K. Lawson Younger Jr. presents a political history of the Arameans from their earliest origins, to the rise of their independent polities in the Iron I and II, to the end of their identifiable polities which can mainly be attributed to Assyrian expansion. The author starts with preliminary issues such as the geography, chronology and languages that determine the framework in which Aramean history began and unfolded. The information is very basic and illustrated by several figures and maps. Chapter 2 deals with the origins of the Arameans, starting with the word “Aram”, presenting an overview over the earliest attestations and sources, the possible social (e.g. tribal and clan) structures, migration models, and some preliminary steps (2.6) into the large field of Biblical texts attesting Arameans as well as into the scholarly debate about cultural memory. Chapter 3 focuses on regional developments in the rise of Aramean political entities which can be traced in the Iron I in the Hittite sphere, the Assyrian sphere and the northern Levant. The author is certainly right in his basic observation that the Aramean entities evolved in very different areas of the Ancient Near East and therefore had to face very different factors, challenges, influences, scripts/languages, and neighbours (for example, the Luwians, Assyrians, Israelites, Babylonians, etc.). Indeed, “The very designation ‘Arameans’ masks the fact they were not a unified group” (p. 109). The focus on “the” Arameans as diverse regional/local small tribes and very different regional political entities fits the scholarly consensus as it is actually represented, e.g. by the work and publications of the Minerva centre RIAB (Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times), directed by Aren Maeir and the present writer. In chapter 4 the rise and development of the Aramean polities of the Jezirah (= upper Mesopotamia) come into focus, and chapters 5–9 sketch the well-known entities of Bit Adini, Sam'al, Hamath and Lugath, Arpad, Aram-Damascus and last but not least (ch. 10), the Aramean tribal entities in southern Mesopotamia. As prime marker for the diverse Aramean groups the author singles out, unsurprisingly, the Aramaic language and the consistent ability and will to acculturate and adapt to the diverse regional influences and neighbourhoods (see the very short conclusion, pp. 741 f.). The Aramean tendency to acculturate featured in almost all the environments, with the characteristic exception of Babylonia. Even if the author does not reflect it explicitly, this can surely be attributed to the specific closed structure of the Babylonian society and the social demarcation lines in urban Babylonia: acculturation with “Westerners” was not encouraged and only rarely possible (see A. Berlejung, Social Demarcation Lines and Marriage Rules in Urban Babylonia, forthcoming).

In sum, the author touches nearly all of the research questions which have in the past been raised and discussed relating to the Arameans: their language, origin, social structure, possible identity markers and history. He utilizes a large number of the available literary and archaeological sources to develop his comprehensive picture of the diverse regional Aramean entities and their local specifications. His impressive bibliography (pp. 743–832) attests to the fact that he is aware of nearly all the relevant past and recent publications in English, German and French. However, in the main text of the book the discussion mainly selects, summarizes and refers to English scholarship (starting 2007, thus ten years and older). The book can surely be classified as a kind of research report of the past scholarly (English-speaking until 2007) debate and as a compendium of the main literary and archaeological sources that were known to this date. In this respect it updates the seminal works written by E. Lipinski, but moves in some aspects beyond the level of the articles collected in H. Niehr (ed.), The Aramaeans in Ancient Syria (Handbuch der Orientalistik. Leiden: Brill, 2014). However, the present volume is a manual (with a large number of helpful tables, maps and illustrations as well as English translations of original sources) and a Standardwerk that will be indispensable for use in future scholarship. A scripture index and a general index support the reader in finding a route through this opus magnum.