- Aram Damascus
Aram Damascus was an
Aramaean state centered aroundDamascus inSyria , from the late 12th century BCE to 734 BCE.Sources for this state come from texts that can be divided into three categories:
Assyria n annals, Aramaean texts, and theHebrew Bible .The largest portion of the textual sources come from Assyria. There are, however, often several copies of the same texts. Most of the texts are
annals from the Assyrian kingsShalmaneser III ,Adad-Nirari III , andTiglath-Pileser III . The texts mention Aram-Damascus from an Assyrian perspective, but are in many ways informative of the strength of the state, and give us several names of its rulers.Aramaean royal inscriptions are rare, and only one royal
stele from Aram-Damascus proper has been identified — theTel Dan Stele . Other sources in Aramaic that shed light on the history of Aram-Damascus include two "booty inscriptions" fromEritrea and Samos, and theZakkur stele .The Hebrew Bible gives more detailed accounts of Aram-Damascus' history, mainly in its interaction with
Israel , however, these accounts have been dated much later.The sources for the early history of Aram-Damascus are almost nonexistent. In an annal dating to
Tiglath-Pileser I (1114-1076 BCE), we learn that Aramaean people have begun settling in the southern half of Syria. There are also texts of the Bible mentioningDavid 's battles against Aramaeans in southern Syria in the 10th century BCE.The first reliable data can be found in the 9th century BCE when Aramaean, Assyrian, and Hebrew texts all mention a state with its capital in Damascus. The state seems to have reached its peak in the late 9th century BCE under
Hazael , who, according to Assyrian texts, fought against the Assyrians, and according to Aramaean texts, had some influence over the north Syrian stateUnqi , and according to Hebrew texts, conquered all ofIsrael .Archaeological evidence of Aram-Damascus is close to nothing. Excavations in Damascus are hard to perform, owing to the continuous settlement of the city. Other cities of Aram-Damascus have not been positively identified from textual sources, and excavations of
Iron Age sites around Damascus are almost nonexistent. The material culture at sites farther south (e.g.Tell-Ashtara ,Tell er-Rumeith ,et-Tell ,Tel-Dan ,Tell el-Oreme , to name but a few) do not show many features distinguishing from the material culture of northern Israel.Kings
*
Hadadezer 880-842 BCE
*Hazael 842-805 or 796 BCE
*Ben-Hadad III 796 to 792 BCEee also
*
Aram (Biblical region)
*Aram Naharaim
*Aram Rehob References
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