Carchemish (redirected from Jarâblos)

Carchemish (kär`kĭmĭsh, kärkē`mĭsh), ancient city, Turkey, on the Euphrates River, at the Syrian border, c.35 mi (56 km) SE of Gaziantep. It was an important Neo-Hittite city and was prosperous in the 9th cent. B.C. before it was destroyed by the Assyrians. Even then it continued as an important trade center. There, in 605 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho (2 Chron. 35.20; Jer. 46.2; Isa. 10.9). Among the excavated remains are sculptured neo-Hittite reliefs with hieroglyphic Hittite inscriptions.

Bibliography

See British Museum, Carchemish (3 vol. in 2, 1914–52).

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Carchemish

Ancient city-state, western bank of the Euphrates River. Its remains lay southeast of Gaziantep, Tur., near the Syrian border. It was a city of the Mitanni kingdom in the 2nd millennium BC and later a chief Hittite city. Probably subjugated by Sea Peoples after c. 1200 BC, it gradually came under Assyrian rule, finally capitulating in 717 BC. In a battle at Carchemish in 605 BC, Babylonian king Nebuchadrezzar II expelled the Egyptians from Syria. The ruins were excavated in 1911–20.

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Carchemish 

an important ancient artisan and trade city on the right bank of the Euphrates River in northern Syria, near modern Jarablus. The city was founded about 3000 b.c. and existed until Roman times. The first written mention of the city dates from the 18th century b.c., when Carchemish was under the cultural influence of Mesopotamia. For a short time in the 15th century b.c., Carchemish was a vassalage of Egypt, and later, up to the 12th century b.c., of the Hittite empire. From the 12th to the eighth centuries b.c., Carchemish was the center of an independent kingdom. Sargon II conquered the city in 717 b.c. In 605 b.c., a battle took place there in which the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar II defeated the Egyptian pharaon Necho II and the Assyrian emperor Ashur-uballit II; this led to the ruin of the Assyrian state. Excavations conducted in 1876, 1878–1881, and 1908–19 have revealed fortifications; foundations and architectural details of palaces, temples, and other buildings; various sculptures; and cuneiform and hieroglyphic inscriptions.

REFERENCE

Klengel, H. Geschichte Syriens im 2. Jahrtausend vor unserer Zeit. Part1: Nordsyrien. Berlin. 1965.