Damascus has been only the peripheral part of the picture that has mostly affected the larger population centers of ancient Syria.

However, these events have contributed to the development of Damascus as a new influential center that emerges with the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.

However, Damascus is not documented as an important city until the coming of the Aramaeans, Semitic semi-nomadic pastoralists who arrive in the region, perhaps from the Arabian Peninsula, and first establish the water distribution system of Damascus by constructing canals and tunnels that maximize the efficiency of the Barada River.

(The same network will later be improved by the Romans and the Umayyads, and still forms the basis of the water system of the old part of Damascus today.)