# Kār-Kaššî
Kār-Kaššî (also written Karkashshi and Kārkāshi) was a city in the Central Zagros mountains of western Iran, in the Median world of the Neo-Assyrian period, known today only from Assyrian records of Esarhaddon's reign (680–669 BCE).[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/) It appears in the sources chiefly as the city of [Kaštaritu](https://www.edgepedia.org/kastaritu) (Old Iranian Khshathrita), the Median city lord whom the Assyrians regarded as the instigator of a revolt against their rule in about 672 BCE.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/) • [2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/) The city is attested not in royal campaign annals but in a corpus of oracle queries to the sun god Shamash.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/)
| Key facts | |
|---|---|
| What it was | A city in the Central Zagros, in the Median sphere[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/) |
| Position | Region of Sagbat, province of Kišesim, in Assyrian administrative geography[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/) |
| Known ruler | Kaštaritu (Khshathrita), Median "city lord"[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/) |
| Main evidence | About twenty oracle queries to Shamash, around 672 BCE[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/) |
| Historical moment | The Median revolt against Assyria of about 672 BCE[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/) |
| Outcome | The revolt succeeded; the Medes achieved independence[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/) |
| Proposed location | Region of Sagbat, province of Kišesim; alternatively the mounds near the Qara Su River proposed by Yalvaee[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/) • [3](https://www.academia.edu/8883708/In_search_of_the_ancient_Karkashi_in_English_) |
## The name and what it implies
The name belongs to a recognizable Assyrian naming type. Cities called Kār-X, "Quay of X", where X is a royal or divine name, were administrative foundations built on the frontiers of the [Neo-Assyrian Empire](https://www.edgepedia.org/neo-assyrian-empire) to secure and control trade; such names were probably chosen to show that the Assyrians were ready to enhance the local economy.[4](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/orient/40/0/40_56/_article) The pattern is well documented elsewhere on the Median frontier: after [Sargon II](https://www.edgepedia.org/sargon-ii) conquered the Median city of Kišesim it was renamed Kar-Nergal, the "trading quay of the god Nergal", and made the center of a new province.[5](https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25046/1/oa_25046.pdf) Sargon similarly rebuilt four captured Median cities as Kār-Nabû, Kār-Sîn, Kār-Adad, and Kār Ištar.[6](https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/119664/1/SAAB_29_2023_firouzi_%26_novotny.pdf) An official called the rab-kāri, in charge of a kāru, worked as a royal deputy directly responsible for the revenue of the royal house.[4](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/orient/40/0/40_56/_article)
By 672 BCE the city was Median in character: its lord bore the Iranian name Khshathrita and led a Median revolt against Assyria.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/)
## The primary evidence
All information about Kaštaritu and his city comes from roughly twenty oracle queries addressed by [Esarhaddon](https://www.edgepedia.org/esarhaddon) to the sun god Shamash around 672 BCE, published in I. Starr's 1990 edition of the queries.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/) Twenty-three omen texts concerning the Median revolt have been preserved, and Kaštariti's name appears in seventeen of them; in one query (Starr no. 42) Esarhaddon treats him as the main culprit and actual instigator of the revolt.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/)
Oracle queries record a king's anxieties and decisions at a moment of crisis, such as whether he should send his army against Kaštaritu.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/)
## Dating and chronology
The attested moment falls within Esarhaddon's reign, 680–669 BCE.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/) Kār-Kaššî entered Assyrian records as part of the political landscape created by the late-eighth-century campaigns. In 716 BCE Sargon II made Ḫarḫar and Kišesim centers of new Assyrian provinces renamed Kar-Šarrukin and Kar-Nergal, adding territories of west Media including Sagbat, and in 713 he received tribute from forty-five city chieftains at Mount Bikni.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/)
Kār-Kaššî's region of Sagbat lay within the province of Kišesim in this scheme.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/) The Najefabad Stele (RINAP 2 117), likely composed in 716 BCE, records the itinerary of Sargon's sixth-regnal-year expedition through the western Iranian plateau and is a key document for the geography of these campaigns.[6](https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/119664/1/SAAB_29_2023_firouzi_%26_novotny.pdf)
## Kār-Kaššî in the Assyrian-Median frontier
About 672 BCE, three Median chieftains headed a revolt against Assyria: Kaštariti, "city lord" of Kār-kašši, located in the region of Sagbat of the province of Kišesim; Dusanna, ruler of Saparda; and Mamitiaršu, a Median "city lord".[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/) In the oracle queries Kaštaritu appears as an ally of the Manneans, Medes, Cimmerians, and other groups of western Iran.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/) The rebels began by besieging the Assyrian fortresses in the provinces of Ḫarḫar and Kišesim.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/)
The revolt was successful: the Medes achieved independence, although their state did not yet include all Median provinces and tribes, and a letter of about 669 BCE lists Media alongside Urartu, Manna, and Hubuškia as a separate kingdom.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/)
## Location and identification
Its neighboring provincial center can be pinned down: Sargon set up a stele at Kišesim that survived on the site, allowing that Median city to be identified with the tell of Najafehabad in Hamadan province.[5](https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25046/1/oa_25046.pdf) Bit-Sagbat, the region to which Kār-kašši was assigned, has been identified with reasonable certainty with Ecbatana, modern Hamadan (Medvedskaya 2002).[5](https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25046/1/oa_25046.pdf)
Competing proposals place the city in different parts of western Iran. One line follows the administrative geography above, locating Kār-kašši in the Sagbat region of the province of Kišesim, near Hamadan.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/) Abbas Yalvaee proposes instead mounds near the Qara Su River, where two ancient mounds lie close to a permanent stream called Qarqasha, a name he reads as a transformed form of Kārkāshi; he characterizes the site as an apparently Median military center in the eighth and seventh centuries BC governed by Khashthariti.[3](https://www.academia.edu/8883708/In_search_of_the_ancient_Karkashi_in_English_) That proposal rests in part on the philological resemblance between Qarqasha and the Assyrian name.[3](https://www.academia.edu/8883708/In_search_of_the_ancient_Karkashi_in_English_)
## References
1. Dandamayev, "Kashtariti", Encyclopaedia Iranica. https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kashtariti/
2. Dandamayev & Medvedskaya, "Media", Encyclopaedia Iranica. https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media/
3. Yalvaee, "In search of the ancient Karkashi". https://www.academia.edu/8883708/In_search_of_the_ancient_Karkashi_in_English_
4. "Kārus on the Frontiers of the Neo-Assyrian Empire", Orient 40. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/orient/40/0/40_56/_article
5. Radner, "Assyria and the Medes", in The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran (2013). https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25046/1/oa_25046.pdf
6. Firouzi & Novotny, "Revising the Locations of Several Cities in the Western Region of the Iranian Plateau", State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 29 (2023). https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/119664/1/SAAB_29_2023_firouzi_%26_novotny.pdf
7. "From Mount Silhazu to Mount Bikni: Historical Geography of Media in the Neo-Assyrian Period", Journal of Archaeological Studies (University of Tehran). https://jarcs.ut.ac.ir/article_61728.html?lang=en
8. Rezaei, "Reconstruction of the Route of Sargon II's Sixth Campaign of 716 BC in the Central Zagros", Iran. https://isidore.science/document/10670/1.7e36616747648e7bcb4226706f97344b22664edb
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Ancient and historical places › Cities and sites of the ancient Near East, Egypt, and Nubia › Anatolia, Upper Mesopotamia, and the Iranian highlands › Medes and early Iran: cities, sites, and monuments*
*Initially written Sep 19, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026 · Last review: Sep 19, 2026*
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