The Hittite Empire period sealing archive from Karkemish: a web of officials and economic tasks

After being conquered and incorporated into the Hittite empire (c. 1330 BCE), the key city of Karkemish on the Euphrates became the seat of a viceroy and the main administrative center in the newly constituted Syrian province, as gleaned from textual and glyptic materials retrieved at Hattusa, Ugarit, Emar and elsewhere (Mora 2008; 2010; 2014). The importance of Karkemish in the administrative structure of the empire, had been, so far, gleaned uniquely from indirect evidence, since direct archeological or textual evidence from the site of Karkemish was lacking. Between the 2017 and 2023 excavation campaigns, the Turco-Italian Expedition discovered around 700 clay sealings dating from the middle of the 13th century BCE in the core public district of this capital city, in areas C East and C Center.