Aram, Aramaeans

Nomadic people who originally lived in Aram, a desert region in modern Syria, Jordan and western Iraq. They are first mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions of about 1100 BC, when they raided and settled in Mesopotamia and the Levant. By 1000 BC Aramaean kingdoms were established from the Levant to Babylonia (where they were known as Chaldeans). Western Aramaean kingdoms were eventually destroyed by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in 740-720 BC, while Aramaean dynasties in the east merged with the Babylonians.