ABSTRACT
As has already been seen for Palestine, in reality the contraposition between new populations and the Canaanites is more social than based on their ‘arrival date’. The Arameans were the offspring of those pastoral groups already inhabiting the region and interacting with the sedentary groups living there. During their expansion following the crisis of the twelfth century bc, they began to integrate with the people already living in the region. This process led to a certain degree of assimilation, although this assimilation happened more with the Canaanites, who spoke a similar language, rather than the Neo-Hittites, Hurrians, Assyrians and Babylonians, who had very different cultures and languages.
