Karkemiš

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Coordinates: 36 ° 49 ′ 46 ″  N , 38 ° 0 ′ 54 ″  E

Map: Turkey
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Karkemiš​
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Turkey

Karkemiš or Carchemish (also Karkamiš or Karkemish ; Assyrian Qarqamiš ; Egyptian Qarqamescha ; in Roman times: Europos ) was a city ​​of the Mitanni and Hittites .

Location and cityscape

Karkemiš is located in the Turkish province of Gaziantep , right on the Syrian border. The associated district is called Karkamış . Today Karkemiš is an extensive field of ruins on the right bank of the Euphrates . A Turkish military base has been established on the Karkemiš Acropolis , so access is currently restricted. Today's place on the Turkish side is Karkamış, the neighboring place in Syria is called Jarābulus (Jerablus). In ancient times, Karkemiš ruled an important ford through the Euphrates, which explains its importance for the Hittites in controlling Syria.

If a palace or a temple, as in Tell Ain Dara in northwest Syria, had stood on the high castle hill , it was already demolished in Roman times. To the south below the former citadel, a round wall enclosed the inner city area and a second enclosure wall enclosed a much larger outer settlement, the east-west extension of which was over 600 meters. Today's border runs right through the former city. The castle hill and the main remains of buildings belong to Turkey immediately to the south, while the greater part of the lower town lies on Syrian territory. The remains of buildings in the inner city are less important than the sculptures excavated there. A temple with a staircase, two large gateways and a Hilani house type were identified from the structures.

history

The site has been inhabited since Neolithic times, like ostracas from around 3000 BC. And graves from approx. 2300 BC. Document. The city is also mentioned in documents from the Ebla archives from the 3rd millennium BC. Mentioned.

According to a Babylonian document, there was already around 1720 BC. BC kings of Karkemiš. The Hittite king Ḫattušili I (around 1640-1620) fought in vain for the city. The ancient Egyptian King Thutmose I marched with his army in the fourth or fifth year of his reign as far as northern Mesopotamia and had a victory stele erected in Karkemiš. Under Thutmose III. (1486–1425) Karkemiš belonged to the Egyptian Empire , in the 15th century BC. It was part of Mittani . At the time of Ḫattušili III. Karkemiš suffered from the attacks of the Turira , a Mitannic remnant state. Under the Hittite king Šuppiluliuma I (approx. 1350-1322), Karkemiš, after the destruction of Mittani, became the residence of Hittite viceroys ( SECONDOGENITIS ), who controlled the possessions in Syria from here . After the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC. Karkemiš became independent. Under Assyrian pressure, other Hittite successor states such as Sam'al and Kizzuwatna ( Cilicia ) joined Karkemiš, which achieved its greatest importance in the following centuries. In the 10th century Karkemiš appeared in the Assyrian sources often under the name Ḫatti . The king Ini-Teššup II of Ḫatti, known from the time of Tiglath-Pileser I (1114-1076 BC), may therefore also have ruled Karkemiš.

717 BC The city came under Sargon II to Assyria . In the summer of 605 BC BC (or according to some sources 607 BC) a battle between the Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar II and the Egyptian army of Necho II was fought in Karkemiš ( Battle of Karkemiš ). This battle is in the Bible in Jer. 46.2 mentioned. Necho wanted to prevent further expansion of the Babylonian Empire to the west and interrupt the trade route across the Euphrates. However, the Egyptians were defeated by an unexpected attack by the Babylonians and were later forced to give up Syria completely.

Ruler

...

  • Ir-Teššup ?, later 12th century
  • Ini-Teššup II.?, Late 12th to early 11th century (King of Ḫatti , exact placement unclear)

...

  • Tuthaliya, possibly 11th or 10th century (placement unclear, possibly also after Ura-Tarhunza)
  • ...- pa-ziti, possibly later 11th or 10th century
  • Ura-Tarhunza, son of ...- pa-ziti, possibly later 11th or 10th century
Yariri (r.) And Kamani (l.), Successive rulers of Karkemiš

...

  • Suhi I., possibly 10th century
  • Astuwalamanza, son of Suhi I., possibly 10th century
  • Suhi II , son of Astuwatamanza, possibly 10th century
  • Katuwa , son of Suhi II, possibly 10th or early 9th century
  • Suhi III., Ev. Son of Katuwa
  • Sangara , about 870 to 848
  • Isarwilimuwa, son of Sangara
  • Kuwalanamuwa, son of Isarwilimuwa
  • Astiruwa , son of Kuwalanamuwa, late 9th to early 8th centuries
  • Yariri (regent, eunuch?), Early to mid 8th century
  • Kamani , son of Astiruwa, early to mid 8th century
  • Sastura ? (Vizier of Kamani), mid-8th century
  • Astiru [wa] (?), Son of Sastura , 2nd half of the 8th century
  • Pisiri , about 738 to 717

Digs

TE Lawrence and Leonard Woolley (right) in Karkemiš, spring 1913

George Smith located the city mentioned in Biblical, Assyrian, and Egyptian texts in 1876. Excavations were carried out under the direction of the British Museum from 1911 until the start of World War I in 1914 and thereafter in 1920. These expeditions uncovered valuable remains of the Assyrian and Neo-Hittite periods. In addition to the architectural remains, these include basalt statues and reliefs with Luwian hieroglyphics . They did not penetrate into the depths of the Bronze Age layers. David George Hogarth , Reginald Campbell Thompson , Leonard Woolley and Thomas Edward Lawrence ( Lawrence of Arabia ) were involved in the excavations . It is claimed that the excavations were not only for scientific but also military purposes. Some of the finds, including mighty orthostat reliefs , can be seen in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara .

literature

  • David G. Hogarth: Carchemish I: Introductory. London 1914.
  • Leonard Woolley : Carchemish II: The Town Defenses. London 1921.
  • Leonard Woolley: Carchemish III: Excavations in the Inner Town. London 1952.
  • Kurt Bittel : The Hittites. The art of Anatolia from the end of the 3rd to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Munich, CH Beck 1976. ISBN 3-406-03024-6
  • The Hittites and their empire. The people of 1000 gods. Catalog Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany GmbH, Bonn, 2002.
  • Erhard Gorys : Handbook of archeology - excavations and excavators - methods and terms . Weltbildverlag, Augsburg 1989, ISBN 3-89350-120-7 .
  • Alessandra Gilibert: Syro-Hittite Monumental Art and the Archeology of Performance: The Stone Reliefs at Carchemish and Zincirli in the Earlier First Millennium BCE (Topoi. Berlin Studies of the Ancient World 2). Berlin / New York, de Gruyter 2011.
  • John D. Hawkins : North Syria and South-East Anatolia. In: M. Liverani (Ed.): Neo-Assyrian geography . Università di Roma, Dipartimento di scienze storiche, archeologiche e antropologiche dell'Antichità, Rome 1995 ( Quaderni di geografia storica . Vol. 5), 87-101.
  • Nicolò Marchetti (Ed.): Karkemish. An Ancient Capital on the Euphrates. (OrientLab, Researches on the archeology of the ancient Near East 2) Ante Quem, Bologna 2014, ISBN 978-88-7849-103-8 online (PDF)
  • Irene J. Winter: Carchemish Ša Kišad Puratti . In: Anatolian Studies 33 (1983), 177-197.

Web links

Commons : Karkemiš  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Antonio Sagona, Paul Zimansky: Ancient Turkey. (Routledge World Archeology) Routledge, London / New York 2009, pp. 299-302
  2. ^ Hermann Alexander Schlögl: The ancient Egypt . Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 3-406-48005-5 , p. 196.
  3. ↑ KBol 14
  4. ↑ a b Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany: The Hittites and their Empire; The people of 1000 gods . Stuttgart 2002. p. 315.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Trevor Bryce : The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms; A Political and Military History . Oxford, New York 2012, p. 302.
  6. ^ A b Christian Marek, Peter Frei: History of Asia Minor in Antiquity . Munich 2010, p. 803.
  7. ↑ Nicolò Marchetti, Hasan Peker: The Stele of Kubaba by Kamani and the Kings of Karkemish in the 9th Century BC , Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 2018; 108 (1): 81-99.
  8. ↑ Nicolò Marchetti, Hasan Peker: The Stele of Kubaba by Kamani and the Kings of Karkemish in the 9th Century BC , Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 2018; 108 (1): 81-99.
  9. ↑ Nicolò Marchetti, Hasan Peker: The Stele of Kubaba by Kamani and the Kings of Karkemish in the 9th Century BC , Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 2018; 108 (1): 81-99.