Gli Aramei in Siria del Sud nei secoli IX-VIII a.C.

The Aramaeans in Southern Syria in the 9th-8th centuries B.C. Summary The Arameans are a population settled in the territory of modern Syria and Mesopotamia in the first millennium BC. Starting from the tenth century, they gradually leave their nomadic lifestyle to turn into a sedentary population by creating territorial states under the name of “Byt”, after the name of the founder of each local dynasty. In this work, starting from the controversial question about ethnics, we seek to determine the representative characteristics of Aramaeans, especially for those settled in southern Syria in the ninth-eighth centuries, during the rise of the Damascus kingdom. We investigate this latter relationships with neighboring populations, especially the Israelites who were confronted with them several times during alternate periods of war and peace. This is a detailed study of the southern part of Syria based on the analysis of epigraphic sources (Aramaic inscriptions, Assyrian annals and Bible) and archaeological data coming from some sites (south of Damascus, Palestine and North Jordan ) known to be occupated by Arameans. Through the comparison of these data, we try to provide a plausible reconstruction of the historical context of the kingdom of Damascus in the ninth-eighth centuries BC., the figure of the king Ḥazael, its political expansion till its falling due to the Assyrians domination.