-7th centuries BCE that have been found in several hundreds in the town. These terracottas were manufactured during the Neo-Assyrian phase of Karkemish and it is currently believed they might have represented male and female characters performing distinguished public roles.