outlook: aramaeans outside of syria 285
35 individuals are mentioned in tablets with an approximate dating in
the 7th century. the documents dating to pre-sargonid times include
54 aramaean individuals, while the documents written after the reign of
assurbanipal report as many as 85 individuals with an aramaic name.
as far as the place of domicile of the 599 aramaeans can be known,
three major assyrian cities clearly dominate the scene: 189 individuals
come from Nineveh, 119 from Calah, and 130 from ashur. Otherwise, fif-
teen people are located in kannuʾ, five in imgur-illil, four in maganuba,
and two in dūr-Šarrukin. all other locations in the assyrian heartland are
represented by one aramaean individual, if any. in the pre-sargonic texts,
as well as in those from the time of sargon ii, Calah is by far the most
common domicile of the people (40/54 individuals before sargon, 35/67
during his reign), while in the time of sennacherib and esarhaddon, a
slight majority of the aramaeans come from Nineveh (86/136). the picture
changes again in the time from assurbanipal to the end of the assyrian
empire: Of the total of 247 individuals, 94 come from ashur, 59 from
Nineveh, and 29 from Calah. One should note, however, that these fig-
ures are, evidently and expectedly, dependent on the availability of archi-
val material. the lack of aramaeans in major cities such as dūr-Šarrukin
(2)76 and arbela (1) cannot possibly mean that there were no aramaeans
in these cities; the reason is rather that archives from these cities have
not been discovered. this can be also taken as a warning against relying
too heavily on statistics, which are inevitably exposed to the accident of
discovery.77
as was stated above, the growth of the empire and the mass deportation
policy caused even the assyrian heartland to develop into a multiethnic
society in which people of non-assyrian origin occupied different posi-
tions and professions. this, of course was true even for the aramaeans, as
i would like to demonstrate in the following brief inventory. the individu-
als are listed in the footnotes by referring to the respective entries in the
PNA where the textual references and other information can be found.78
Slaves and workers (25 individuals). even though slavery was not the
most typical fate of the deportees and the purpose of the deportations was
76 unless maganuba may be taken as representing dūr-Šarrukin.
77 for the role of accident in our knowledge of the ancient Near east in general, see
millard 2005.
78 in order to save space, references are made directly to the entries, giving the names
without page numbers, textual references, and the authors of the entries. henceforth, the
following abbreviations are used for the reigns of the assyrian kings: tig = tiglath-pileser
iii, sar = sargon ii, sen = sennacherib, esh = esarhaddon, asb = assurbanipal.