Carchemish

Carchemish (kärˈkĭmĭsh, kärkēˈmĭsh), 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. Among the excavated remains are sculptured Neo-Hittite reliefs with hieroglyphic Hittite inscriptions.

Bibliography

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

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

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.

References in periodicals archive ?

In the Louvre exhibition, this can be seen in the basalt head of a lion from Carchemish (Fig.

OLD WORLD DISORDER

The Viceroy of Carchemish, as Bryce calls him, was the king of kings for the Syrian region and served a bureaucratic function as the go between for the Great King with his subjects.

SPROUTS OF THE ANCIENTS: THE ANCIENT ROOTS OF REPRESENTATION IN THE GREATER MEDITERRANEAN REGION FROM THE HITTITES TO ROME

Wilkinson, Peltenburg, and Wilkinson present this summary of the 2006-2010 Land of Carchemish Project, applying remote sensing techniques for the first time to the larger area around the ancient city of Carchemish on the present day Turkish-Syrian border.

Carchemish in Context: The Land of Carchemish Project, 2006-2010

Presenting a thoughtful and thorough analysis, and heavily illustrated with superb drawings, plans, and b&w plates of the sculpture, this volume describes the meaning and possible ceremonial uses of monumental sculpture at the Iron Age sites of Carchemish and Zincirli.

Syro-Hittite monumental art and the archaeology of performance; the stone reliefs at Carchemish and Zincirli in the earlier first millennium BCE

Both men wrote about their explorations: Lawrence in Crusader Castles, Carchemish and The Wilderness of Zin; Almasy in scholarly papers and monographs.

T.E. Lawrence and The English Patient

Following the battle of Carchemish (605 B.C.E.) a terrible chaos ensued ("the shroud that is cast over all peoples" (25:7) with the Babylonians becoming preeminent.

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost (proper 23): October 9, 2005

This time, she visited the ancient Hittite city of Carchemish and recorded countless inscriptions there, then stumbled upon the spectacular yet undocumented fortress ruin of Ukhaidir where she set about taking photographs and drawing precise plans.

Queen of the sands

His early work in the field included excavations at Carchemish (1912-14) and the Egyptian site of Tel-el-Amarna (1921-22).

On This Day

Then, in 1909, she set out on a seven-month trip to view little-known archaeological remains at Carchemish, Babylon, Seleucia and Ctesiphon.

Desert queen: the extraordinary life of Gertrude Bell

Lawrence attended Oxford University, where he joined an expedition excavating the Hittite settlement of Carchemish on the Euphrates, working there from 1911 to 1914.

Lawrence, T.E

Born at Tremadoc, Caernarvonshire (August 15, 1888), the natural son of Sir Robert Chapman by his daughters' governess, Sara Maden, with whom he had eloped; educated at Jesus College, Oxford, and traveled to the Middle East to study Crusader castles (1909), the subject of his thesis when he took first-class honors in modern history (1910); obtained a traveling endowment from Magdalen College, which enabled him to join the expedition excavating Carchemish (Barak) on the Euphrates (1911-1914); explored northern Sinai with Leonard Woolley and Capt.

Lawrence, Thomas Edward (1888-1935)

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