24 hélène sader
may have been the reason behind choosing the name of the territory
instead of the traditional tribal designation.
the aramaean kingdoms that developed in the territory of modern
Syria76 are those of Bit Baḫiani on the upper Khabur, Bit adini on the
east and west bank of the euphrates, Bit agusi in central north Syria from
aleppo to the Syro-turkish borders, hamath and Luʿaš from the oron-
tes Valley to the coast, and aram-Damascus from palmyra to the Golan
heights, including the Lebanese Beqaʿ.77 aramaean polities, like Laqe and
Bit Ḫalupe on the Middle euphrates and lower Khabur, and Nisibis and
Bit Zamanni in the tur ʿabdin area, were short-lived and do not appear
to have initiated large-scale urbanization, since there is no mention of
their royal or fortified cities.78 they were incorporated into the assyrian
provincial system towards the middle of the 9th century B.c.
when the assyrian annals first mention these aramaean kingdoms all
appear to have undergone large-scale urbanization. the assyrian texts
always associate these urban settlements with the person of the polity
ruler by referring to them as his royal (alānu šarrūti-šu) or his fortified
cities (alānu dannūti-šu).79 political authority may have preceded urban-
ization and the building of fortified cities may be explained by the need
“to enhance the managerial and coordinating capabilities of the emerging
leadership.”80 as S. Mazzoni correctly observed, urbanization was linked
to the emergence of “political entities based on territorial control and
exploitation,” which later achieved “central administration and a palace-
oriented organization.”81
Urban centers with fortifications and monumental buildings are
widely attested in the archaeological record of Syria from the 10th cen-
tury onward in hamath,82 Zincirli,83 tell halaf,84 tell Fekheriye,85 tell
76 Sader 1987, Dion 1997, and Lipiński 2000a recently discussed the political history of
these kingdoms. cf. also the map in the frontispiece.
77 Lipiński 2000a: 298 claims that the Beqaʿ Valley was in the hands of the kingdom of
hamath in spite of the fact that the provinces created by the assyrians on the territory of
aram-Damascus clearly include cities located in the Beqaʿ Valley.
78 For their boundaries and their political role, see Lipiński 2000a: 77–117.
79 For these cities, see Ikeda 1979.
80 cohen 1984: 347.
81 Mazzoni 1994: 329.
82 Fugmann 1958.
83 Von Luschan 1893; id. 1898; id. 1902; id. 1911; id. 1943; see more recently wartke 2005
and also Schloen – Fink 2009a; iid. 2009b.
84 Von oppenheim 1950; id. 1955; id. 1962 and more recently cholidis – Martin 2002;
iid. (eds.) 2010; iid. (eds.) 2011; Baghdo – Martin – Novák – orthmann (eds.) 2009; iid.
(eds.) 2012.
85 Mcewan et al. 1958.