 Kesed is identified as son of Abraham's brother Nahor (and brother of Kemuel the father of Aram), residing in Aram Naharaim.Jewish historian Flavius Josephus also links Arphaxad and Chaldaea, in his Antiquities of the Jews, stating, “Arphaxad named the Arphaxadites, who are now called Chaldeans.”

In the early period, between the early 9th century and late 7th century BCE, "mat Kaldi" was the name of a small sporadically independent migrant-founded territory under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-605 BCE) in southeastern Babylonia, extending to the western shores of the Persian Gulf.The expression " mat Bit Yâkin" is also used, apparently synonymously.