The Aramaeans in Ancient Syria

chapter five

Literature

paolo Merlo

1. introduction

the corpus of ancient aramaic texts is rather limited and cannot be com-
pared with other ancient Near eastern examples, such as the akkadian
or egyptian ones. Strictly speaking, no literary work has yet come to light
within the corpus of Old aramaic inscriptions from Syria except for the
poorly preserved and fragmented inscription from tell Deir ʿalla. it is
nevertheless possible to discover some literary features in Old aramaic
inscriptions of other genres, such as royal inscriptions, stelae, letters, or
international treaties. in this chapter some literary aspects and stylistic
devices of these ancient aramaic texts shall be reviewed.

2. terminology

“Old aramaic” usually refers to the earliest phase of the aramaic lan-
guage.1 the texts pertaining to this period date from the origin of the
language in the 9th century B.c. to the rise of the Babylonian empire in
the 6th century B.c. While the starting date is self-evident (it marks the
earliest possible evidence of aramaic), some problems arise when deter-
mining the lower chronological limit. Some scholars set the beginning of
“Official aramaic” with the spread of the assyrian empire around 700 B.c.
(J.a. fitzmyer), others place the lower limit of the Old aramaic language
at the collapse of the assyrian empire (St. a. Kaufman), and still others
consider the texts from the Neo-assyrian and Neo-Babylonian period to
be a new phase of Old aramaic (v. hug). the scholars following the latter
theory divide the Old aramaic corpus into two main groups: the earlier
Old aramaic inscriptions (i.e., the texts of the independent aramaean
cities), and the later Old aramaic inscriptions (i.e., the texts produced

1 for more details, cf. h. Gzella’s contribution in this volume.