An exhibition opening this month at the Louvre, 'Forgotten Kingdoms: From the Hittite Empire to the
Arameans' (2 May-12 August), will explore these dramatic events from the point of view of the Hittites; it will take visitors through the rise of their empire in Syria and Anatolia (Figs.
The Golan has a deep-rooted cultural history since the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) as it has been inhabited by the Canaanites, the Assyrians, the Amorites, the
Arameans, the Chaldeans, the Nabataeans, the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Arabs .
These people groups are Amorites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Ugaritians, Egyptians, Hittites and Hurrians (in one essay),
Arameans, Phoenicians, Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites (the last three in one essay), Philistines, Persians, Arabians, and Greeks.
The fact that the broader Israeli public is mostly unaware of the existence of these people and regards them as Arabs underlies the fact that the voices of
Arameans remain unheard in turmoil surrounding the nation-state law, which defines Israel as the state of the Jewish people.
Porten, B., <<Settlement of Jews at Elephantine and the
Arameans at Syene>>, en Lipschitz, O.
Meantime, local sources in the village of Ain Dara, 5km of Southern Afrin, confirmed that the Ankara-backed militants have targeted an ancient site near the village and destroyed a vast area of the temples belonging to the
Arameans which dates back to 10,000 years ago.
Wandering
Arameans:
Arameans Outside Syria: Textual and Archaeological Perspectives
This ancient trading hub by the Tigris River-- which has been conquered by the
Arameans, Romans, and Byzantine and Ottoman troops -- is now the site of a renewed wave of civilian killings, mass displacements and destruction of property, according to witnesses.
The King of Aram (who was at war with Israel) was out to get Elisha for warning the King of Israel of the
Arameans' military plans (vv.8-13).
In the ninth century BCE, the "calculated frightfulness" of Ashurnasirpal II was impressed on his vassals by the reliefs carved on the walls of his palace; and Shalmaneser III directed the "hammer blows" of his armies against his western neighbors--the Israelites,
Arameans, Phoenicians, and others--who at one point fought the Assyrians to a draw at the battle of Karkara in 853 BCE.