| Arameans |
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| Aramean states |
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| Aramean cities |
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TheArameans, orAramaeans (Hebrew:אֲרַמִּים,romanized: arammim;Ancient Greek:Ἀραμαῖοι,romanized: Aramaíoi;Classical Syriac:ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ,romanized: ārāmāyē,[1]Syriac pronunciation:[ʔɑːrɑːˈmɑːje]), were atribal[2]Semitic people[3][4] in theancient Near East, first documented in historical sources from the late12th century BC. Their homeland, often referred to as the land ofAram, originally covered central regions of what is nowSyria.[5]
The Arameans were not a single nation or group; Aram was a region with local centers of power spread throughout theLevant. That makes it almost impossible to establish a coherent ethnic category of "Aramean" based on extralinguistic identity markers, such as material culture, lifestyle, or religion.[6][7] The people of Aram were called "Arameans" inAssyrian texts[8] and theHebrew Bible,[9] but the terms "Aramean" and “Aram” were never used by laterAramean dynasts to refer to themselves or their country, except theking of Aram-Damascus, since his kingdom was also called Aram.[10] "Arameans" is an appellation of the geographical term Aram given to1st millennium BC inhabitants of Syria.[11][12]
At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, theSyro-Hittite states were established throughout the ancient Near East. The most notable wasAram-Damascus, which reached its height in the second half of the 9th century BC during the reign of KingHazael. During the 8th century BC, local Aramaean city-states were conquered by theNeo-Assyrian Empire. The policy of population displacement and relocation applied throughout Assyrian domains also affected the Arameans, many of whom were resettled by Assyrian authorities. That caused a wider dispersion of Aramean communities throughout various regions of the Near East, and the range ofAramaic also widened. It gained significance and eventually became thelingua franca of public life and administration asImperial Aramaic, particularly during the periods of theNeo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 BC) and theAchaemenid Empire (539–330 BC).
BeforeChristianity, Aramaic-speaking communities had undergone considerableHellenization andRomanization in theNear East.[13] Thus, their integration into the Greek-speaking world had begun a long time before Christianity became established.[14] Some scholars suggest that Arameans who accepted Christianity were referred to as Syrians by theGreeks.[15] Theearly Muslim conquests in the 7th century were followed by theIslamization and the gradualArabization (re-Semiticization after centuries ofHellenization,Persianization andRomanization) of Aramaic-speaking communities throughout the Near East. That ultimately resulted in their fragmentation andacculturation.[16] Today, their cultural and linguistic heritage continues to be recognized by someSyriac-Christian orNeo-Aramaic speaking groups, such as theMaronites and the Aramean inhabitants ofMaaloula andJubb’adin near Damascus in Syria.[17][18][19][20]
ThetoponymA-ra-mu appears in an inscription at theEast Semitic-speaking kingdom ofEbla listing geographical names, and the termArmi, theEblaite term for nearbyIdlib, occurs frequently in theEbla tablets (c. 2300 BC). One of the annals ofNaram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2250 BC) mentions that he captured "Dubul, theensí ofA-ra-me" (Arame is seemingly agenitive form), in the course of a campaign againstSimurrum in the northern mountains.[21] Other early references to a place or people of "Aram" have appeared at the archives ofMari (c. 1900 BC) and atUgarit (c. 1300 BC). There is no consensus on the origin and meaning of the word "Aram", one of the most accepted suggestions being that it is derived from a Semitic rootrwm, "to be high". Newer suggestions interprets it as abroken plural meaning "white antelopes" or "white bulls".[22] The earliest undisputed historical attestation of Arameans as a people appears much later, in the inscriptions ofTiglath Pileser I (c. 1100 BC).[23][24][25]
Nomadic pastoralists have long played a prominent role in the history and economy of theMiddle East, but their numbers seem to vary according to climatic conditions and the force of neighbouring states inducing permanent settlement. TheLate Bronze Age seems to coincide with increasing aridity, which weakened neighbouring states and inducedtranshumance pastoralists to spend longer and longer periods with their flocks. Urban settlements (hitherto largely inhabited byAmorite,Canaanite,Hittite, andUgarite peoples) in theLevant diminished in size until fully-nomadic pastoralist lifestyles came to dominate much of the region. The highly mobile competitive tribesmen, with their sudden raids, continually threatened long-distance trade and interfered with the collection of taxes and tribute.
The people who had long been the prominent population in what is now Syria (called theLand of the Amurru during their tenure) were the Amorites, aNorthwest Semitic-speaking people who had appeared during the 25th century BC, destroyed the hitherto dominant state of Ebla, founded the powerful state ofMari in the Levant and during the 19th century BC alsoBabylonia, in southernMesopotamia. However, they seem to have been displaced or wholly absorbed by the appearance of a people called theAhlamu by the 13th century BC and disappear from history. Ahlamû appears to be a generic term forSemitic wanderers and nomads of varying origins who appeared during the 13th century BC across theancient Near East, theArabian Peninsula,Asia Minor, andEgypt.
The Arameans would appear to be one part of the larger generic Ahlamû group rather than synonymous with the Ahlamu.[26] The presence of the Ahlamû is attested during theMiddle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC), which already ruled many of the lands in which the Ahlamû arose in the Babylonian city ofNippur and even atDilmun.Shalmaneser I (1274–1245 BC) is recorded as having defeatedShattuara, King of theMitanni and hisHittite and Ahlamû mercenaries. In the next century, the Ahlamû cut the road fromBabylon toHattusas. Also,Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244–1208 BC) conqueredMari,Hanigalbat andRapiqum on theEuphrates and "the mountain of the Ahlamû", apparently the region ofJebel Bishri in northern Syria.
The emergence of the Arameans occurred during theBronze Age collapse (1200–900 BC), which saw great upheavals and mass movements of peoples across theMiddle East,Asia Minor, theCaucasus, theEast Mediterranean,North Africa,Ancient Iran,Ancient Greece and theBalkans and led to the genesis of new peoples and polities across those regions. TheMiddle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC), which had dominated theNear East andAsia Minor since the first half of the 14th century BC, began to shrink rapidly after the death ofAshur-bel-kala, its last great ruler in 1056 BC. The Assyrian withdrawal allowed the Arameans and others to gain independence and take firm control ofEber-Nari in the late 11th century BC.
Some of the major Aramean-speaking city states includedAram-Damascus,[27][28]Hamath,[29][30]Bet-Adini,[31][32]Bet-Bagyan,[33]Bit-Hadipe,Aram-Bet Rehob,[34]Aram-Zobah,Bet-Zamani,[35]Bet-Halupe,[36] andAram-Ma'akah, as well as the Aramean tribal polities of theGambulu,Litau andPuqudu.[37]Akkermans and Schwartz note that in assessingLuwian and Aramean states in ancient Syria, the existing information on the ethnic composition of the regional states in ancient Syria primarily concerns the rulers and so the ethnolingustic situation of the majority of the population of the states is unclear. They, and other scholars, suggest that the material culture shows no distinctions between states dominated by the Luwians or the Arameans.[38][39]
Aramean tribal groups were identified by family names that often began with theSemitic prefixBit, meaning "house of", such as "Bit Adini". This naming convention was influenced by the writing system used by the coastalPhoenicians. Each tribe's name signified the house or ancestral lineage to which it belonged.[40][41] The term "Aram" sometimes referred only to a part and other times to the whole of theSyrian region during theIron Age. The expressions “All Aram” and “Upper and Lower Aram” inSefire treaty inscriptions have been variously interpreted, but can suggest a degree of political and cultural unity among some of the polities in the area.[42][43][44][45] In earlier Assyrian sources from the late2nd millennium BC references are made to "the land of the Arameans", while in1st millennium BC references, "Aram" became a topographical term.[46]
Biblical sources tell thatSaul,David andSolomon (late 11th to 10th centuries BC) fought against the small Aramean states ranged across the northern frontier of Israel:Aram-Sôvah in theBeqaa,Aram-Bêt-Rehob (Rehov) andAram-Ma'akah aroundMount Hermon,Geshur in theHauran, and Aram-Damascus. An Aramean king's account dating at least two centuries later, theTel Dan stele, was discovered in northern Israel and is famous for being perhaps the earliest non-Israelite extra-biblical historical reference to the Israelite royal dynasty, theHouse of David. In the early 11th century BC, much of Israel came under foreign rule for eight years according to theBook of Judges untilOthniel defeated the forces led byCushan-Rishathaim, who was titled in the Bible as ruler ofAram-Naharaim.[47]
Further north, the Arameans gained possession of Neo-HittiteHamath on theOrontes River and became strong enough to dissociate with theIndo-European-speakingNeo-Hittite states. The Arameans, together with theEdomites and theAmmonites, attacked Israel in the early 11th century BC, but were defeated.
During the 11th and the 10th centuries BC, the Arameans conquered Sam'al and renamed itBît-Agushi,.[48] They also conqueredTil Barsip, which became the chief town ofBît-Adini, also known as Beth Eden. North of Sam'al was the Aramean state of Bit Gabbari, which was sandwiched between the Luwian states ofCarchemish,Gurgum,Khattina,Unqi andTabal (region). One of their earliest semi-independent kingdoms in northernMesopotamia was Bît-Bahiâni (Tell Halaf).
The first certain reference to the Arameans appears in anAssyrian inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I, which refers to subjugating the "Ahlamû-Arameans" (Ahlame Armaia). Shortly afterward, the Ahlamû disappear from Assyrian annals and are replaced by the Arameans (Aramu, Arimi). That indicates that the Arameans had risen to dominance amongst the nomads. Among scholars, the relationship between the Akhlame and the Arameans is a matter of conjecture.[49] By the late 12th century BC, the Arameans had been firmly established in Syria; however, they were conquered by theMiddle Assyrian Empire.
Assyrian annals from the end of the Middle Assyrian Empire c. 1050 BC and the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 911 BC contain numerous descriptions of battles between Arameans and the Assyrian army.[37] The Assyrians launched repeated raids into Aramean lands, Babylonia, Ancient Iran, Elam, Asia Minor, and even as far as theMediterranean to keep its trade routes open. The Aramean city-states, like much of the Near East and Asia Minor, were subjugated by the Neo Assyrian Empire from the reign ofAdad-nirari II in 911 BC, who cleared Arameans and other tribal peoples from the borders of Assyria and began to expand in all directions. The process was continued byAshurnasirpal II and his sonShalmaneser III, who destroyed many of the small Aramean tribes and conquered Aramean lands for the Assyrians.
In 732 BC, Aram-Damascus fell and was conquered by Assyrian KingTiglath-Pileser III. The Assyrians named their Aramean colonies Eber Nari, but still used the term "Aramean" to describe many of its peoples. The Assyrians conducted forced deportations of hundreds of thousands of Arameans to both Assyria and Babylonia, where a migrant population already existed.[50] Conversely, the Aramaic language was adopted as thelingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BC, and the native Assyrians and Babylonians began to make a gradual language shift towards Aramaic as the most common language of public life and administration.
The Neo Assyrian Empire descended into a series of brutal internal wars from 626 BC that weakened it greatly. That allowed a coalition of many its former subject peoples (Babylonians,Chaldeans,Medes,Persians,Parthians,Scythians,Sagartians andCimmerians) to attack Assyria in 616 BC, sackNineveh in 612 BC and finally defeat it between 605 and 599 BC.[51] During the war against Assyria, hordes of horse-borne Scythian and Cimmerian marauders ravaged through the Levant and all the way into Egypt.
As a result of migratory processes, various Aramean groups were settled throughout the ancient Near East, and their presence is recorded in the regions ofAssyria,[52]Babylonia,[53]Anatolia,[54]Phoenicia,[55]Palestine,[56]Egypt[57] andNorthern Arabia.[58] Population transfers, conducted during the Neo-Assyrian Empire and followed by the gradual linguisticAramization of non-Aramean populations, created a specific situation in the regions ofAssyria proper amongancient Assyrians, who originally spoke theancient Assyrian language, a dialect of Akkadian, but later accepted Aramaic.[59]
Eber-Nari was then ruled by the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire, which was initially headed by a short-lived Chaldean dynasty. The Aramean regions became a battleground between the Babylonians and the26th Dynasty ofEgypt, which had been installed by the Assyrians as vassals after they had defeated and ejected the previousNubian-ruled25th Dynasty. The Egyptians, having entered the region in a belated attempt to aid their former Assyrian masters, fought the Babylonians, initially with the help of remnants of the Assyrian army, in the region for decades before they were finally vanquished.
The Babylonians remained masters of the Aramean lands only until 539 BC, when the PersianAchaemenid Empire overthrewNabonidus, the Assyrian-born last king of Babylon, who had himself overthrown the Chaldean dynasty in 556 BC.
The Arameans were later conquered by theAchaemenid Empire (539–332 BC). However, little changed from the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian times, as the Persians, seeing themselves as successors of previous empires, maintainedImperial Aramaic as the main language of public life and administration.[60][61] Provincial administrative structures also remained the same, and the name Eber Nari still applied to the region.
The conquests ofAlexander the Great marked the beginning of a new era in the history of the entire Near East, including the regions inhabited by Arameans. By the late 4th century BC, two newly created Hellenistic states emerged as main pretenders for regional supremacy: theSeleucid Empire (305–64 BC) and thePtolemaic Empire (305–30 BC). Since earlier times, ancient Greeks commonly used "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans and heir lands, but it was during the Hellenistic (Seleucid-Ptolemaic) period that the term "Syria" was finally defined to designate the regions west of theEuphrates, as opposed to the term "Assyria", which designated the regions further east.[62][63]
In the 3rd century BC, various narratives related to the history of earlier Aramean states became accessible to wider audiences after the translation of theHebrew Bible into theGreek language. Known asSeptuagint, the translation was created inAlexandria, the capital ofPtolemaic Egypt that was the most important city of theHellenistic world and was one of the main centres ofHellenization. Influenced by Greek terminology,[64] translators decided to adopt ancient Greek custom of using "Syrian"labels as designations for Arameans and their lands and thus abandon theendonymic (native) terms that were used in the Hebrew Bible. In Septuagint, the region of Aram was commonly labelled as "Syria", and the Arameans were labelled as "Syrians".[65] When reflecting on traditional influences of Greek terminology on English translations of the Septuagint, American orientalist Robert W. Rogers noted in 1921 that it was unfortunate that the change also affected later English versions.[66] In Greek sources, two writers spoke particularly clearly on the Arameans.Posidonius, born inApamea, as quoted byStrabo, writes: "Those people whom we Greeks call Syrioi, call themselves Aramaioi".[67] Further,Josephus, who was born inJerusalem, defines the regions of "Aram's sons" as the Tranchonitis, Damascus "midway between Palestine and Coelo-Syria", Armenia, Bactria, and the Mesene around Spasini Charax.[67]
The ancient Arameans maintained close relationships with other societies in the region. Throughout much of their history, they were heavily influenced by thecuneiform culture of Mesopotamia and the surrounding areas. Bilingual texts inAramaic and Late Assyrian are among the earliest examples of Aramaic writing. In the western regions, Aramean states had close contact withPhoenicia, theKingdom of Israel,Kingdom of Judah, and northernArabia. The Phoenician godBaʿalšamem was even incorporated.
Identifying distinct elements of the Aramean heritage in later periods is challenging. For example, the earliest Syriac legal documents contain legal formulae that could be considered Aramean, but they could also as Neo-Assyrian orNeo-Babylonian.[68]
After the establishment ofRoman Syria in the 1st century BC, historically Aramean lands became the frontier region between two empires, Roman andParthian, and later between their successor states, theByzantine andSasanid Empires. Several minor states also existed in frontier regions, most notably theKingdom of Osroene, centred in the city ofEdessa, known in Aramaic as Urhay.[69] However, it is not easy to trace Aramean elements in Edessan culture in either the pre-Christian or the Christian periods.[70]
DuringLate Antiquity and theEarly Middle Ages, the Greek custom of usingSyrian terms for Aramaic speakers and their languages gained acceptance among Aramaic-speaking literary and ecclesiastical elites. The practice of usingSyrian labels as designations for Aramaic-speakers and their language was very common among ancient Greeks, and under their influence, the practice also became common among the Romans and Byzantines.[71]
AnArabization process was initiated after theearly Muslim conquests in the 7th century. In the religious sphere of life, Aramaic-speaking Christians such as theMelkites inPalestine wereIslamised, which created a base for gradual acceptance of theArabic language, not only as the dominant language of Islamic prayer and worship, but also as a common language of public and domestic life. The acceptance of Arabic became the main vessel of the gradual Arabization of Aramaic-speaking communities throughout the Near East and ultimately resulted in their fragmentation andacculturation. Those processes affected not only Islamized Aramaic speakers, but also some of those who remained Christians, creating local communities of Arabic-speaking Christians of Syriac Christian origin who spoke Arabic in their public and domestic life while continuing to belong to churches that used liturgical Syriac.[72][73]
In the 10th century, theByzantine Empire gradually reconquered much of northern Syria and upper Mesopotamia, including the cities ofMelitene (934) andAntioch (969) and thus liberated local Aramaic-speaking Christian communities from the Muslim rule. Byzantines favoured Eastern Orthodoxy, but the leadership of the Antiochian Oriental Orthodox Patriarchate succeeded in reaching agreement with the Byzantine authorities and thus secured religious tolerance.[74] The Byzantines extended their rule up toEdessa (1031), but were forced into a general retreat from Syria during the course of the 11th century and were pushed back by the newly-arrivedSeljuk Turks, who took Antioch (1084). The later establishment ofCrusader states (1098), thePrincipality of Antioch and theCounty of Edessa, created new challenges for local Aramaic-speaking Christians, both Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox.[75]
TheIron Age culture of Syria is a topic of interest among scholars, but is never referred to simply as "Aramean". Scholars have difficulty in identifying and isolating characteristic Aramean elements in the culture. Even in North Syria, where more substantial evidence is available, scholars still find it difficult to identify what is genuinely Aramean from what is borrowed from other cultures. Widespread scholarly opinion still maintains that since several ethnic groups, such asLuwians and Aramaeans, interacted in the region, one material culture with "mixed" elements resulted. The material culture appears to be so homogeneous that it "shows no clear distinctions between states dominated by Luwians or Aramaeans".[76]
Arameans were mostly defined by their use of the West SemiticOld Aramaic language (1100 BC – 200 AD), which was first written using thePhoenician alphabet, but over time modified to a specifically-Aramaic alphabet.Aramaic first appeared in history during the opening centuries of theIron Age, when several newly-emerging chiefdoms decided to use it as awritten language. The process coincided with a change from syllabiccuneiform to alphabetic scribal culture and the rise of a novel style of publicepigraphy, which was formerly unattested in Syria-Palestine. The language is considered a sister branch of the idiom used in theBronze-Age city-state ofUgarit, on the one hand, andCanaanite, which comprises languages further south in the speech area such asHebrew,Phoenician, andMoabite, on the other hand. All three branches can be subsumed under the more general rubricNorthwest Semitic and thus share a common origin.[77] The earliest direct witnesses of Aramaic, which were composed between the 10th and 8th centuries BC, are unanimously subsumed under the term "Old Aramaic". The early writings exhibit variation and anticipate the enormous linguistic diversity within the Aramaic language group. Despite the variation, they are connected by common literary forms and formulaic expressions.[78]
As early as the 8th century BC, Aramaic competed with the East SemiticAkkadian language and script inAssyria andBabylonia and then spread throughout theNear East in various dialects. By around 800 BC, Aramaic had become thelingua franca of theNeo-Assyrian Empire, which continued during the Achaemenid period asImperial Aramaic. Although it was marginalized by Greek during theHellenistic period, Aramaic in its varying dialects remained unchallenged as the common language of allSemitic peoples of the region until theArabs'Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia in the 7th century AD, when the language became gradually superseded byArabic.
The vernacular dialects of Eastern Old Aramaic, spoken during theNeo-Assyrian,Neo-Babylonian, andAchaemenid Persian empires, developed into variousEastern Middle Aramaic dialects. Among these were the Aramaic dialects of the ancient region ofOsrhoene, one of which later became theliturgical language ofSyriac Christianity. In the first centuries AD, theChristian Bible wastranslated into Aramaic and by the 4th century, the local Aramaic dialect ofEdessa (Syriac:Urhay) had evolved into aliterary language known as Edessan Aramaic (Syriac:Urhaya).[79][80] Since Edessan Aramaic (Urhaya) was the primary liturgical language of Aramaic Christianity,[81][82][83] it also became known asEdessan Syriac and was later defined by Western scholars asClassical Syriac. This laid the foundation for the termSyriac Christianity.[84][85][86] TheEastern Orthodox patriarchates were dominated by Greek episcopate and Greek linguistic and cultural traditions. The use of the Aramaic language in liturgical and literary life amongMelkites ofJewish descent persisted throughout the Middle Ages[16] until the 14th century,[87] as exemplified in the use of a specific regional dialect known asChristian Palestinian Aramaic orPalestinian Syriac in thePalestine region,Transjordan andSinai.[88]
DescendantNeo-Aramaic languages of theEastern Aramaic branch continue to serve as the spoken and written languages of theAssyrians,Mandeans andMizrahi Jews. These languages are primarily found inIraq, northwesternIran, southeasternTurkey and northeasternSyria, and to a lesser extent, in migrant communities inArmenia, Georgia,Russia,Lebanon,Israel, Jordan andAzerbaijan, as well as inAssyrian diaspora communities in the West, particularly in theUnited States,Canada,Great Britain,Sweden,Australia andGermany.
Western Neo-Aramaic, the only surviving modern variety of theWestern branch, is now spoken by Muslims and Christians solely inMaaloula andJubb'adin in theQalamoun mountains of southwestern Syria.
During theearly modern period, the study of the Aramaic language, both ancient and modern, was initiated among Western scholars. This led to the formation ofAramaic studies as a broader multidisciplinary field, encompassing the study of the cultural and historical heritage of Aramaic. The linguistic and historical aspects of Aramaic studies have been further expanded since the 19th century through archaeological excavations of ancient sites in theNear East.[89][90][91]
What is known of the religion of the Aramean groups is derived from excavated objects and temples and by Aramaic literary sources, as well as the names they had. Their religion did not feature any particular deity that could be called an Aramean god or goddess.[92] It appears from their inscriptions and their names that the Arameans worshippedCanaanite andMesopotamian gods such asHadad,Sin,Ishtar (whom they calledAstarte),Shamash,Tammuz,Bel andNergal, andCanaaite-Phoenecian deities such as the storm-god,El, the supreme deity of Canaan, in addition toAnat (‘Atta) and others.[citation needed]
The Arameans who lived outside their homelands apparently followed the traditions of the countries in which they settled. The King ofDamascus, for instance, employed Phoenician sculptors and ivory-carvers. In Tell Halaf-Guzana, the palace ofKapara, an Aramean ruler (9th century BC) was decorated with orthostates and with statues that display a mixture ofMesopotamian,Hittite andHurrian influences.
The legacy of ancient Arameans became of particular interest for scholars during theearly modern period and resulted in the emergence ofAramaic studies as a distinctive field, dedicated to the study of the Aramaic language.[89] By the 19th century, theAramean question was formulated, and several scholarly theses were proposed regarding the development of the language and the history of the Arameans.[93]
In modern times, an Aramean identity is held mainly by a number ofSyriac Christian groups, predominantly from southeasternTurkey and parts ofSyria. Aramean identity is most predominant among Syriac Christians, and as such, is most often used in the diaspora, especially inGermany andSweden.[94][95] However, other groups such asMaronites,Arab Christians, and the Arameans ofMaaloula andJubb'adin may also identify strongly under the label.
In 2014,Israel officiallyrecognised Arameans as a distinctive minority.[96] Questions related to theminority rights of Arameans in some other countries were also brought to international attention.[97][98]
The origin of the Aramean tribal groups in this area still remains unclear, in spite of the several hypotheses proposed.? Aramean tribal groups are attested at least from the eleventh century as new occupants of strategic areas in the Jezirah, northern Mesopotamia, and the Syrian steppe.
The spread of the Aramaic language from its Syrian homeland resulted in large part from Aramean migration and expansion, and was abetted by the Neo-Assyrian policy of deportation operative during the gth to the 7th cen turies. These factors led to the so-called Aramaization of Assyria and Babylonia, a process that gained momentum in the latter days of the Assyrian Empire.
Tiglath-pileser III stated: 13 [From] those [Ara]means whom I deported, [I distribut]ed (and) settled [...thousand to the province of] the turtanu, 10,000 (to) the province of the palace herald, [...] thousand (to) the province of the chief cupbearer, ...thousand (to) the province of the land] Barha(l)zi, (and) 5,000 (to) the province of the land Mazamua.
The cultural identity of Syria varied historically; but from at least the beginning of the Iron Age (ca. 1200 B.C.), the Arameans increasingly dominated the region. Aramean kingdoms like Aram-Damascus, Aram-zobah, and Hamath appear repeatedly in the biblical record.
As Greek politai became a sub-category for a wider group of Syrians, the Greek peer polity network of Syria and, more broadly, the Roman imperial Syrian ethnos maintained cognitive and performative commonality, even if it did not always enjoy political solidarity or engage in unified mass action. Within it, both ethnic Greeks and ethnic Syrians, whether speaking Greek or Aramaic, deemed ancient (As)Syrians/Arameans among their ethnos civic founders (if not ethnic ancestors), but their historical narratives were often informed by Greek influences and categories. In this sense, Syrians of the Roman imperial era, and even Assyrians or Arameans beyond the frontier, posited links to various ancient Greek or Syrian "founders," with or without positing ethnic descent.
Lammens states thatal-Baladhuri labeled these Maronites al-Anbat to indicate their Aramaic (Syriac) origin.
The only people that remain who might be considered lineal descendants of the Aramean race are theDroozes andMaronites.
The Syrians today, Zaydan continued, are divided by their origin into two groups: Muslims and Christians. Most of the Muslims are Arabs. As for the Christians, the majority are descendants of the Arameans, the Arabs and the Greeks. The Arameans were the original inhabitants of the land, then came the Greeks from the West, followed by the Arabs, the Ghasanis, who came from the Hauran in the hinterland. In short, Christian Syrians are not genealogically Arabs, even if there is some Arab blood flowing in their veins. Yet they are considered Arabs because they speak Arabic, they procreate in an Arab land and they live according to Arab morals. Thus, Syria became an Arab country after the Islamic occupation.
Without delving into the details, suffice it to say that many characteristics of "Aramean" pottery, art (reliefs and statues, etc.), architecture, settlement patterns, funerary customs and funerary objects are more regional than ethnic, as they are demonstrated also by the material culture of surrounding peoples and polities in ancient Syria and beyond, particularly that of the Neo-Hittites/Luwians (Bonatz 1993; 2019; Nabulsi 2017: 163- 222). In particular, the banquet motif of Aramaic funerary inscriptions and the style of the accompanying visual presentation have a long tradition in the Neo-Hittite world (Bonatz 2000: 60-64). It is thus no wonder that some scholars would deny the existence of an Aramean culture (Bonatz 2019), on the account of the blur, fluid and manifold nature of the cultural boundary between the Arameans and the Luwians as well as that between the Arameans and the other Northwest Semitic peoples (Simon 2019; Amadasi 2019).
Groups of family members lived near one another, and the social structure was probably focused on the identity of a primarymale figure in the family ("patriarchal") and possibly even traced its roots to some local tribal ancestor, after which the group was named (e.g., Bit Adini, Bit-Agusi, Bit-Gabbari, Bit-Hazaili; the Semitic word "Bit" means "House of," followed by the name of a founding figure). Most scholars who study the Arameans speak of their origins in terms of "tribes" and tribal leaders who took advantage of political instability in the region during certain time periods to expand their territory.
Each Aramean tribal group was called by the family name, 'Bit' (house), following a coastal Phoenician writing system. The most important Aramaic kingdoms were established at Halaf (Kingdom of Guzana - the Kingdom of Bit-Bahiani), Ahmar (the Kingdom of Bit-Adini), Damascus (the Kingdom of Aram Damascus) and North of Aleppo (the Kingdom of Bit-Agushi).
The qualifier "all" in "all Aram" is clearly of some sociological significance; it implies a certain kind of collective unity. One is immediately re-minded of the Deuteronomistic use of "all" in "all Israel (kol yisra'el) from Dan to Beersheba."
By mid-century, the Syrian chiefdoms, through a system of alliances, affirmed their Aramean identity as "All Aram", consisting of the states in "Upper and Lower Aram", and together defied the Assyrian Empire.70
What is certain is that no united, pan-Aramean national state ever existed, yet clearly "Aram" served as a common identity marker and (self-)designation, although possibly with different meanings (e.g. as a region, as a collective noun for the people; or another appellation of the Damascus-centered polity). The brief analysis of the lists of treaty partners as well as the geographical description in the Sefire Treaties, furthermore, appears to suggest that "all Aram" may indicate the highest level of identity among different Aramean polities, above the tribe, the city-state and the individual ruling families, even if not all Aramean speakers, all Aramean tribes or states were included in this "all Aram". 119 The phrase more likely refers to a group of polities that shared common Aramean cultural and social features, perhaps all with Aramean tribal structures internally in addition to the use of varieties of the Aramean language, who chose to pick Aram as a common denominator in this context. 120 How inclusive or exclusive this phrase is in reality cannot be judged. Finally, while the nature of the Aramean identity is largely cultural and perhaps ethnic, the presence of political elements is also likely. Although a united Aramean polity, as the one suggested by B. Mazar (1962), might not be fully tenable, the fact that "all Aram", with Arpad as its representative, can serve as a party in international treaties indicates that the Arameans as an cultural community may have engaged in joint political acts, at least conceptually.
Confusion about the meaning of the term "Aramean" arises from the fact that "Aram" was also the name of a territory. Whereas Assyrian sources from the late second millennium BCE speak about "the land of the Arameans," in the first millennium "Aram" became a topographical reference. "Aram" was the name of various territories in north-western Syria, distinguished from one another by the addition of a tribal name or the name of a city.
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