284 martti nissinen
names coming from the ethnically aramaean western provinces (for
example, harran, dūr-katlimmu, Guzana, and ma ʾallanate).72
(3) i have counted individuals, not names, in cases where several indi-
viduals appear in the PNA under the same name.
it is clear that this database does not enable a full inventory of the ara-
maean population in assyria. first of all, not all aramaeans have aramaic
names, the aramaic names are not always distinguishable from other West
semitic names, and second, aramaic names have been given to people of
non-aramaean origin.73 the actual number of aramaeans should prob-
ably be multiplied from what is presented here. third, a person’s place
of origin is not always certain and not every place name appearing in the
documents can be localized with certainty. fourth, the haphazard survival
and discovery of the documents does not yield an accurate demographic
description; cities where large archives have been discovered inevitably
dominate the statistics, while important cities like dūr-Šarrukin and
arbela remain almost entirely in the dark. all things considered, it is my
hope that my sample is representative enough to draw a preliminary pro-
file of aramaeans in assyria, to be completed by further research based
on a complete and thoroughly analyzed database.
the PNA volumes include a total of 3,117 individuals whose names
are recognized as West semitic or aramaic. Of these, 1,040 individuals
(ca. 33%) are designated as aramaeans, of whom 599 individuals (ca.
58%) can be located in the assyrian heartland with some certainty. Of
these 599 aramaeans, only 32 (ca. 5.3%) are women.74
the personal names in the PNA corpus date from the entire Neo-
assyrian period. While a fair number of aramaic names appear in undat-
able documents,75 it may be observed that three-fifths, that is, 365 of the
599 aramaeans, lived during the reign of the sargonid kings (sargon ii:
67, sennacherib: 69, esarhaddon: 67, ashurbanipal: 162); in addition,
72 for the documents from ma ʾallanate (maʿlana), located somewhere in the Baliḫ
region, see now the full-scale study of lipiński 2010.
73 e.g., ta ʾlâ, an egyptian from ashur, Zanbālâ, an arab active in ashur, dala-ahî, mili-
tary official from samaria, and two members of a samarian contingent in Calah, both
called ahi-idrī.
74 Cf. the anonymous references to aramaean women in saa 7 24: 1 (36 aram[aean
women]), 21 (three aramaean women), r. 2 (six female ar[amaean] scribes; see below,
n. 146).
75 according to Zadok 1997a: 211, it is “logical to assume that most of the undatable
documents from kuyunjik and Calah belong to the well-documented periods, viz. 704–648
BC at Nineveh and 744–705 at Calah.”