Large groups of Arameans migrated to Babylonia in southern Mesopotamia during the 11th and 10th centuries BC, where they established small semi-independent Aramaic kingdoms before being absorbed into the native population.[citation needed] In the Levant and in Mesopotamia conquered Aramean populations were forcibly deported throughout the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Babylonian Empire[dubious ] e.g. under the rule of the 8th-century Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III.