Carchemish
It was excavated in three expeditions before World War One by the British Museum, the most significant of which were those that took place from 1911 to 1914, under the directorship first of D.G. (David George) Hogarth, then Reginald Campbell Thompson, and finally by Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence.
Though Carchemish has a very long history (it is mentioned in the Ebla texts of the 3rd millennium BC), it is as a part of the Hittite Empire of the Late Bronze Age and a 'Neo-Hittite' city of the Iron Age that it is most widely associated. The site is presently used as a Turkish military base on the frontier between the two countries and is thus out of bounds to further archaeological exploration.
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View of the acropolis and lower city of Carchemish. (J. Tubb, 2001) |
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The great city of Carchemish was one of the most important in the Hittite Empire, during the Late Bronze Age. Carchemish is mentioned in both the Ebla and Mari archives of the third and second millennia BC, and it was an important centre in the mid-second millennium kingdom of Mittani. The city had its apogee under the Hittite Empire in the Late Bronze Age, and survived the collapse of that great power to become the centre of an important kingdom in the Iron Age. British Museum excavations conducted between 1891 and 1914 revealed substantial remains of the Assyrian and ‘Neo-Hittite’ (Iron Age) cities, including defensive and palatial architecture, and numerous basalt relief and free standing sculptures. Today it stands on the border between Syria and Turkey, and the Turks have built a substantial military base on the acropolis. Access is heavily restricted and future excavations are highly unlikely. |
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