Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples or Proto-Semitic people were speakers of Semitic languages who lived throughout the ancient Near East and North Africa, including the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula and Carthage from the 3rd millennium BC until the end of antiquity, with some, such as Assyrians, Mandaeans, Arabs, Arameans, Samaritans and Jews having a continuum into the present day. Wikipedia