Abstract
Over many decades the references to "Aram" in the Aramaic inscription Sefire I A, 5-6, have been interpreted as referring to a geographical location. Various scholars have proposed different solutions for the identification of this region (the region of the Euphrates River, Upper and Lower regions of Mesopotamia, Damascus and Arpad, etc.).
Nevertheless, a parallel formula, which appears in some Neo-Assyrian adê-texts, sheds new light on the meaning of "Aram" in the Sefire inscription. The author argues that "Aram" denotes the Aramaean population of the kingdom Arpad/Bīt-Agūsi.
He supports this thesis with references to the occurrence of "Aram" in other Old Aramaic inscriptions, in the inscription of Bar-Hadad on the stela of Melqart from Brēdj, and in the inscription of Zakkur, king of Hamath and Lu'aš, on a stela probably discovered at Tell Afis, as well as by the relevant texts of the Hebrew Bible and in the Neo-Assyrian texts.