Aramaeans. The Arameans never had a unified nation; they were divided into small independent kingdoms across parts of the Near East, particularly in what is now modern Syria. After the Bronze Age collapse, their political influence was confined to a number of Syro-Hittite states, which were entirely absorbed into the Neo-Assyrian Empire by the 8th century BC. By contrast, the Aramaic language came to be the lingua franca of the entire Fertile Crescent and Bahrain, by Late Antiquity developing into the literary languages such as Syriac and Mandaic. Scholars have used the term "Aramaization" for the process by which the Assyro-Babylonian Akkadian-speaking peoples became Aramaic-speaking during the later Iron Age.[1] History[edit] Origins[edit] Basalt funeral stele bearing an Aramaic inscription, ca. 7th century BC.
Bronze Age collapse[edit] Funeral stele of Si` Gabbor, priest of the Moon God. The Arameans were, in the 11th century BC, established in Syria. Neo-Assyrian Empire[edit] Language[edit] History of the Hittites. The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who established an empire at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1600 BC. This empire reached its height during the mid-14th century BC under Suppiluliuma I, when it encompassed an area that included most of Asia Minor as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia.
After c. 1180 BC, the empire came to an end during the Bronze Age collapse, splintering into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some of which survived until the 8th century BC. The Hittite language was a member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. They referred to their native land as Hatti. The conventional name "Hittites" is due to their initial identification with the Biblical Hittites in 19th century archaeology. Archaeological discovery[edit] The Hittites used Mesopotamian cuneiform letters. Before the discoveries, the only source of information about Hittites had been the Old Testament (see Biblical Hittites). Bronze Age collapse. Assyriology. Assyriology (from Greek Ἀσσυρίᾱ, Assyriā; and -λογία, -logia) is the archaeological, historical, and linguistic study of ancient Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) and of related cultures that used cuneiform writing.
The field covers the Akkadian sister-cultures of Assyria and Babylonia, together with their cultural predecessor; Sumer. The large number of cuneiform clay tablets preserved by these cultures provide an extremely large resource for the study of the period. The region's (and the world's) first cities such as Ur are archaeologically invaluable for studying the growth of urbanization.
Scholars need a good knowledge of several languages: Akkadian and its major dialects and Sumerian, aided by such languages as Biblical Hebrew, Hittite, Elamite and Aramaic for comparative purposes, and the knowledge of writing systems that use several hundred core signs. There now exist many important grammatical studies and lexical aids. History[edit] From classical antiquity to modern excavation[edit]
Aramaic language. This article is about the Semitic language now spoken by smaller numbers of people in scattered locations. For the Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia, see Amharic. Aramaic (Arāmāyā, Classical Syriac: ܐܪܡܝܐ) is a family of languages or dialects belonging to the Semitic family. More specifically, it is part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily, which also includes Canaanite languages such as Hebrew and Phoenician. The Aramaic script was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to both the Arabic and modern Hebrew alphabets.
During its approximately 3000 years of written history,[2] Aramaic has served variously as a language of administration of empires and as a language of divine worship. Aramaic's long history and diverse and widespread use has led to the development of many divergent varieties, which are sometimes considered dialects, though they are distinct enough that they are sometimes considered languages. Etymology[edit] Geographic distribution[edit] Writing system[edit] Akkadian language. The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages as a sprachbund.[3] Akkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from ca. the late 29th century BC.[4] From the second half of the third millennium BC (ca. 2500 BC), texts fully written in Akkadian begin to appear. Hundreds of thousands of texts and text fragments have been excavated to date, covering a vast textual tradition of mythological narrative, legal texts, scientific works, correspondence, political and military events, and many other examples.
By the second millennium BC, two variant forms of the language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively. Akkadian had been for centuries the lingua franca in Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. However, it began to decline around the 8th century BC, being marginalized by Aramaic during the Neo Assyrian Empire. Classification[edit] History and writing[edit] Writing[edit] Development[edit] Babylonia. Babylonia was an ancient Akkadian-speaking Semitic nation state and cultural region based in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). It emerged as an independent state c. 1894 BC, with the city of Babylon as its capital.
It was often involved in rivalry with its fellow Akkadian state of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia. Babylonia became the major power in the region after Hammurabi (fl. c. 1792 - 1752 BC middle chronology, or c. 1696 – 1654 BC, short chronology) created an empire out of many of the territories of the former Akkadian Empire. The Babylonian state retained the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use (the language of its native populace), despite its Amorite founders and Kassite successors not being native Akkadians. It retained the Sumerian language for religious use, but by the time Babylon was founded this was no longer a spoken language, having been wholly subsumed by Akkadian.
Periods[edit] Old Pre-Babylonian period[edit] The Empire of Hammurabi. Vedic period. The Vedic period (or Vedic age) was a period in history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. The time span of the period is uncertain. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the Rigveda, the oldest of the Vedas, was composed roughly between 1700 and 1100 BCE, also referred to as the early Vedic period.[1] The end of the period is commonly estimated to have occurred about 500 BCE, and 150 BCE has been suggested as a terminus ante quem for all Vedic Sanskrit literature.
Transmission of texts in the Vedic period was by oral tradition alone,[3] and a literary tradition set in only in post-Vedic times. Despite the difficulties in dating the period, the Vedas can safely be assumed to be several thousands of years old. After the end of the Vedic period, the Mahajanapadas period in turn gave way to the Maurya Empire (from ca. 320 BCE), the golden age of classical Sanskrit literature. Map of northern India in the later Vedic age. History Economy. 16th century BC. The 16th century BC is a century which lasted from 1600 BC to 1501 BC. Events[edit] Significant persons[edit] King Cheng Tang of Shang of China, first ruler of Shang Dynasty, ruled China for 29 years since 1600 BC according to the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project.1597 BC—Aaron born to Amram and his wife Jochebed (traditional date).Kamose, last Pharaoh of the 17th Dynasty of Egypt (1575 BC or 1573 BC–1550 BC).Ahmose I, Pharaoh and founder of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt (1550 BC–1525 BC).Hatshepsut, first female Pharaoh of Egypt c.1473 BC References[edit] Decades and years[edit]