Qarqar

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Coordinates: 35 ° 44 ′ 33.5 ″  N , 36 ° 19 ′ 50 ″  E

Relief Map: Syria
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Qarqar​
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Syria

Qarqar (now Tell Qarqur , Karkar ) is an ancient city on the Orontes in Syria in the territory of Hamath . It was a center of worship for the weather god Hadad .

Battle of Qarqar

Here took place in 853 BC. A battle between the Assyrian king Salmānu-ašarēd III. and a coalition of twelve states. Shalmaneser's victory is described on the Kurkh stele , which was found in Turkey in 1861 and is now in the British Museum . It was probably originally on a street, so it was a kind of public propaganda. In the upper area it shows Shalmaneser the symbols of the gods Assur , Ishtar , Anu and Sin , below there are 102 lines of an inscription that is slightly damaged.

Afterwards Shalmaneser left Nineveh on his sixth campaign with an army of 100,000 men , crossed the Tigris , the Euphrates and received the tribute of numerous cities, including Aleppo . Afterwards he was attacked by the troops of the King of Hamath , which he defeated. Then he plundered numerous palaces and cities in the realm of Hamath. After Shalmaneser captured and sacked Karkara , he encountered the coalition forces on the Orontes.

Kurkh stele

The following were involved in the anti-Assyrian alliance:

The number of chariots that Ahab provided is very high, and many researchers consider them unrealistic. N. Na'aman assumes that it is a typo and only refers to 200 chariots. Kelle (2002) considers that it could be the combined armed forces of the northern and southern empires as well as Moab and Edom .

The Kurkh stele describes a great Assyrian victory, allegedly 14,000 men were slain and countless chariots captured. But since the Assyrian advance came to a standstill after the battle and Shalmaneser did not move west in the following two years, a defeat can be assumed.

Amazingly, the battle of Karkara is not mentioned in the Bible (1st Book of Kings).

5. Assurnasirpal Campaign

Kurh / Kurkh in Eastern Turkey is perhaps identical to the Assyrian Tidu (Kessler 1980). In addition to the stele of Shalmanasher, a stele from the 5th campaign of Aššur-nâṣir-apli II was found here. It is not mentioned in any of his surviving inscriptions.

Sargon II.

Towards the end of the 8th century BC BC Sargon II struck a coalition of Syrian tribes near Qarqar , in the wake of which he was able to bring the rebellious Damascus back under Assyrian rule.

archeology

Tell Qarquar is currently being excavated by the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) under the direction of Rudolph Dornemann . The Iron Age city has massive fortifications and city gates. Among them were Bronze Age layers cut.

See also

literature

  • J. Börker-Klähn: Ancient Near Eastern picture steles and comparable rock reliefs. Zabern, Mainz 1982. ISBN 3-8053-0474-9 .
  • Kurt Galling : Text book on the history of Israel (TGI). Mohr, Tübingen 1979, ISBN 3-16-142361-5 .
  • William W. Hello: From Qarqar to Carchemish. Assyria and Israel in the light of new discoveries. American Schools of Oriental Research, New Haven Con 1960; also in: The Biblical Archaeologist (BA). Philadelphia 23.1960, No. 2 (May), pp. 33-61. ISSN  0006-0895
  • Brad E. Kelle: What's in a Name? Neo-Assyrian designations for the Northern Kingdom and their implications for Israelite history and Biblical interpretation. in: Journal of Biblical Literature. Atlanta 121.2002,4, 639-666. ISSN  0021-9231
  • Julian E. Reade, Sargon's Campaigns of 720, 716, and 715 BC: Evidence from the Sculptures, in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 35/2 (1976) 95-104.
  • Sidney Smith: Assyrian sculptures in the British Museum, from Shalmaneser III to Sennacherib. British Museum, London 1938.

Web links

Notes and evidence

  1. ↑ Kurt Galling: Textbook on the History of Israel (TGI) , Mohr, Tübingen 1979, p. 50.