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Concept
Arameans
Summary
The Arameans, or Aramaeans (𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; אֲרַמִּים; Ἀραμαῖοι; Ārāmāyē), were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East that was first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BC. The Aramean homeland, sometimes known as the land of Aram, encompassed central regions of modern Syria.
At the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, a number of Aramean-ruled states were established throughout the western regions of the ancient Near East. The most notable was Aram-Damascus, which reached its height in the second half of the 9th century BCE during the reign of King Hazael.
The Arameans were never a single nation or group; rather, Aram was a region with local centers of power spread throughout the Levant. That makes it almost impossible to establish a coherent ethnic category of “Aramean” based on extra-linguistic identity markers such as material culture, lifestyle or religion.
The people of "Aram" were called "Arameans" in Assyrian text and in the Hebrew Bible, but “Aramean” was never a self-designation. "Arameans" is merely an appellation of the geographical term Aram given to 1st-millennium BC inhabitants of Syria.
During the eighth century BC, local Aramaean city states were gradually conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The policy of population displacement and relocation that was applied throughout Assyrian domains also affected 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 of Aramaic also widened. It gained significance and eventually became the common language of public life and administration, particularly during the periods of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 BCE) and the later Achaemenid Empire (539–330 BCE).
A distinctive Aramaic alphabet was developed and used to write Old Aramaic. As a result of linguistic Aramization, a wider Aramaic-speaking area was created throughout the central regions of the Near East that exceeded the boundaries of Aramean ethnic communities.
Official source
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