Kadesh, or Qadesh, was an ancient city of the Levant on or near the headwaters or a ford of the Orontes River. It was of some importance during the Late Bronze Age and is mentioned in the Amarna letters. It was the site of the Battle of Kadesh between the Hittite and Egyptian empires in the 13th century BC.

Name and location

The name is from the West Semitic (Canaanite) root Q-D-Š "holy". It is rendered Qdšw or Qdš in Egyptian hieroglyphic and Kinza in Hittite. The place name appears in several slightly different Akkadian spellings in the Amarna letters, including Qidšu (EA 162, 188, 189, 190 ), Qidši (EA 53, 151 ), Qinsa (EA 54, 174, 175, 176, 363 ), and Qissa (EA 197 ); these are sometimes spelled less accurately as Kidša, Kinza, and Gizza. On this basis, Trevor Bryce observes that the Late Bronze Age name "was probably pronounced Qidš(a), with 'Qadesh' being a mispronunciation by mod[ern] scholars." The Iron Age form of the name in Neo-Assyrian Akkadian is Qadīsu.

Kadesh is identified with the ruins at Tell Nebi Mend (Tall an-Nabī Mandū), about southwest of Homs near al-Qusayr and adjacent to the modern-day Syrian village of Tell al-Nabi Mando. The text of the Kadesh inscriptions locates Kadesh as being near Tunip in the land of the Amurru, itself assumed to have been near the Orontes River (perhaps at Tell Salhab).

Some scholars also identify Kadesh with the city of Kadytis (Καδύτις in Greek) mentioned by Herodotus (2.159, an alternative identification for Kadytis being Gaza. In the late Early Bronze Age, the site is known for White-on-Blackweel Ware pottery. This ware appeared in the transitional EB III/IV (Phase O), flourished and was traded in the Orontes Valley up to the Plains of Antioch and to eastern North Syria in EB IVA (Phase N). In EB IVB (Phase M), the ware continued features from the previous phase, but is easily distinguishable. It disappeared in the transitional EB IV/MB I (Phase L). Comparison should be made with Hama J7-5 (EB IVA) and J4-2 (EB IVB).

Middle Bronze Age

thumb|Map of Syria in the second millennium BC, showing the location of Kadesh (Qadesh)

The city first entered historical records when it was mentioned in the archive of Mari in the 18th century BC as the headquarters of king Ishi-Addu of Qatna during the suppression of a rebellion in the south of the city.

In Inner Syria, the Middle Bronze ends with the military campaigns of Muršili I of Hatti (c. 1595 BC, according to the commonly cited Mesopotamian Middle Chronology). Here the MB IIB is followed by LB IA, while MB IIC starts in the southern Levant. About this time, there is a further possible destruction and abandonment of Kadesh, quickly followed by rebuilding.

Period of Hittite overlordship

Around 1350 BC, Šuppiluliuma I of Hatti attacked Tušratta of Mittani, conducting military campaigns against Mittanian strongholds, and then taking control over vassal rulers west of the Euphrates River in Syria. This expansion eventually impacted Egyptian interests and eventually both Aziru of Amurru and Aitakkama of Kadesh became Hittite vassals. Kadesh's northern neighbor, Qatna, which had been the regional capital in the Middle Bronze, now came to an end facing the Hittites. When Aitakkama of Kadesh sought Egyptian support to assert his independence from the Hittites, he was murdered by his son Niqmaddu, who took over Kadesh and duly reaffirmed its loyalty to the Hittite king Muršili II.

The names of three kings of Kadesh survive from contemporary sources: Šuttarna (or Šutatarra; fl. c. 1350 BC); Aitakkama (c. 1340s–1312 BC) and his son Niqmaddu (fl. c. 1312 BC).

Campaign of Seti I

thumb|Seti I stele fragment from Tell Nebi Mend (Kadesh)

The city was captured by the great pharaoh Seti I (1290–1279 BC), during his campaign to Syria. Kadesh had been lost to Egypt since the time of Akhenaten, and Seti's predecessors Tutankhamun and Horemheb had both failed to recapture the city from the Hittites. Seti I was successful here and defeated a Hittite army that tried to defend it. He triumphantly entered the city together with his son Ramesses II and erected a victory stela at the site.

Seti's success, however, was only temporary. As soon as Seti returned to Egypt, the Hittite king, probably Muwattalli II, marched south to take Kadesh and made it a stronghold of the Hittite defenses in Syria. The Hittites dominated northern Syria through their viceroy at Carchemish. Although the Hittite trap and attack had failed, Ramesses was unable to continue the campaign and had to return home to Egypt.

The subsequent impasse between Egypt and Hatti was resolved in one of the earliest known international peace treaties, concluded 15 years later between Ramesses II and the Hittite king Ḫattušili III. The treaty essentially accepted the status quo, with Amurru and Kadesh continuing as Hittite vassals.

End of Kadesh

Kadesh was probably destroyed by the invading Sea Peoples around 1178 BC. Hellenistic remains have been found in the upper levels of the tell mound, the summit of which is still occupied today. In Byzantine times, widespread occupation is evidenced by extensive remains at the foot of the tell. The Hellenistic city of Laodicea ad Libanum is believed to have occupied the same site as ancient Kadesh.

The site was first excavated by a French team led by Maurice Pezard in 1922 and 1923, in the northeast quadrant of the upper mound. The excavator opened two trenches, one 60 meters by 25 meters, and 20 meters deep and the other 30 by 40 meters by 70 meters and shallow. Finds included an incomplete stele of Pharaoh Seti I (c. 1294/1290–1279 BC) in a out-of-context Iron Age level, some stone statuettes and Syro-Hittite cylinder seals, and a terracotta figurine.

The site was then excavated between 1975 and 1995 by a team from the University College London Institute of Archaeology led by Peter Parr. Nine trenches were opened, all on the upper mound, with excavated levels ranging from Middle Bronze I to Late Bronze II. A number of charcoal samples were radiocarbon dated though there were apparently technical problems that limited their usefulness. Six cuneiform tablets were found at the site, one blank with sealing and the others in a Babylonian dialect of Akkadian. The tablets, from the late 14th century BC, mentioned the name of a ruler, Niqmadda, and provided confirmation of the site as Qadesh.

The site has received damage in the Syrian Civil War.

See also

  • Cities of the ancient Near East

References

Further reading

  • Breasted, James Henry, Ancient Records of Egypt, vols. 2 and 3, Chicago 1906.
  • Bryce, Trevor, The Routledge Handbook of The Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia, London 2009.
  • Grigson, Caroline, "The fauna of Tell Nebi Mend (Syria) in the Bronze and Iron Age—a diachronic overview. Part 1: Stability and change—animal husbandry", Levant 47.1, pp. 5–29, 2015
  • Grigson, Caroline, Yvonne Edwards, and Ruby Cerón-Carrasco, "The fauna of Tell Nebi Mend (Syria) in the Bronze and Iron Age—a diachronic overview. Part 2: hunting, fowling and fishing", Levant 47.2, pp. 164–185, 2015
  • Ignatov, Sergey, "Dardanians, Moesians and Phrygians in the Qadesh Inscriptions of Ramses II", Thracia 11 (1995) 107-112 (= Studia in honorem Alexandri Fol, Sofia 1995: 223-231)
  • Kennedy, Melissa, "A New EB IV Cultural Province in Central and Southern Syria: The View from Tell Nebi Mend", in Pearls of the Past: Studies on Near Eastern Art and Archaeology in Honour of Frances Pinnock. Zaphon, pp. 429–448, 2019
  • Kennedy, Melissa A., Kamal Badreshany, and Graham Philip, "Drinking on the periphery: the Tell Nebi Mend goblets in their regional and archaeometric context", Levant 52.1-2, pp. 103–135, 2020
  • Mathias, V.T. and Parr, P.J., "The early phases at Tell Nebi Mend: A preliminary account", Levant XXI, pp. 13–33, 1989
  • Mathias, V.T., "The Early Bronze Age Pottery of Tell Nebi Mend in its Regional Setting", in G. Philip and D. Baird (eds) Ceramics and Change in the Early Bronze Age of the Southern Levant, Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, pp. 411–427, 2000
  • Oded, B., "Two Assyrian References to the Town of Qadesh on the Orontes", Israel Exploration Journal, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 272–73, 1964
  • Parpola, Simo, and Michael Porter, The Helsinki Atlas of the Near East in the Neo-Assyrian Period, Helsinki 2001.
  • Parr, P.J., "The Tell Nebi Mend Project", AAAS 33:2, pp. 99–117, 1983
  • Rainey, Anson F., and W. M. Schniedewind, The El-Amarna Correspondence, Leiden: Brill 2015.
  • Whincop, M.R., "The Iron Age II at Tell Nebi Mend: towards an explanation of ceramic regions", Levant 39, pp. 185–212, 2007