Aram Damascus was an Aramean state centered around Damascus in Syria, from the late 12th century BCE to 734 BCE. The Aramaeans, or Arameans, were a Semitic, nomadic people who originated or had lived in the Syrian Desert and the Fertile Crescent. ... Damascus by night, pictured from Jabal Qasioun; the green spots are minarets Damascus (Arabic: ‎ translit: Also commonly: الشام ash-Shām) is the capital and largest city of Syria. ...

Sources for this state come from texts that can be divided into three categories: Assyrian annals, Aramean texts, and the Hebrew Bible.

The greatest portion of the textual sources come from Assyria. There are, however, often several copies of the same texts so the material of the texts is rather limited. Most of the texts are annals from the Assyrian kings Shalmaneser III, Adad-Nirari III, and Tiglath-Pileser III. The texts mention Aram-Damascus from an Assyrian perspective, but are in many ways informative of the strength of the state, and give us several names of its rulers. Relief from Assyrian capital of Dur Sharrukin, showing transport of Lebanese cedar (8th c. ... Annals are a form of historical writing which record events year by year. ... Shalmaneser III (Šulmānu-ašarēdu, the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent) was king of Assyria (859 BC-824 BC), and son of the previous ruler, Ashurnasirpal II. His long reign was a constant series of campaigns against the eastern tribes, the Babylonians, the nations of Mesopotamia and Syria... Tiglath-Pileser III — stela from the walls of his palace (British Museum, London) Tiglath-Pileser III (Akkadian: Tukultī-Apil-Ešarra) was a prominent king of Assyria in the 8th century BC (ruled 745–727 BC) and is widely regarded as the founder of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. ...

Aramean royal inscriptions are rare, and only one royal stele from Aram-Damascus proper has been identified, the stele from Tel Dan. Among other sources in Aramaic that shed light on the history of Aram-Damascus are two “booty inscriptions” from Eritria and Samos, and the Zakkur stele. Ancient Egyptian funerary stele Suenos Stone in Forres Scotland A stele (or stela) is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerary or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living—inscribed, carved in relief (bas... Tel Dan is an area in upper Galilee in Northern Israel; fed by melt water from the snows of mount Hermon, it is well watered by streams and covered with lush vegetation that seems out of place amidst its arid surroundings. ... Samos (Greek Σάμος) is a Greek island in the Eastern Aegean Sea, located between the island of Chios to the North and the archipelagic complex of the Dodecanese islands to the South and in particular the island of Patmos and off the coast of Turkey, on what was formely known as...

The Hebrew Bible gives more detailed accounts of Aram-Damascus' history, mainly in its interaction with Israel. The accounts, in their present form, are much more readable than the Aramaic and Assyrian ones. However, the texts in Hebrew Bible are much later and even more ideologically colored then the other texts. Through penetrating the texts’ ideological purposes, it is, however, possible to glimpse at some relatively reliable historical information about Aram-Damascus. 11th century manuscript of the Hebrew Bible with Targum This article discusses usage of the term Hebrew Bible. For the article on the Hebrew Bible itself, see Tanakh. ...

The sources for the early history of Aram-Damascus are almost non-existent. In an annal dating to Tiglath-Pileser I we learn that Aramean people have begun settling in the southern half of Syria. The texts of the Hebrew Bible mentioning David's battles against Arameans are not very reliable, although we can assume that there were Arameans in southern Syria in the 10th century BCE. Tiglath-Pileser I (the Hebraic form of Tukulti-apil-Esharra, my trust is in the son of Esharra) was King of Assyria (1115 BC - 1077 BC). ... David and Goliath by Caravaggio, c. ...

The first reliable data can be found in the 9th century BCE when Aramean, Assyrian, and Hebrew texts all mention a state with its capital in Damascus. The state seems to have reached its peak in the late 9th century BCE under Hazael, who, according to Assyrian texts fought against the Assyrians, and according to Aramean texts had some influence over the north Syrian state Unqi, and according to Hebrew texts conquered all of Israel. Hebrew (עִבְרִית, ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Jewish communities around the world. ... Hazael (Hebrew Hazael, meaning God has seen) was a court official and later an Aramean king who appeared in the Bible. ...

Archaeological evidence of Aram-Damascus is close to nothing. Excavations in Damascus are hard to perform due to the continuous settlement of the city. Other cities of Aram-Damascus have not been positively identified from textual sources, and excavations of Iron Age sites around Damascus are almost non-existent. The material culture at sites farther south (e.g. Tell-Ashtara, Tell er-Rumeith, et-Tell, Tel-Dan, Tell el-Oreme, to name but a few) do not show many features distinguishing from the material culture from northern Israel. Et-Tell is an archaeological site in Israel that is popularly thought to be the Biblical city of Ai. ...

Resources

• Damascus on Bruce Gordon's Regnal Chronologies (also at [1])