The design is specifically based on a relief depicting Gilgamesh between two bull-men supporting a winged sun disk, excavated by the French semitologist André Dupont-Sommer (1900-1983) at Tell Halaf in the former Aramean city-state of Bit Bahiani, today located in the Al Hasakah governorate of northeastern Syria.[3] The red background was chosen to represent the blood that was spilled in the Aramean genocide. The yellow represents hope.[4] It is intended to represent "the Aramean (Syriac) nation in the Aramean homeland and in the Aramean diaspora".[5] The Aramean flag is advocated by a number of Syriac Christians, most notably members of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church.