The Archevites were inhabitants of Erech (ancient Uruk, one of the world's oldest cities), who were among the foreign peoples resettled in Samaria by the Assyrians. They joined in writing the letter to Artaxerxes opposing the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
The Archevites' opposition to Jerusalem's reconstruction represents a recurring biblical pattern: when God's people attempt to restore what God has appointed, the surrounding peoples — those whose identity is threatened by Israel's restoration — resist. Yet Scripture consistently shows that opposition to God's redemptive purposes ultimately fails. Erech itself was one of Nimrod's cities (Genesis 10:10), connecting its inhabitants to humanity's earliest rebellion against God.