CARCHEMISH kär’ kə mĭsh (כַּרְכְּמִ֖ישׁ, Akkad. and Hitt. Kargamish). The ruins of ancient Carchemish are to be found at the modern site of Jerablus (corruption of Hel. Hieropolis), excavated by the British in the years 1912 and following under the direction of C. L. Woolley. The ancient city guarded the main ford across the Euphrates River sixty m. NE of Aleppo. In the 18th cent. b.c. it was an independent trade center. In the 16th & 15th centuries b.c. it belonged to the Hurrian kingdom of Mittanni. During several decades following the reign of the Hitt. emperor Suppiluliuma I (c. 1350 b.c. it was a Hitt. fortress, ruled successively by the following kings whose names are known from Hittite and Ugaritic texts: Sharrikushukh (=Piyassili), Shakhurunuwa, Ini-Teshub and Talmi-Teshub. After the collapse of the Hitt. empire under the onslaught of the Sea Peoples (c. 1190 b.c.), no such centralized political control existed in N Syria until the expansion of Assyria into that area in the 9th cent. b.c. Carchemish continued to be ruled by kings claiming to be Hitt. and composing royal inscrs. in a late form of Hitt. hieroglyphs. Their names are known both from their own hieroglyphic inscrs. and from the annals of the Neo-Assyrian kings: Ini-Teshub (c. 1110 b.c.), Luhas I, Asatuwatimais, Luhas II, Katuwas (c. 900 b.c.), Sangara (c. 875-825 b.c.), Asadarus, sequence of kings stretches down to c. 750 b.c. The last known independent king of Carchemish was Pisiris, who was captured by Sargon II of Assyria (c. 717 b.c.; cf. Isa 10:9) and replaced by an Assyrian governor. In 609 b.c. Neco II of Egypt marched N through Megiddo and recaptured the city (2 Chron 35:20), from which he harassed the Babylonians. But in May/June of 605 b.c. Nebuchadrezzar II and his Babylonian army fell upon the city in a surprise attack and utterly defeated the Egyptians (Jer 46:2), pursuing them to Hamath. Thereafter the city declined rapidly. In Seleucid times a new city called Europus was founded on the site.

Bibliography D. G. Hogarth and C. L Woolley, Carchemish, 3 vols. (1914-1952); D. J. Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings (1956), 20-26; M. Liverani, Storia di Ugarit (1962), 144-146; H. Klengel, Geschichte Syriens im zweiten Jahrtausend v. u. Zeit, Teil 1: Nordsyrien (1965), 15-101; W. W. Hallo, “Carchemish” in C. F. Pfeiffer, The Biblical World (1966) 165-169 (with full bibliography on 168, 169).