The site has been occupied since the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (pot burials).
Early Bronze Early Bronze IIIB In the late Early Bronze,
cist tombs dating to around 2400 BC have been found.
Early Bronze IVA The city is mentioned in documents found in the
Ebla archives of the 3rd millennium BC. In ancient times, the city commanded the main ford in the region across the
Euphrates, a situation which must have contributed greatly to its historical and strategic importance. After about 1745 BC, and the reign of
Yahdul-Lim, not much is further known about Carchemish.
Middle Bronze IIB Hittite influence Little is known until the 1620s, when the city is mentioned in connection with the siege of
Urshu (Ursha) by the Hittite king
Hattusili I. At that time, Carchemish was allied with the kingdom of
Yamhad, centered in
Aleppo, in supporting Urshu, but their efforts were unsuccessful, and the city fell, along with many other Syrian cities. Hattusili and his successor
Mursili I campaigned several years against Yamhad. Also
Hantili I conducted a campaign to Carchemish to face the Hurrians.
Late Bronze Egyptian influence Pharaoh Thutmose I of the
Eighteenth Dynasty erected a
stele near Carchemish to celebrate his conquest of Syria and other lands beyond the Euphrates.
Mitanni influence Under the Mitanni Empire, the city was a stronghold of
Tushratta of Mitanni until its siege and conquest by
Šuppiluliuma I (c. 1345 BC).
Hittite influence Around the end of the reign of Pharaoh
Tutankhamen, Carchemish was captured by king
Šuppiluliuma I of the
Hittites (c. 14th century BC), who made it into a kingdom ruled by his son
Piyassili. Piyassili (Šarri-Kušuḫ) was followed by his son Shakhurunuwa (
Sahurunuwa), about whom relatively little is known. He participated in the
Battle of Kadesh (1274 BC). He was followed by
Ini-Teššub.
Iron Age at Carchemish, now in the
British Museum The city became one of the most important centres in the Hittite Empire, during the Late Bronze Age, and reached its apogee around the 13th century BC. While the Hittite empire fell to the
Sea Peoples during the
Bronze Age collapse, Carchemish survived the Sea Peoples' attacks to continue to be the capital of an important
Neo-Hittite kingdom in the
Iron Age, and a trading center. Although Ramesses III states in an inscription dating to his 8th Year from his Medinet Habu mortuary temple that Carchemish was destroyed by the Sea Peoples, the city evidently survived the onslaught.
Kuzi-Teshub I King
Kuzi-Teshub (Kuzi-Tesup) is attested in power here and was the son of
Talmi-Teshub who was a contemporary of the last Hittite king,
Šuppiluliuma II. He and his successors ruled a "mini-empire" stretching from Southeast Asia Minor to Northern Syria and the West bend of the Euphrates under the title "Great King". This suggests that Kuzi-Tesub saw himself as the true heir of the line of the great Šuppiluliuma I and that the central dynasty at Hattusa was now defunct. This powerful polity lasted from to 975 BC when it began losing control of its farther possessions and became gradually a more local city state centered around Carchemish. After Kuzi-Teshub, some of the kings of Carchemish, such as Tuthaliya I, Sapaziti, and Ura-Tarhunza, continued to use the title ‘Great King’ in order to advance their power interests. In the 9th century BC, King
Sangara (870-848 BC), the last member of the dynasty, paid tribute to Kings
Ashurnasirpal II and
Shalmaneser III of
Assyria. Sangara already appeared in the
Balawat Bronze Bands of Ashurnasirpal II as a tributary probably at some time before 868 BC. According to the archaeologist Shigeo Yamada, Karkamish may have been known during this period as 'Sazabê', “a fortified city of Sangara the Karkamishean”. Nevertheless, Sangara failed to leave any inscriptions at the city of Karkamish itself as far as is known. Still, in 2015 his name was identified in Hieroglyphic Luwian for the first time in a local inscription. Following this period, Karkamish does not appear in Assyrian sources until the mid-8th century BC. The only exception was a brief mention by
Samši-Adad V (824–811 BC). Nevertheless, only 20 km downstream the
Euphrates river, at the city of
Til-Barsip (modern Tell Ahmar), the Assyrians established an important provincial capital. They renamed their new city as 'Kar-Shalmaneser', yet the old name was also used. The six extant pieces of the basalt stele of
the goddess Kubaba from Karkemish, currently housed in three different museums, have finally been all discovered and assembled together. This stele was made by
king Kamani of Karkemish around 790 BC. Among the monuments they left, there are portal lions, inscriptions, relief
orthostats and freestanding statues.
House of Astiruwa The
House of Astiruwa was the last known dynasty of rulers of Carchemish, and king Astiruwa (ca 848-790 BC) was the founder of this dynasty. Then came kings
Yariri, Kamani, and Sastura. King Yariri started to reign after 790 BC. He was a great scholar, and left extensive records of his time. Carchemish was conquered by
Sargon II in 717 BC in the reign of King Pisiri, the last ruler of the House of Astiruwa.
Battle of Carchemish In the summer of 605 BC, the
Battle of Carchemish was fought there by the
Babylonian army of
Nebuchadnezzar II and that of Pharaoh
Necho II of Egypt and the remnants of the
Assyrian army (Jer. 46:2). The aim of Necho's campaign was to contain the Westward advance of the Babylonian Empire and cut off its trade route across the Euphrates. However, the
Egyptians were defeated by the unexpected attack of the Babylonians and were eventually expelled from Syria. After a brief Neo-Babylonian occupation, the Turco-Italian excavations found evidence for three phases of Achaemenid occupation, a significant reconstruction in Hellenistic times, a monumental phase from the Late Roman period, an Early Byzantine and three Abbasid phases before the final abandonment of the site until the early 1900s. ==Kings of Carchemish==