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CARCHEMISH

(Heb. karkĕmîš)

A city in Syria located near the border of Turkey, ca. 100 km. (62 mi.) N of Aleppo. The city is well attested in the OT and Eblaite, Akkadian, Ugaritic, and Egyptian texts. Early digs by the British Museum in 1879 and 1911-1920 reveal a number of artifacts and a bit of architecture from the Neo-Hittite period.

Inhabited from Chalcolithic times, the site is near the prime ford of the upper Euphrates River. Thus the city was continually occupied, to take financial advantage of this natural geographic feature. The presence of the ford also made the site subject to frequent attacks, as most regional powers aspired to have access to the material wealth generated by the city. It enjoyed independence as reflected in the texts from Ebla, Mari, Emar, and Ugarit. Carchemish was subsumed by Mitanni (15th century b.c.e.), conquered by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III (1504-1450), and ruled by the powerful Hittite king Šuppiluliuma I (ca. 1340). Beginning with his son Piyassili, five generations of Šuppiluliuma I’s descendants ruled Carchemish as Hittite rule there outlived the Hittite Empire (which collapsed ca. 1200). The city dominated the political scene in Syria as a Hittite provincial capital. Hittite cultural influence likewise survived (hence the term Neo-Hittite), as statuary from the Iron Age betrays Hittite style. The city was incorporated into the Assyrian Empire in 717 by Sargon II, with its elite classes deported (cf. Isa. 10:9). The most significant event surrounding the city was the final destruction of the remnant of Assyrian forces with their Egyptian allies at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian forces in 605 (Jer. 46:2-12; 1 Esdr. 1:25). It was Judah’s king Josiah’s ill-advised attempt to prevent the Egyptian pharaoh Neco II from uniting with the Assyrians which cost him his life (2 Chr. 35:20-24).

Mark Anthony Phelps

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CARCHEMISH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)