110 paolo merlo
during the assyrian and Babylonian rule over these regions). for the sake
of comprehensiveness, the latter theory will be followed in this chapter.
3. Overview on History and Literary Genres
the first mentions of aramaeans come from some assyrian annalistic
texts of tiglath-pileser i dated at the end of the 12th century B.c.2 the
aramaeans began at that time to form many independent city-states in
northern Mesopotamia and Syria.
the oldest inscriptions ascribed to aramaean kings date back to the
9th century B.c., but these texts still make use of the phoenician script
and language.3
at the end of the 9th century B.c. the oldest aramaic inscriptions
emerged in northern Mesopotamia (tell halaf: Kai 231; tell fekheriyeh:
Kai 309), Syria (Melqart stele: Kai 201), and northern palestine (tel Dan:
Kai 310). even though all these texts belong to the type of monumental
inscriptions, each exemplifies a more specific literary genre such as votive
inscriptions or dedications (Kai 201; 231; 309) and a royal victory inscrip-
tion (Kai 310).
in the course of the 8th century B.c., many other aramaic inscriptions
were written that present clear literary outlines, due also to their length.
the main texts of this period are the royal inscriptions from Zincirli and
ancient Samʾal (Kai 214–218),4 the Zakkur stele from the Syrian kingdom
of hamath (Kai 202), the monumental Sefire treaty inscriptions (Kai
222–224),5 some funerary inscriptions from the cities of Neirab (Kai
225–226), the Kuttamuwa inscription from Zincirli,6 and the two frag-
ments of the Bukan memorial stele found in iran (Kai 320).
the assyrian domination of the ancient Near east during the late 8th
and 7th centuries B.c. led to both a considerable standardization and
widespread knowledge of the aramaic language throughout the ancient
Near east. unfortunately, the extant aramaic texts from the assyrian
period (ca. 7th century B.c.) are rather brief and lack significant literary
features. they mainly consist of administrative texts or notes written on
clay tablets,7 an epistolary text known as the ashur ostrakon (Kai 233),
2 riMa 2 a.0.87.4:34; cf. Grayson 1991: 43.
3 cf. the Kulamuwa inscription Kai 24.
4 cf. tropper 1993.
5 cf. fitzmyer 21995.
6 cf. pardee 2009a and id. 2009b.
7 cf. fales 1986; röllig 2002a; id. 2002b.