The Ar Rulers

A fresco at Erebuni Fortress in Armenia (8th Century BC)

Alice C. Linsley

The original name for the Nile River was Ar, meaning "venerable". The Ar prefix appears in the names of many rulers and ruler-priests, suggesting that these are descendants of rulers who dispersed out of the Nile Valley. Examples include the Sumerian king Arwium of Kish; Artama, Archelaos, Artaxerxes, Ar-Shem, Artix, Areli, Araxes, Arviragus, a Jebusite named Araunah, and Arishen, a Horite who ruled a territory in the central Zagros between 2400-2301 B.C. Ariaramnes was the great uncle of Cyrus the Great. 

More recent historical figures identified with the Ar prefix include King Arthur and Joseph of Arimathea, both connected to the British Isles.

Israelites associated with the Ar patrimony include Aroch (1 Chr 7:39, Ezr 2:5, Neh 6:18, Neh 7:10) and Ariel (Ezr 8:16, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:7). Ariel means “Scribe/Messenger of God.” 

The association of the Ar element with royal scribes is demonstrated by the discovery of multi-lingual scrolls from the satrap Arsames to his Egyptian administrator Psamshek and to an Egyptian ruler named Nekht-Hor (A.T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948, pp.116-117). The archives of Arsames offer valuable insight into the administration of Egypt at the end of Dynasty 27 (525- 404 BC).

The Arsames communiques tell of tensions between the Jewish priests and the priests of the Ram-headed HR resulted in the destruction of a magnificent Jewish temple at Elephantine in 410 BC, with the approval of the Persian governor Vidranga. In Horite Hebrew religion the Sun rose as a lamb in the east and set as a ram in the west. The solar arc spoke to them of the reign of the High God over earth. Horus was in his lamb state at sunrise and in his ram state as sunset. This symbolically speaks death and resurrection. The YHWH temple at Elephantine represented a different religion in which there was no son of God.

Royal scribes served the great kingdom builders of Genesis chapter 10, and they are to be thanked for preserving some of the oldest anthropological data available today.

The Ar rulers were served by scribes, masons, gardeners, and warriors. The royal metal workers fashioned weapons and symbols of authority such as staffs, crowns, flails, totems, and vellidoids. 

The Ar connection to rulers is reflected in the Arabic word arsh, meaning "throne", and to the word aryeh, meaning lion, the most widespread symbol of kings. A Hebrew ruler was named Areli, meaning "Lion of God".

On ancient monuments and stone reliefs, kings are often shown fighting a lion or subduing serpents. The ancient Egyptian word ar refers to the Sun serpent, the totem of smiths throughout the Ancient Near East. Ancient iconography shows Horus (Most High One) wearing the golden serpent of the Sun on his head. The serpent was a totemic symbol for the royal smiths. That sheds light on the narrative of Moses, the Horite Hebrew leader, who fabricated a bronze serpent and placed it on a staff.

One of the largest copper production sites of the Levant is in the Arava/Arabah region in what is now Israel. This hilltop site was the workshop of ironmongers as evidenced by furnaces and slag heaps. The smiths who worked at the Timna site venerated Hathor, the mother of Horus. 

The smiths were known by different names depending on the location of the kingdom in which they served. The smiths of Anatolia were called Nes. In Igboland, the metal-working priests, often dwarfs, were called Neshi. They are also credited with the early sacred script known to the Cross River indigenes as Nshi-biri (which in Igbo means ‘Written by Nshi’).

The Ar of Genesis 10

Genesis 10 speaks of the Ar who controlled the Red Sea and the Mediterranean kingdoms of Tyre and Arvad. This appears to be a 3-clan confederation, consisting of Ar, Arvd and Arkt. The last two clans are called “Arvadites” and “Arkites” in Genesis 10:15-18. The peoples living in Arvad had serpent imagery in their temples and shrines. 

Deuteronomy 2:9 states that Ar was given to the Moabites, the descendants of Lot whose homeland was in Mesopotamia.

The word “Arvadite” refers to residents of the Mediterranean island-city of Arvad (Arpah or Arphad in some ancient sources). Arvad is an extremely ancient city. Before the time of the Phoenicians, it was populated seasonally by peoples passing from North Africa to central Asia. 

It is believed that the island state of Arvad was established by the Amorites around 2000 B.C. although its location on an ancient trade route suggests that it was a significant port long before that.

Tuthmosis III took control of Arvad in 1472 B.C. and the Arvadites paid tribute to the Pharaohs for protection from the Assyrians. 

The Philistines invaded the territory and established themselves as a thorn in the side of Abraham’s descendants. An Aramean king attempted to uproot the Philistines in aid of the Ammonites.

David had to contend with the Philistines on the west and the Ammonite-Aramean coalition on the east. Having dealt with the Philistines, David engaged Shoboch, the Aramean general and defeated him. (II Sam.10:18)

Ar Place Names

It was a common practice in the ancient world for a territory to take the name of its king or a name derived from the king's royal titles. The dispersal of Ar rulers may be traced by the identification of toponyms with the Ar prefix. Consider this partial list: Ar in Moab, Arabia, Arabah, Aram, Arvan, Arba, Arses, Arsamea, Arish, Aragon, Arles, Armagh (Ard Mhacha), Ararat, and Armenia. 

Erebuni Fortress in Armenia, known as Arin Berd ("Fortress of Blood") was founded in 782 BC by the Urartian King Argishti I (reigned 785-753 BC). Built on a hill overlooking the Arax River, it served as a military stronghold to protect the kingdom's northern borders.

The dye used in the Erebuni fresco (shown above) is composed of copper obtained from Armenia and which had been used in Mesopotamia since the 3rd millennium BC.

Another example is the place name Arrapha, a center of Hurrian/Horite culture. Ancient Arrapha was a part of Sargon of Akkad's Akkadian Empire (2335–2154 BC). Akkad was one of the principal cities of Nimrod's kingdom (Gen. 10).


Related reading: The Great Kingdom Builders of Genesis 10; Was King Arthur a Descendant of Nilotic Rulers?; The Priesthood in England; Horite and Sethite Mounds; What Abraham Discovered on Mount Moriah; Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b-L151; Y-DNA Haplogroup R2; Y-DNA Haplogroup J2; Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b-Z2103