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Results for Carchemish:

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Carchemish

SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Europus
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An ancient city-state near modern Jarabulus, Syria. The site was a strategic crossing at the Euphrates River for caravans in Syrian, Mesopotamian, and Anatolian trade. The great tell of Carchemish was excavated by David G. Hogarth and later by Sir Leonard Woolley and was first occupied in the Neolithic Period. Halaf ware from the Chalcolithic (5th millennium BC) was found as well as later finds of Uruk-Jamdat Nasr pottery, a product of the southern Euphrates Valley in Sumerian cities of c 3000 BC. There were also tombs from the end of the Early Bronze (c 2300 BC) and the Middle and Late Bronze Age (c 2300-1550; c 1550-1200 BC). Written records concerning Carchemish first appear in the Mari letters -- royal archives of Mari, c 18th century BC. At that time the city was a center for trading wood and shipped Anatolian timber down the Euphrates. The large fortified citadel was important under the empire of the Hittites (14th century BC) and remained so after the fall of the empire, during the period of Syro-Hittite city-states (12th-8th centuries BC). The monumental city gates, temples, and palaces all bore considerable numbers of carved reliefs and inscriptions of the period. The Hittite hieroglyphic inscriptions were of great importance in helping to piece together its history down to its annexation by Assyria in 716 BC.

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Harran

SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Haran, (Roman) Carrhae
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An ancient city of northern Mesopotamia mentioned in Hittite, Old Testament, and Assyrian texts, now a village in southeastern Turkey. The town was located on the road that ran from Nineveh to Carchemish. It is frequently mentioned in the Bible; Abraham's family settled there when they left Ur of the Chaldeans. It was the scene of a disastrous defeat of the Roman governor Crassus by the Parthians (53 BC) and of a later defeat of the emperor Galerius by the Persian king Narses (297 AD).

Hittite

SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Hatti, Kheta
CATEGORY: culture; language
DEFINITION: A people of obscure origin who infiltrated Anatolia and the Levant from the north during the later 3rd millennium BC. In the Old Kingdom (c 1750-1450) they established a state in central Turkey with its capital first at Kussara, then at Boghazköy. They overran north Syria c 1600 and pushed on as far as Babylon. Under the empire (1450-1200) a more stable state was built up over most of Anatolia and north Syria, displacing the kingdom of the Mitanni and successfully challenging Assyria and Egypt. The end came quite suddenly in the Late Bronze Age c 1200 BC, notably by movements of the Peoples of the Sea and Anatolian groups from the north. The Hittite outposts in north Syria, however, survived as a chain of Syro-Hittite or neo-Hittite city-states -- Karatepe, Sinjerli, Sakçe, Gözü, Malatya, Atchana, and Carchemish -- down to their final annexation by the Assyrians in the 8th century BC. They are also known for their metal-working. They exploited and traded copper, lead, silver and also iron; indeed, they were among the first peoples to use iron, and for a period maintained a virtual monopoly in the new metal. Their language, Hittite and Hieroglyphic Hittite, is Indo-European, the earliest to be recorded. Hurrian, the language of the Hurri, was non-Indo-European, as of course was the Akkadian much used for commercial and foreign correspondence. The Akkadian cuneiform script was generally used too, though for monumental purposes local hieroglyphs were preferred. The discovery of the Hittite language was the major advance this century in the field of Indo-European languages -- with archives yielding thousands of tablets in many languages. The great period of the empire was 14th-13th centuries BC when a vast amount of material was recorded -- some in the important sister Anatolian languages of Palaic and Luvian.

Kurgus

SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Kanisa-Kurgus; Kanisa Kurgus
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site in Nubia where Thutmose I (c 1493-1482 BC) and Thutmose III (1479-1426 BC) both carved inscriptions on boulders marking the southern frontier of Egypt. After Thutmose I destroyed the Karmah state, he inscribed a rock as a boundary marker, later confirmed by Thutmose III, near Kanisa-Kurgus, north of the Fifth Cataract. He then executed a brilliant campaign into Syria and across the Euphrates, where he erected a victory stela near Carchemish.

Suppiluliuma I (fl. 14th century BC)

SYNONYMS OR RELATED TERMS: Shuppiluliumash, Subbiluliuma
CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: Great Hittite king (reigned c 1380-1346 BC), who dominated the history of the ancient Middle East for the greater part of four decades and raised the Hittite kingdom to Imperial power. Suppiluliumas began his reign by rebuilding the old capital, Hattusas (Bogazköy, Turkey), and consolidating the Hittite heartland. He first subdued almost the whole of Asia Minor and then took advantage of the weakness of Armarna Egypt to establish Hittite rule in northern Syria, overcoming the Mitanni. He placed his sons, based in Aleppo and Carchemish, in authority over the Syrian territories.

Woolley, Sir (Charles) Leonard (1880-1960)

CATEGORY: person
DEFINITION: British archaeologist known for his work at Ur, Carchemish, Tell el-Amarna, Tell Atchana, Al Mina, and Al 'Ubaid. At Ur, he revealed 5000 years of history and wrote it up in a 10-volume series (Ur Excavations"). His discovery of geological evidence of a great flood suggested a possible correlation with the deluge described in Genesis and his findings in the Royal Cemetery brought the astonishing wealth and skills of the Sumerian civilization to the public's attention. He was an exacting excavator outstanding in interpretation and published popular accounts of his results. His other books include "The Sumerians" (1928) "Ur of the Chaldees" (1929) and "Digging up the Past" (1930)."