The use of Aramaic throughout the Achaemenian empire is well established and will be discussed in detail in the course of this chapter. It has been assumed by some scholars that the spread of Aramaic was primarily the result of official action by Darius I and was further promulgated by his successors. This view, however, ignores the important role of Aramaic in earlier periods. The earliest Aramaic inscription, apparently from the 10th–9th centuries was discovered recently at Tell Fakhariya in Syria near the Khabur. Documentation is at first sparse but in the course of the 9th and 8th centuries Aramaic inscriptions from Syria and the neighbouring countries increase (KAI 201–15; 222–4; 232). one may discern in the material at hand the existence of dialectical differences in Aramaic. The use of Aramaic in the Assyrian empire at an early period is attested to by references to Aramaic letters (egirtu armētu) and to Aramaic scribes and documents before the rise of the Sargonid dynasty. Indeed the gradual absorption of great numbers of Aramaic speakers from the West influenced the composition of the administration of the Assyrian empire. On reliefs and wall paintings from the time of Tiglath Pileser III onwards pairs of scribes, one with pen and leather (or papyrus), writing in Aramaic, and the other with stylus and tablet (or waxed board), writing in Akkadian, are depicted on Assyrian reliefs.

The “Mesopotamian” dialect of Aramaic which was in use in the area of Aram-Naharaim along the banks of the Habur and Balikh to the Euphrates attests to the influence of Assyrian on Aramaic.