Arpad (city)

Coordinates: 36 ° 28 ′ 12 ″  N , 37 ° 6 ′ 0 ″  E

Arpad​

Syria

Arpad , today Tell Rifa'at , Tell Erfad; is an ancient city 30 km northeast of Aleppo in Syria . At times it was the seat of the independent Aramaic minor kingdom of Bit Agusi .

history

The Bit Agusi kingdom, stretching from Aʿzāz in the north to Hama in the south, was established in the early 9th century.

In 805 BC An Assyrian army drew under the command of King Adad-nīrārī III. (811–781 BC) against Arpad.

A contract between Aššur-nirari V. (755-745) and Mati-Ilu of Arpad has been handed down. It contains extensive self-curses in case the ruler of Arpad fails to keep the treaty. The treaty was confirmed with the solemn slaughter of a March lamb, and the fate of the lamb was magically linked with the fate of the possibly oath-breaking king. “This head is not the head of the spring lamb, but the head of Matu'ilu and the head of his sons ... and just as the head of the lamb is torn off, the head of Matu'ilus and his sons will also be torn off in the event of a breach of the oath, his shoulders torn off, his legs torn off and put in his mouth ... “As further provisions, the contract contains the usual obligation to deliver defectors and the obligation to follow the army. The conclusion of the contract is confirmed by a long series of names of gods.

From Sefire three steles with a contract between Bar Ga'yah, the king of KTK (which some researchers (probably erroneously) take for the Assyrian turtānu Shamschi-ilu ) and Arpad have come down to us.

After the Mati'ilu fell away from Assyria and in 743 B.C.E. Allied with the Urartians , the Assyrian army first defeated Sarduri II of Urartu at Samsat . Thereupon Arpad was after three years of siege by Tiglat-pileser III. captured and destroyed. After that, the city revived to a limited extent as the provincial capital, and there was also a settlement there under the Seleucids. During the excavation campaigns in 1956, 1960 and 1964, numerous coins were discovered there that date from the 2nd century BC. BC and the 4th century AD. Later finds point to settlement remains from the time up to the 14th century.

Today's Tell Rifa'at, the largest settlement hill in the area of Jabal Sem'ān ; it reaches a height of 8 m.

Ruler

The following rulers can be identified after Trevor Bryce :

• Gusi (approx. 870 BC)
• Hadram (Assyrian Adramu, Arame), son of Gusi (c. 860 to 830 BC)
• Attar-šumki I , son of Hadram (approx. 830 to 800 BC)
• Bar-Hadad, son of Attar-šumki I (approx. 800 BC)
• Attar-šumki II, son of Bar-Hadad (first half of the 8th century BC)
• Mati'ilu (Mati'el), son of Attar-šumki II. (Approx. 760–745 BC)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Edward Lipiński: The Aramaeans. Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion , Peeters, 2000, p. 99.
2. ^ Rykle Borger : Assyrian State Treaties. In: Texts from the environment of the Old Testament , Vol. 1, 2, Gütersloh 1983, pp. 155–158 (with a different translation).
3. ↑ Laura Quick: Deuteronomy 28 and the Aramaic Curse Tradition, Oxford 2018, p. 79.
4. ^ Otto Rössler : Aramaic State Treaties. In: Texts from the environment of the Old Testament , Vol. 1, 2, Gütersloh 1983, pp. 178-189.
5. ^ Mark Healy: The Ancient Assyrians , Osprey, 1992, p. 25.
6. ↑ E. Honigmann: Arpad, in: Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Aräologie , Volume 1, edited by E. Ebeling u. B. Meissner, Berlin - Leipzig 1932, column 153b.
7. ↑ Peter A. Clayton: The coins from Tell Rifaat , in: Iraq 29 (1967) 143-154.
8. ^ Edward Lipiński: The Aramaeans. Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion , Peeters, 2000, pp. 208 and 529.
9. ↑ Trevor Bryce: The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms. A Political and Military History , Oxford, New York 2012, pp. 165–168, p. 308.