The Arameans: The History of the Influential Semitic Group that Settled in the Levant during the Iron Age

When the Late Bronze Age system of the Near East collapsed around the year 1200 BCE, the empires and kingdoms that had ruled the region for hundreds of years were replaced by new dynasties and peoples. In some cases – such as in Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon – new dynasties came to power that followed the culture and styles of previous generations. However, alongside them new ethnic groups also came to power, some of whom took advantage of the general chaos following the Bronze Age collapse to migrate to the region. Some of these new waves of migrants entered the Near East from Europe via the Mediterranean Sea and Anatolia, while others came from Arabia. They all brought with them new weapons, ideas, and plenty of new people that eventually helped establish a new, early Iron Age order in the Near East. Among these new groups that came to prominence in the early Iron Age Near East, the Arameans were arguably the most important.

The Arameans entered the historical record just after the collapse of the Bronze Age, and although they were once thought to be one of the factors in the Bronze Age collapse, most scholars now see them as taking advantage of the situation more than bringing it about. Once the Arameans entered the Levant and Mesopotamia, they influenced their new homes to varying degrees, ranging from having little influence in southern Mesopotamia to being a major geopolitical player in the inland Levant. An examination of Aramean history and culture reveals that the Arameans were a people who were not so easy to define, as they had no central leadership, and they often adopted the cultural attributes of their neighbors. With that said, historians, archaeologists, and philologists have identified a definite Aramean culture that at times played a major role in the wider cultural events of the Near East. This happened through the Arameans’ sometimes powerful (yet short-lived) states, religion, and perhaps most importantly, language. The Aramean language eventually became the lingua franca of the Near East and was used by the Achaemenid Persians and spoken by the people of Palestine, including Jesus of Nazareth. Unfortunately, the Arameans’ place in the history of the ancient Near East has often been overlooked or misunderstood, but thanks to recent, credible studies, the world now has a better understanding of this important cultural group.