132 NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 75:3 (2012) F or more than a thousand years the location of Karkem- ish was forgotten. It was known only as lying “on the Euphrates,” according to the biblical passage (Jer 46:2) about the battle of 605 b.c.e. that pitted the waning Assyrian army and its Egyptian allies against the victorious Babylonians led by the young Nebuchadnezzar II. Then in 1876, the famous British Assyriologist George Smith, on his way to Nineveh, identified the imposing mound lying north of the village of Jerablus with ancient Karkemish (“Quay of [the god] Kamis”); Smith died a few months later on the way back to Aleppo. Since that time Karkemish has been a dream site for generations of archaeologists, its modern history epitomizing the vicissitudes of Near Eastern politics. A permit for its exploration having been granted to the British Museum by the Ottoman sultan, excavations began in 1911 but were interrupted by the out- break of the First World War, after which they were resumed in 1920, only to be terminated again the same year by the conflict between the successful Turkish National army and the French occupation troops, who dug trenches for machine guns on the ramparts of the site and built a fort in the inner town, all still clearly visible. The border between Turkey and Syria was then established along the railway, built a decade earlier by the Germans, that crossed the outer town of Karkemish. Thus the site came to be divided between two countries. The ancient mound became an observation post of the Turkish Army and has remained so to the present day, preventing further archaeological work. When in 1956 the border was demarcated again, it was systematically mined, resulting in a stretch of explosive mines 500 km long (averaging 300–500 m in width) along the Syro-Turkish border. After signing the Ottawa Convention of 1996, Turkey started demining the whole area. Thanks to the strenuous efforts of the Gaziantep authorities, the ancient city of Karkemish was one of the first sectors completed, in February 2011. Research Context he site lies on an outcrop of natural conglomerate by the right bank of the Euphrates (Google Earth coordinates 36°49'46.36"N, 38°0'59.26"E), which commands one of the best fords over the large river (ig. 1). he surrounding area is fertile: horticulture in the river valley and dry agriculture on the plateau are matched with herding on the rolling hills, with an integration of crops and pasture, cultivated lowlands, and wooded uplands. Its geographical centrality guarantees Karke- Nicolò Marchetti KARKEMISH ON THE EUPHRATES KARKEMISH ON THE EUPHRATES Excavating a City’s History Excavating a City’s History Figure 1. The mound of Karkemish on the Euphrates, view from the north.