Aramaean

Aramaean, one of a confederacy of tribes that spoke a North Semitic language (Aramaic) and, between the 11th and 8th century bc, occupied Aram, a large region in northern Syria. In the same period some of these tribes seized large tracts of Mesopotamia.

In the Old Testament the Aramaeans are represented as being closely akin to the Hebrews and living in northern Syria around Harran from about the 16th century bc. The Aramaeans are also mentioned often in Assyrian records as freebooters. The first mention of the Aramaeans occurs in inscriptions of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser I (1115–1077). By the end of the 11th century bc, the Aramaeans had formed the state of Bit-Adini on both sides of the Euphrates River below Carchemish and held areas in Anatolia and northern Syria and in the Anti-Lebanon area, including Damascus. About 1030 bc a coalition of the southern Aramaeans, led by Hadadezer, king of Zobah, in league with the Ammonites, Edomites, and the Aramaeans of Mesopotamia, attacked Israel but was defeated by King David.

To the east, however, the Aramaean tribes spread into Babylonia, where an Aramaean usurper was crowned king of Babylon under the name of Adad-apal-iddin. By the 9th century the whole area from Babylon to the Mediterranean coast was in the hands of the Aramaean tribes known collectively as Kaldu (or Kashdu)—the biblical Chaldeans. Assyria, nearly encircled, took the offensive, and in 853 the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III fought a battle at Karkar against the armies of Hamath, Aram, Phoenicia, and Israel. This battle was indecisive, but in 838 Shalmaneser was able to annex the area held by the tribes on the middle Euphrates.

Between Israel and Damascus, intermittent wars continued until Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria captured Arpad, the centre of Aramaean resistance in northern Syria, in 740 bc. He overthrew Samaria in 734 and Damascus in 732. Finally, the destruction of Hamath by Sargon II of Assyria in 720 marked the end of the Aramaean kingdoms of the west.

Aramaeans along the lower Tigris River maintained their independence longer. In 626 a Chaldean general, Nabopolassar, proclaimed himself king of Babylon and joined with the Medes and Scythians to overthrow Assyria. In the New Babylonian, or Chaldean, empire, Chaldeans, Aramaeans, and Babylonians became largely indistinguishable.

Few specifically Aramaic objects have been uncovered by archaeologists. The Aramaean princes in Syria apparently patronized a provincial form of Syrian art under strong Hittite or Mitannian influence.

In religion, though their pantheon included Canaanite, Babylonian, and Assyrian gods, the Aramaeans had deities of their own. Their chief god was Hadad, or Ramman (Old Testament Rimmon), equated with the Hurrian storm god, Teshub. Their chief goddess was Atargatis (Atar’ate), a fusion of two deities corresponding to the Phoenician Astarte and Anath.