was an important settlement even before the second millennium BC. The city was under Mitanni (Huri) rule during the 15th and 14th centuries and then came under the Hittite control of the Hittite king Shubalilima (circa 1330 BC). He turned Carkamish into a vassal kingdom ruled by his son Piasili, Carkamish became the administrative capital of the territories Syria of the Hittites in the Late Bronze Age and was ruled by a side branch of the Hittite royal family. After the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC, Carchemish initially controlled a relatively large area reaching as far as Malatia in the north. But later it ruled only around the city which survived as one of several Neo-Kingdoms -smaller Hittites established in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria. It was an important trade center and reached its peak around the 9th century BC. Carchemish’s patron deity was Kuba, a goddess of Hori origin. She is depicted as a woman wearing a long robe, standing or seated, and holding a mirror. In the 9th century BC, the city was under the pressure of the Assyrians and it is known that taxes were paid on at least two occasions to the Assyrian kings Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III. The city was finally conquered by the Assyrian king Sargon II in 717 BC, during the reign of King Pisiri.
The location of the city ruins was identified in 1876 by George Smith. The site was initially excavated by the British Museum, mainly between 1911 and 1914, under the command of D.G. Hogarth, R. C. Thompson, C. L. Woolley and T . E. Lawrence. These expeditions uncovered considerable remains from the Neo-Hittite and Assyrian periods, including defensive structures, temples, palaces and a large number of basalt sculptures, reliefs and inscriptions. The site is located on the Turkish side of the Turkish-Syrian border and has been under a minefield since the 1950s. In 2011, the Turkish government cleared the mines and new excavations in Karakmis began that year under the supervision of Prof. N. Mercati from the University of Bologna.
All the monumental findings date to the Neo-Hittite period. In the first millennium BC, Carchemish consisted of a high citadel mound near the Euphrates with a walled inner city and an outer town. The excavations revealed a processional way that led to the temple of the storm god and a monumental staircase to the citadel. The entire complex was decorated with basalt and chalk sculptures. Most of the orthostats and sculptures from the early excavations are now in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. A few other objects are in the British Museum. The findings from the latest excavations are kept on site or transferred to the Gaziantep Archaeological Museum.