Kadesh-on-the-Orontes
1:
KADESH-ON-THE-ORONTES. A city located strategically alongside the Orontes River in Syria on the site of Tell Nebi Mend (34° 34´ N; 36° 33´ E), and which flourished in the LB Age. Its inhabitants apparently included Hurrian, Aryan, and Semitic elements. The earliest mention of the city is in the annals of Thutmose III (1479–1425 b.c.), who conquered it. Although the Hittite Šuppiluliumas (1375–1335 b.c.) reduced Shutatarra, king of Kadesh, to a vassal, a number of Amarna Letters indicate that Aitakama, son of Shutatarra, also pursued relations with Amenhotep IV (1353–1335 b.c.). Aitakama was eventually assassinated by his pro-Hittite son Ariteshub. Despite conquest by the Egyptian king Seti I (1306–1290 b.c.), Kadesh was an ally of the Hittites by the time of the Battle of Kadesh (ca. 1285 b.c.).
The Battle of Kadesh resulted from the attempt of Rameses II (1290–1224 b.c.) to wrest the city from Muwatallis the Hittite. The Egyptian army was divided into four divisions named Amon, Re, Ptah, and Sutekh. A few miles S of Kadesh, two enemy spies, disguised as deserters, misled Rameses into thinking that the Hittite army had fled toward Aleppo, about 120 miles to the N. In fact, the Hittite army, perhaps 20,000 strong, was hiding on the E side of Kadesh. Shortly after the Amon division, commanded by Rameses himself, had set up a temporary rendezvous camp NW of Kadesh, the Hittite chariotry pounced upon the Re division which was still SW of Kadesh en route to the campsite. The Re division fled toward Rameses’ position where he, with the aid of brilliant leadership and mercenaries who arrived just in time, successfully rallied his troops after the initial chaos. But the outcome was at best a stalemate for Rameses, and he eventually settled for a truce which included Hittite control of Kadesh. See also Klengel 1969: 139–77.
The Egyptians commemorated the battle in two extraordinarily detailed written versions and in captioned pictographic reliefs. J. Breasted (ARE 3: 124, 135–36, 142) and M. Lichtheim (AEL 2: 57–60), among others, designate one of the written versions as the prose Record (or the Bulletin) and the other as the Poem. A. Gardiner (1960), however, argued that both accounts should be classified as prose. Based on a study of the form and genres of Egyptian military documents, A. Spalinger (1983: 153–73, 238) concludes that both “Bulletin” and “Poem” are poor labels, and that one should include military diary traditions in any discussion of the genre of the accounts of the battle.
Archaeological excavations by M. Pezard in 1921 and 1922 produced the Stele of Seti I, and a flawed report (edited posthumously) which suggested significant occupation of Kadesh between the end of the LB and the onset of the Seleucid period (cf. Noth, 1948: 233). However, the invasion of the Sea Peoples ca. 1200 seems to have ended the historical record of Kadesh, and it remained unoccupied until a city named Laodicea was built on the remains during the Seleucid era.
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (4:3). New York: Doubleday.
2:
Kadesh — the sacred city of the Hittites, on the left bank of the Orontes, about 4 miles south of the Lake of Homs. It is identified with the great mound Tell Neby Mendeh, some 50 to 100 feet high, and 400 yards long. On the ruins of the temple of Karnak, in Egypt, has been found an inscription recording the capture of this city by Rameses II. (See PHARAOH.) Here the sculptor “has chiselled in deep work on the stone, with a bold execution of the several parts, the procession of the warriors, the battle before Kadesh, the storming of the fortress, the overthrow of the enemy, and the camp life of the Egyptians.” (See HITTITES.)
Easton, M. (1996, c1897). Easton's Bible dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
