A New View of the Aramaeans

Abstract

In recent years a renewed interest has been devoted to the Aramaeans, to their origins and expansion, in particular on the basis of new discoveries and methods of research. Using all the information available—mainly written but also archaeological—K. Lawson Younger has produced an historical reconstruction of each Aramaic group, tribe, and polity, in which all the still unsolved questions concerning origin and social and political development up to the dissolution of the main states in the face of the Achaemenids are discussed in depth . This article aims to present the specific character of Younger’s work, focusing in particular on aspects of some old Aramaic inscriptions .