Carchemish

CARCHEMISH, cɑ̄r´che-mish (modern Jerabis): A city situated on the right bank of the Euphrates in the upper part of its course. In the cuneiform inscriptions the name denotes either a Hittite state or the capital of that state, which long maintained itself against the Assyrians. Its earlier identification with Circesium, at the confluence of the Chebar with the Euphrates, is obsolete. The earliest mention dates from Ammi-zaduga (about 2200 B.C.), which speaks of the weight (measure) of Carchemish, a mention which agrees with a later Assyrian note of the "Mina of Carchemish," and with the city's location on one of the most important routes of commerce. It appears first in Assyrian annals in the accounts of Tiglath-Pileser I. about 1110 B.C. The Hittite power was at that early date already breaking under the pressure of the northern immigrations then going on, and was completed later by the Aramean migrations. King Sangara paid tribute to Asshurnasirpal (about 880 B.C.), was worsted in a conflict with Shalmaneser II., and was compelled again to pay heavy tribute and to send his daughter to the Assyrian's harem. Its last king, Pisiris, was taken prisoner by Sargon II., 717 B.C., and under Sennacherib the region was made an Assyrian province. Near it was fought the battle between Nebuchadrezzar and Necho which decided the fate of western Asia.

(A. Jeremias.)

Bibliography: G. Maspéro, De Carchemis oppidi situ, Leipsic, 1872; idem, Struggle of the Nations, pp. 144–145, London 1896; J. Menant, Kar-Kamis, sa position, an appendix to the Fr. transl. of A. H. Sayce's Hittites, Paris, 1891; W. M. Müller, Asien und Europa nach altägyptischen Denkmälern, p. 263, Leipsic, 1893; DB, i. 353; EB, i. 702–703.