#karkemish

[broughinferior]

On the 19th December, 1911, T.E. Lawrence travelled to Biredjik with his Consular dragoman (interpreter/guide), Tagir, and cook Haj Wahid, to try to negotiate the purchase of a share of the Kala’at (Acropolis Mound) of Carchemish, where he was excavating.

Writing to his mother from Baron’s Hotel on Dec. 28, T.E. describes a most thrilling (probably a bit scary) incident which occurred Christmas morning, as they were heading back to Aleppo:

“Coming back on Christmas morning the driver topped the carriage over the edge of a little bridge into a stream. We were fortunately walking in front at the time. The mess was horrible: one horse quite out of sight, one, with its leg pinned under the mass, the third dancing on the other two trying to get out. The coachman was heaving frantically at the head of the submerged animal. Haj Wahid groping about in the inside of the vehicle pulling out rugs and quilts and coats and baskets all sopping with mud and water. A minute later his foot slipped on a patch of mud and he plunged head-first into mid stream, holding the dragoman's umbrella. In doing this he lost his tobacco-box. Lots of things we never found: they went floating away down-stream till they sank. However we got out more than we expected: the carriage unhurt, the horses also. Our lunch disappeared —we had only a walnut apiece and water unlimited— and we had a drive in pouring rain (for it rained all the time) in a sopping carriage full of mud-drenched blankets and quilts to the next village. It took us hours to get the carriage out. The bedding we borrowed of the sheikh was rather too populous for comfort —altogether it was the most memorable Xmas I've had. Probably at lunch time you were wondering what I was doing —well, I was fishing— I am none the worse, nor are the others. I paid Haj Wahid extra, for he did tremendous work. Without him we would be there still.”

I expect this has been posted up elsewhere before, but I like it a lot, and still think it is an exciting little excerpt to share in the lead-up to Christmas. Hope you have a day less chaotic than T.E.’s 🙂

From The Home Letters of T. E. Lawrence and his Brothers, 1954. p. 181.

Photo of Kala’at from Dead Towns and Living Men, C. Leonard Woolley, 1920. p. 83.

[philoursmars]

Je reviens à mon projet de présenter la plupart de mes 55000 photos (nouveau compte approximatif. On se rapproche du présent !).

2016. Une petite virée à Bruxelles avec Julien. C’était surtout pour visiter une expo sur l’Anatolie au Palais des Beaux-Arts:

- Tarhunzas, dieu hittite de l'Orage - Niğde, 700 av.J-C.

-  dieu hittite - Çiğdem- Akacaköy, XIIIe s.av.J-C.

-  déesse Kubaba - Karkemish, 800 av.J-C.

- Matar, déesse phrygienne et un démon - Etki, VI e s. av.J-C.

- l’Artémis d'Ephèse - 2ème s. apr.J-C.

-  Athéna période romaine - Miletopolis, IIe s. apr.J-C

- Poséidon période romaine - Sagalassos, IIe s. apr.J-C.

[moodboardmix]

The Oldest Smiley Emoji !

Painted flask from 1700 BCE 

Found in a burial under a house in area A East, Karkemish, Turkey, 

Photo courtesy Nicolò Marchetti.

[lagu-bso]

Karkemish

Provided to YouTube by AltafonteKarkemish · RODEODilmun℗ 2018 RODEOReleased on: 2018-12-05Auto-generated by YouTube.

Karkemish - Rodeo

[archaeologicalnews]

Ancient Karkemish sees modern war on Turkey-Syria border

The tourist gate and ticket house are ready at the ancient city of Karkemish, where Turkish troops crossed last month into Syria and ousted Islamic State militants from the border.

Despite Syria's civil war, archaeologists on the Turkish side of border-straddling Karkemish unearthed sculptures, mosaics and other artifacts in relative safety although sporadic gunfire and shelling was occasionally audible from the Syrian side. Now they plan to open the remains of the strategic city from the Hittite era to the public next year, despite the proximity of conflict in neighboring Syria.

Such are the modern fortunes of Karkemish, which dates back thousands of years and was excavated before World War I by British archaeologists including T.E. Lawrence, later known as Lawrence of Arabia. A century later, the area was demined and a Turkish-Italian team started work at the site controlled by the Turkish military. Read more.

[archaeologicalnews]

Archaeologists dig at ancient site near Syrian war

GAZIANTEP, Turkey (AP) -- Archaeology and war don't usually mix, yet that's been the case for years at Karkemish, an ancient city along the Turkey-Syria border where an excavation team announced its newest finds Saturday just meters (yards) from Islamic State-controlled territory.

Karkemish, dating back more than 5,000 years, is close to the Syrian city of Jarablous, which now flies the black banner of the Islamic extremist group.

U.S.-led coalition aircraft flew overhead as Nicolo Marchetti, a professor of archaeology and art history of the Ancient Near East at the University of Bologna. He is the project director at Karkemish, where the Turkish military let archaeologists resume work in 2011 for the first time since its troops occupied the site about 90 years ago. Read more.

[archaeologicalnews]

Sifting the Dust for Treasures While Trouble Swirls

KARKEMISH, TURKEY — The Syrian civil war is not the first conflict to complicate Professor Nicolò Marchetti’s efforts to turn Karkemish, an ancient city site on the banks of the Euphrates, on Turkey’s southern border and inside a restricted military zone, into a public archaeology park.

Before his team started digging, under the watchful eyes of armed Turkish soldiers, he had to make sure that land mines planted in the 1950s had all been cleared away.

Mr. Marchetti — a tanned and lanky version of Hollywood’s Indiana Jones, who teaches Near Eastern, or pre-classical, archaeology at the University of Bologna — has led excavations at Karkemish on and off for two years after being granted the first access allowed to anyone in decades. Read more.

[archaeologicalnews]

Archaeologists Return to Uncover Ancient Karkemish

After nearly a century, archaeologists have finally returned to excavate and conserve the ancient remains of Karkemish (Carchemish), a monumental capital city near the northwestern edge of Mesopotamia that was mentioned in both Biblical and extra-Biblical texts. 

Here, kings and conquerors of the Mittani, Hittite, and Neo-Assyrian empires established seats of power and here, the Babylonian forces of Nebuchadnezzar II defeated the combined troops of Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt and Assyrian allies at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C.

But today, its decaying remains straddle the border between Turkey and war-torn Syria, with 55 hectares of the site falling within Turkey and 35 hectares in Syria. Adjacent to the cities of Karkamis in Turkey and Jarablus in Syria, the ruins are divided into inner and outer areas by traces of massive earthen ramparts. Read more.