Old Aramaic-Sam'alian

Old Aramaic refers to the earliest stage of the Aramaic language, known from early Aramaic inscriptions and dated to the 10th century BCE through the 8th century BCE.

Emerging as the language of the city-states of the Arameans in the Fertile Crescent in the Early Iron Age, Old Aramaic was adopted as a lingua franca, and in this role was inherited for official use by the Achaemenid Empire during classical antiquity. After the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, local vernaculars became increasingly prominent, fanning the divergence of an Aramaic dialect continuum and the development of differing written standards.

The language is considered to have given way to Middle Aramaic by the 3rd century BCE (a conventional date is the rise of the Sasanian Empire in 224 CE).

From Wikipedia · Old Aramaic · CC BY-SA 4.0