Qarqar or Karkar is the name of an ancient town in northwestern Syria, known from Neo-Assyrian sources. It was the site of one of the most important battles of the ancient world, the

battle of Qarqar The Battle of Qarqar (or Ḳarḳar) was fought in 853 BC when the army of the Neo-Assyrian Empire led by Emperor Shalmaneser III encountered an allied army of eleven kings at Qarqar led by Hadadezer, called in Assyrian ''Adad-idir'' and possi ...

, fought in 853 BC when the army of Assyria, led by king

Shalmaneser III Shalmaneser III (''Šulmānu-ašarēdu'', "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent") was king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Ashurnasirpal II in 859 BC to his own death in 824 BC. His long reign was a constant series of campaig ...

, encountered an allied force comprising military units from 11 local kingdoms. The leaders of this ad hoc alliance were

Hadadezer Hadadezer (; " he god Hadad is help"); also known as Adad-Idri ( akk, 𒀭𒅎𒀉𒊑, dIM-id-ri), and possibly the same as Bar-Hadad II ( Aram.) or Ben-Hadad II ( Heb.), was the king of Aram Damascus between 865 and 842 BC. The Hebrew Bible ...

(Ben Hadad) of Damascus and King

Ahab Ahab (; akk, 𒀀𒄩𒀊𒁍 ''Aḫâbbu'' 'a-ḫa-ab-bu'' grc-koi, Ἀχαάβ ''Achaáb''; la, Achab) was the seventh king of Israel, the son and successor of King Omri and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon, according to the Hebrew Bib ...

of Israel. Shalmaneser's Assyrian forces had been victorious over

Iruleni Irhuleni ( Luwian: ''Urhilina'') was King of Hamath. He led a coalition against the Assyrian expansion under Shalmaneser III, alongside Hadadezer of Damascus. This coalition succeeded in 853 BC in the Battle of Qarqar a victory over the Assyrians, ...

, the King of

Hamath Hama ( ar, حَمَاة ', ; syr, ܚܡܬ, ħ(ə)mɑθ, lit=fortress; Biblical Hebrew: ''Ḥamāṯ'') is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincia ...

. However, a coalition of Phoenicians and Syrians with Israel and the Kedarite Arabs was waiting for Shalmaneser when he advanced south, leading to a second battle at Qarqar itself. The best historical source regarding the battle and the town of Qarqar is

The Kurkh Monolith The Kurkh Monoliths are two Assyrian stelae that contain a description of the reigns of Ashurnasirpal II and his son Shalmaneser III. The Monoliths were discovered in 1861 by a British archaeologist John George Taylor, who was the British Consul ...

, erected by Shalmaneser. The text lists the kings he fought, the number of soldiers and chariots each of these kings supplied, and describes the battle itself. The monolith states that Shalmaneser fought an alliance of 12 kings, but lists only 11. Numerous other scribal errors have been noted on the monolith.

Site

The ancient town of Qarqar has generally been associated with the archaeological site of

Tell Qarqur , alternate_name = , image = Qarquruppertell.jpg , alt = Photograph of a double, overgrown mound , caption = The upper mound of Tell Qarqur as seen from the northern, lower mound , map_type = Syria , map_alt = , map_size = , loc ...

, located in the Orontes River Valley of western

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, on the west bank of the

Orontes River The Orontes (; from Ancient Greek , ) or Asi ( ar, العاصي, , ; tr, Asi) is a river with a length of in Western Asia that begins in Lebanon, flowing northwards through Syria before entering the Mediterranean Sea near Samandağ in Turkey. A ...

, one kilometer west of the modern village of

Qarqur Qarqur ( ar, قرقور, also spelled Qarqar or Karkour) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located northwest of Hama. It is situated in the al-Ghab plain, on the eastern bank of the Orontes River. Ne ...

on the east bank. This has been the site of an ongoing,

American Schools of Oriental Research The American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR), founded in 1900 as the American School of Oriental Study and Research in Palestine, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Alexandria, Virginia which supports the research and teaching of ...

sponsored excavation since 1993. To date, the excavations have unearthed materials dating to many periods of the site's long occupational history, including structures dating to the general period of the Battle of Qarqar, including impressive defences in the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

city. Qarqar is not to be confused with Karkar or Karkara, a city located in modern

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

in the proximity of ancient

Umma Umma ( sux, ; in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, formerly also called Gishban) was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site. Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell J ...

and Adab not yet identified with any modern site.

Destruction of the site

From 2014 until September 2017, the terrorist Turkistan Islamic Party, an Alqaeda offshoot, destroyed the site. Reports emerged that the destruction, which can be viewed through satellite imagery, was done under the supervision of unidentified civilians who were not Syrian nor members of the Turkistan Islamic Party militants.

Notes

{{coord, 35.742646, N, 36.330543, E, source:dewiki_region:SY-ID_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title Iron Age sites in Syria Aramean cities Former populated places in Syria Archaeological sites in Hama Governorate fi:Qarqarin taistelu

Site

Destruction of the site

See also

Notes