Aramaeans. Ancient Semitic people in the Near East The Arameans were not a single nation or group; 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 extralinguistic identity markers, such as material culture, lifestyle, or religion. The people of Aram were called "Arameans" in Assyrian texts[8] and the Hebrew Bible,[9] but the terms "Aramean" and “Aram” were never used by later Aramean dynasts to refer to themselves or their country, except the king of Aram-Damascus, since his kingdom was also called Aram. "Arameans" is an appellation of the geographical term Aram given to 1st millennium BCE inhabitants of Syria. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, the Syro-Hittite states were established throughout 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. Etymology History. History of the Hittites. Ancient Anatolian people of Kussara Between the 15th and 13th centuries BC, the Hittites were one of the dominant powers of the Near East, coming into conflict with the New Kingdom of Egypt, the Middle Assyrian Empire, and the Empire of Mitanni. By the 12th century BC, much of the Hittite Empire had been annexed by the Middle Assyrian Empire, with the remainder being sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region. From the late 12th century BC, during the Late Bronze Age collapse, the Hittites splintered into several small independent states, some of which survived until the 8th century BC before succumbing to the Neo-Assyrian Empire; lacking a unifying continuity, their descendants scattered and ultimately merged into the modern populations of the Levant and Mesopotamia.[5] Scholars once attributed the development of iron-smelting to the Hittites, who were thought to have monopolized ironworking during the Bronze Age.
Archeological discovery [edit] Biblical background Initial discoveries J. 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. Conquest of the Neo-Babylonian Empire by the Achaemenid Empire The fall of Babylon occurred in 539 BCE, when the Persian Empire conquered the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The success of the Persian campaign, led by Cyrus the Great, brought an end to the reign of the last native dynasty of Mesopotamia and gave the Persians control over the rest of the Fertile Crescent.
Nabonidus, the final Babylonian king and son of the Assyrian priestess Adad-guppi, had ascended to the throne by overthrowing his predecessor Labashi-Marduk in 556. For long periods, he would entrust rule to his son and crown prince Belshazzar, whose poor performance as a politician lost him the support of the priesthood and even the military class, in spite of his capability as a soldier.[3] To the east, the Persians' political and military power had been growing at a rapid pace under the Achaemenid dynasty, and by 540, Cyrus had initiated an offensive campaign against the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Partition of Babylon [edit] Vedic period. Ancient South Asian historical period The Vedas were composed and orally transmitted with precision[note 2] by speakers of an Old Indo-Aryan language who had migrated into the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent early in this period.
The Vedic society was patriarchal and patrilineal. [note 3] Early Indo-Aryans were a Late Bronze Age society centred in the Punjab, organised into tribes rather than kingdoms, and primarily sustained by a pastoral way of life. Around c. 1200–1000 BCE the Aryan culture spread eastward to the fertile western Ganges Plain. Iron tools were adopted, which allowed for the clearing of forests and the adoption of a more settled, agricultural way of life. Archaeological cultures identified with phases of Indo-Aryan material culture include the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture (OCP), the Gandhara grave culture, the Black and Red ware culture (BRW) and the Painted Grey Ware culture (PGW).
Early Vedic period (c. 1500 BCE – c. 1000 BCE) [edit] Towards urbanisation. 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]