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==The Rise of Aramaic==

While Akkadian was, on the one hand, the first language to spread wide in a region and bridge the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East, its limitations prevented it from being adopted by common people. With the arrival of the Sea Peoples (c. 1200 BC), we see a political and economic vacuum created in the eastern Mediterranean and Near East. New population groups and states arose after the arrival of the Sea Peoples.<ref>For a discussion on the Sea Peoples see: Sandars, Nancy K. 1985. <i>The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the Ancient Mediterranean 1250 - 1150 BC</i>. Rev. ed. Ancient Peoples and Places 89. London: Thames and Hudson.</ref> This enabled new languages to arise, particularly the newly established alphabetical languages, as the alphabetical script, nearly 1000 years after its invention, began to be adopted more significantly by languages. One language that adopted the alphabet was Aramaic.<ref>For a discussion on Aramaic and its history see: Gzella, Holger. 2015. ''A Cultural History of Aramaic: From the Beginnings to the Advent of Islam''. <i>Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section 1 The Near and Middle East</i>, volume 111. Boston: Brill.</ref> This language was spoken by the Arameans in Syria, Anatolia, the Levant, and northern Mesopotamia (Figure 2).

While the Arameans never became a politically influential group, with the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-609 BC), Aramaic became adopted by the empire in its communication with its conquered populations. This Western Semitic language enabled the language to effectively communicate with many areas held by the empire. After the fall of the Neo-Assyrians, the Achaemenid Persian Empire (550-330 BC) utilized Aramaic even more throughout its realm. It is at this point that Aramaic may have spread between Egypt and Central Asia.

What made Aramaic an attractive language that spread far across much of the Old World is 1) it utilized a simple alphabetical script and 2) its Semitic structure ensured that many groups in the Near East were able to understand the language or at least parts of it. <ref>For a discussion on Aramaic’s utility see: Beyer, Klaus. 1986. ''The Aramaic Language, Its Distribution and Subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht''.</ref> During the Achaemenid period, we also see more utilization of parchment, where more common households and individuals utilized written language in day-to-day business. In particular, as trade began to spread under the aegis and protection of larger empires, Aramaic became a natural vehicle in which population groups communicated, helping to politically and economically unify large areas.<ref>For a discussion on how Aramaic was used in empires and trade during the rise of Iranian-based empire see: Dandamaev, M. A., Vladimir Grigorʹevich Lukonin, Philip L. Kohl, and D. J. Dadson. 2004. ''The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran''. 1st pbk. ed. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, page 113. </ref>

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