Sun. May 21 [21 May 1911] At 4.45 Temp 64 Bar 28.5. Off at 5.10 and
rode to Carchemish [Barak (Karkamis)] in 5 hours along the
Euphrates. Found Mr Thompson and Mr Lawrence lodged in the
village. Saw their finds - the most curious being the champagne cups
in the Hittite graves. Mr T. much lamenting because of lack of finds
and inscriptions. After lunch we went to the mound. They have a lot
more slabs (one big inscription) and the entrance and stairway to the
palace. The top of the mound must all have been cut away to make
place for Roman building, for the Roman foundations come down
almost to the level of the Hittite foundations. They have some
prehistoric foundations and these prehistoric people may have been
early Hittite. Also a Hittite-Assyrian wall in the mound. They have cut
some trenches in the town and found prehistoric foundations below
the Roman work, but precious little and bad is the latter, probably Byz.
They have come across one wall which they take to be a church;
here quite near the surface are some curious slabs, a Latin cross with
an W hanging from an arm (the other is broken) a saint on horseback,
very roughly worked, and another slab that looks like an imitation of
Arab wooden screenwork. There is also a small marble column with
a lily capital, certainly Xian. By the river and extending a good deal
beyond this city mound is a quay wall, the upper stones probably
Roman, the lower Hittite blocks with the curious sort of rounded outer
face which is found on some of the stones in the palace. The fact of
its going beyond the mound helps out my theory that a big garden city
must have stood in the low ground. Back to tea. They have a
charming servant Hajj Wahid, a friend of Fattuh's. Salem Nebki came
to see us and gave me directions for my road to Aleppo [Halab].
Dined with my hosts.