Almost a century had passed since extensive excavations were done at Karkemish. Removal of landmines placed on the site during recent conflicts helped make the latest work possible.

Nicolo’ Marchetti of the University of Bologna directs the current project. His Italian and Turkish team finished a 10-week dig on the Turkish side of Karkemish in late October. They started work in August, not long after violence on the Syrian side of the border.

Professor Marchetti’s team follows in the footsteps of other archeologists. Experts from the British Museum excavated at Karkemish. The work began in 1878 under Patrick Henderson, the British consul in the city of Aleppo.

The area had been identified earlier by George Smith, also from the British Museum. He is remembered for discovering a stone tablet that tells the story of a great flood. The flood story appears in Jewish, Christian and Islamic writings. Smith fell victim to disease and died in Aleppo at age 36.

T.E. Lawrence is probably the best known of the Karkemish investigators. Lawrence was a British writer who became famous as the adventurer, Lawrence of Arabia. He began work at Karkemish as assistant to archeologist Leonard Woolley in 1911. The Ottoman Empire controlled the site at that time.

Lawrence wrote about the information written on stone tablets. He told of helping to settle fights among the workers on a dig and of repairing ancient pottery. His colorful descriptions of Aleppo seem especially affecting today, when the Syrian city is a place of continual battle.