Canaan (Northwest Semitic knaʿn; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍; Biblical Hebrew: כנען / knaʿn; Masoretic: כְּנָעַן / Kənáʿan; Arabic: كنعان‎ / Kana‘ān) is a historical Semitic speaking region roughly corresponding to the Levant (modern-day Israel, Palestinian territories, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan and Syria). Canaan was of geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna period as the area where the spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite Empire and Assyrian Empires converged. Canaan is historically attested throughout the 4th millennium BC; the later Amarna Letters use Kinaḫḫu, while sources of the Egyptian New Kingdom mention numerous military campaigns conducted in Ka-na-na.^[1] In modern usage, the name is often associated with the Hebrew Bible, where the "Land of Canaan" extends from Lebanon southward to the "Brook of Egypt" and eastward to the Jordan River Valley.

Much of the modern knowledge about Canaan stems from excavation in this area. Canaanite culture apparently developed in situ from the Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex, which in turn developed from a fusion of Near Eastern Harifian hunter gatherers with Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) farming cultures, practicing animal domestication, during the 6200 BC climatic crisis.^[2] Linguistically, the Canaanite languages form a group within the Northwest Semitic languages; its best-known member today is the Hebrew language, being mostly known from Iron Age epigraphy. Other languages in the Northwest Semitic Canaanite group include; Ugaritic, Amorite, Moabite and Edomite. The various Canaanite nations of the Bronze to Iron Ages are mentioned in the Bible, Mesopotamian (Assyrian and Babylonian), Hittite and Ancient Egyptian texts. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra in Syria) is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically,^[3] even though its Ugaritic language does not belong to the Canaanite group proper.

Nomenclature[link]

Ancient Canaan included the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, an area roughly equivalent to the modern states of Israel (with the Palestinian territories), Lebanon, and coastal and southern inland Syria.^[4] According to archaeologist Jonathan N. Tubb, "Ammonites, Moabites, Israelites and Phoenicians undoubtedly achieved their own cultural identities, and yet ethnically they were all Canaanites" "the same people who settled in farming villages in the region in the 8th millennium BC."^[5]

Canaanites as they were portrayed in the Ancient Egyptian "Book of Gates", dated to the 13th Century BC.

In the north, Lebanon, bordered by the Litani river to the watershed of the Orontes river, was known by the Egyptians as upper Retenu.^[6] Between Lebanon and Syria, Canaan was bordered to the North by Hazor, Aram and Kadesh, which all included the lands of the Semitic Amorites. In Egyptian campaign accounts, the term Djahi was used to refer to the watershed of the Jordan river. Many earlier Egyptian sources also mention numerous military campaigns conducted in Ka-na-na, just inside Asia.^[1]

In Biblical usage, the name was confined to the country West of the Jordan, the Canaanites being described as dwelling "by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan," (Numbers 33:51; Joshua 22:9) and was especially identified with Phoenicia (Isaiah 23:11).^[7]

The Biblical narrative makes a point of the renaming of the "Land of Canaan" to the "Land of Israel" as marking the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land.^{[8][verification needed]}

Etymology[link]

The English term Canaan (pronounced /'keɪnən/ since c. 1500, thanks to the Great Vowel Shift) comes from the Hebrew כנען (knʿn), via Greek Χαναάν Khanaan and Latin Canaan. It appears as ^KUR ki-na-ah-na in the Amarna letters (second half of the 2nd millennium BCE), and knʿn is found on coins from Phoenicia in the last half of the 1st millennium. The Bible derives the name from an alleged eponymous ancestor, Canaan son of Ham. Scholars connect the name Canaan with knʿn, Kana'an, the general Northwest Semitic name for this region.

The etymology is uncertain. One explanation is that it has an original meaning of "lowlands", from a Semitic root knʿ "to be low, humble, depressed", in contrast with Aram, "highlands".^[9] An alternative suggestion derives the term from Hurrian Kinahhu, purportedly referring to the colour purple, so that Canaan and Phoenicia would be synonyms ("Land of Purple"), but it is just as common to assume that Kinahhu was simply the Hurrian rendition of the Semitic knʿn.^[10][11]

Mesopotamian references[link]

Certain scholars of the Semitic Eblaite material (dated 2350 BC) from the archive of Tell Mardikh see the oldest reference to Canaanites in the ethnic name ga-na-na which provides a third millennium reference to the name Canaan.^[12]

Canaan is mentioned in a document from the 18th century BC found in the ruins of Mari, a former Sumerian and at that time Assyrian outpost in Syria, located along the Middle Euphrates. Apparently Canaan at this time existed as a distinct political entity (probably a loose confederation of city-states). A letter from this time complains about certain "thieves and Canaanites (i.e. Kinahhu)" causing trouble in the town of Rahisum.^[3]

Tablets found in the Mesopotamian city of Nuzi use the term Kinahnu ("Canaan") as a synonym for red or purple dye, laboriously produced by the Kassite rulers of Babylon from murex shells as early as 1600 BC, and on the Mediterranean coast by the Phoenicians from a byproduct of glassmaking. Purple cloth became a renowned Canaanite export commodity which is mentioned in Exodus. The dyes may have been named after their place of origin. The name 'Phoenicia' is connected with the Greek word for "purple", apparently referring to the same product, but it is difficult to state with certainty whether the Greek word came from the name, or vice versa. The purple cloth of Tyre in Phoenicia was well known far and wide and was associated by the Romans with nobility and royalty.

Anne Killebrew has shown that cities such as Jerusalem were large and important walled settlements in the 'Pre-Israelite' Middle Bronze IIB and the Israelite Iron Age IIC period (ca. 1800–1550 and 720–586 BCE), but that during the intervening Late Bronze (LB) and Iron Age I and IIA/B Ages sites like Jerusalem were small and relatively insignificant and unfortified towns.^[13]

References to Canaanites are also found throughout the Amarna letters of Pharaoh Akenaton circa 1350 BC, and a reference to the "land of Canaan" is found on the statue of Idrimi of Alalakh in modern Syria. After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mother's relatives to seek refuge in "the land of Canaan", where he prepared for an eventual attack to recover his city. Texts from Ugarit also refer to an individual Canaanite (*kn'ny), suggesting that the Semitic people of Ugarit, contrary to much modern opinion, considered themselves to be non-Canaanite.^[14]

Archaeological excavations of a number of sites, later identified as Canaanite, show that prosperity of the region reached its apogee during this Middle Bronze Age period, under leadership of the city of Hazor, at least nominally tributary to Egypt for much of the period. In the north, the cities of Yamkhad and Qatna were hegemons of important confederacies, and it would appear that Biblical Hazor was the chief city of another important coalition in the south. In the early Late Bronze Age, Canaanite confederacies were centered on Megiddo and Kadesh, before again being brought into the Egyptian Empire and Hittite Empire. Later still, the region was conquered into the Neo Assyrian Empire.

Greco-Roman historiography[link]

In the 6th century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus affirms that Phoenicia was formerly called χνα, a name that Philo of Byblos subsequently adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix". Quoting fragments attributed to Sanchuniathon, he relates that Byblos, Berytus and Tyre were among the first cities ever built, under the rule of the mythical Cronus, and credits the inhabitants with developing fishing, hunting, agriculture, shipbuilding and writing.

The southern highlands of the region were later named Judea after the kingdom of Judah, while the coastal region came to be known as Παλαιστίνη in Greek (Latin Palaestina), from the name of the Philistines. That name was extended to a larger area in the 2nd century, with the establishment of the Roman province of Syria Palaestina.

Saint Augustine also mentions that one of the terms the seafaring Phoenicians called their homeland was "Canaan". This is further confirmed by coins of the city of Laodicea in modern day Syria, that bear the legend, "Of Laodicea, a metropolis in Canaan"; these coins are dated to the reign of Antiochus IV (175–164 BC) and his successors. Augustine also records that the rustic people of Hippo retained the Punic self-designation Chanani.^[15]

History[link]

Overview[link]

• Prior to 3500 BCE (Prehistory - Stone Age and Chalcolithic): hunter-gatherer societies slowly giving way to farming and herding societies, and early metal-working in the last thousand years;
• 3500-2000 (Early Bronze): invention of writing;
• 2000-1550 (Middle Bronze): city-states;
• 1550-1200 (Late Bronze): Egyptian hegemony;
• 1200-586 (Iron Age, divided into Iron Age I and II): village societies in Iron I giving way to kingdoms in Iron II.

After the Iron Age the periods are named after the various empires that ruled the region: Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek (Hellenistic) and Roman.^[16]

Canaanite civilization was a response to long periods of stable climate interrupted by short periods of climate change. During these periods, Canaanites profited from their intermediary position between the ancient civilisations of the Middle East — Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia), the Hittites, and Minoan Crete — to become city states of merchant princes along the coast, with small kingdoms specializing in agricultural products in the interior. This polarity, between coastal towns and agrarian hinterland, was illustrated in Canaanite mythology by the struggle between the storm god, variously called Teshub (Hurrian) or Ba'al Hadad (Semitic Amorite/Aramaean) and Ya'a, Yaw, Yahu or Yam, god of the sea and rivers. Early Canaanite civilization was characterized by small walled market towns, surrounded by peasant farmers growing a range of local horticultural products, along with commercial growing of olives, grapes for wine, and pistachios, surrounded by extensive grain cropping, predominantly wheat and barley. Harvest in early summer was a season when transhumance nomadism was practiced — shepherds staying with their flocks during the wet season and returning to graze them on the harvested stubble, closer to water supplies in the summer. Evidence of this cycle of agriculture is found in the Gezer Calendar and in the Biblical cycle of the year.

Periods of rapid climate change generally saw a collapse of this mixed Mediterranean farming system; commercial production was replaced with subsistence agricultural foodstuffs; and transhumance pastoralism became a year-round nomadic pastoral activity, whilst tribal groups wandered in a circular pattern north to the Euphrates, or south to the Egyptian delta with their flocks. Occasionally, tribal chieftains would emerge, raiding enemy settlements and rewarding loyal followers from the spoils or by tariffs levied on merchants. Should the cities band together and retaliate, a neighbouring state intervene or should the chieftain suffer a reversal of fortune, allies would fall away or inter-tribal feuding would return. It has been suggested that the Patriarchal tales of the Bible reflect such social forms.^[17] During the periods of the collapse of Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia and the First Intermediary Period in Egypt, the Hyksos invasions and the end of the Middle Bronze Age in Assyria and Babylonia, and the Late Bronze Age collapse, trade through the Canaanite area would dwindle, as Egypt, Babylonia, and to a lesser degree Assyria, withdrew into their isolation. When the climates stabilized, trade would resume firstly along the coast in the area of the Philistine and Phoenician cities. The Philistines, while an integral part of the Canaanite milieu, do not seem to have been ethnically homogenous with the Canaanites; the Hurrians (who spoke a language isolate), Hittites (Indo-European speakers), as well as the Semitic Aramaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites, are also considered "distinct" from generic Canaanites/Amorites, in scholarship or in tradition (although in the Biblical Book of Nations, "Heth", Hittites are a son of Canaan, despite the fact that it has been proven beyond doubt that the Hittites spoke an Indo-European language). As markets redeveloped, new trade routes that would avoid the heavy tariffs of the coast would develop from Kadesh Barnea, through Hebron, Lachish, Jerusalem, Bethel, Samaria, Shechem, Shiloh through Galilee to Jezreel, Hazor and Megiddo. Secondary Canaanite cities would develop in this region. Further economic development would see the creation of a third trade route from Eilath, Timna, Edom (Seir), Moab, Ammon and thence to the Aramean states of Damascus and Palmyra. Earlier states (for example the Philistines and Tyrians in the case of Judah and Israel, for the second route, and Judah and Israel for the third route) tried generally unsuccessfully to control the interior trade.^[18]

Eventually, the prosperity of this trade would attract more powerful regional neighbours, such as Ancient Egypt, Assyria, the Babylonians, Persians, Ancient Greeks and Romans, who would control the Canaanites politically, levying tribute, taxes and tariffs. Often in such periods, thorough overgrazing would result in a climatic collapse and a repeat of the cycle (e.g. PPNB, Ghassulian, Uruk, and the Bronze Age cycles already mentioned). The fall of later Canaanite civilization occurred with the incorporation of the area into the Greco-Roman world (as Iudaea province), and after Byzantine times, into the Muslim Arab and proto-Muslim Ummayad Caliphate. Western Aramaic, one of the two lingua francas of Canaanite civilization, is still spoken in a number of small Syrian villages, whilst Phoenician Canaanite disappeared as a spoken language in about 100 AD. A separate Akkadian-infused Eastern Aramaic is still spoken by the existing Assyrians of Iraq, Iran, northeast Syria and southeast Turkey.

Prehistory[link]

One of the earliest settlements in the region was at Jericho in Canaan. The earliest settlements were seasonal, but, by the Bronze Age, had developed into large urban centres. By the Early Bronze Age other sites had developed, such as Ebla (where an East Semitic tongue was spoken), which by ca. 2300 BC was incorporated into the Mesopotamian based Akkadian empire of Sargon the Great and Naram-Sin of Akkad (Biblical Accad). Sumerian references to the Mar.tu ("tent dwellers" – considered to be Amorite) country West of the Euphrates date from even earlier than Sargon, at least to the reign of the Sumerian king, Enshakushanna of Uruk. The archives of Ebla show reference to a number of Biblical sites, including Hazor, Jerusalem, and as a number of people have claimed, to Sodom and Gomorrah mentioned in Genesis as well. The collapse of the Akkadian Empire in 2154 BC saw the arrival of peoples using Khirbet Kerak Ware pottery,^[19] coming originally from the Zagros Mountains (in modern Iran) east of the Tigris.

Early Bronze Age (3500-2000)[link]

The first cities in the southern Levant arose during this period.^[20] These "proto-Canaanites" were in regular contact with the other peoples to their south such as Egypt, and to the north Asia Minor (Hurrians, Hittites, Luwians) and Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria), a trend that continued through the Iron Age.^[20] The end of the period is marked by the abandonment of the cities and a return to lifestyles based on farming villages and semi-nomadic herding, although specialised craft production continued and trade routes remained open.^[20]

Middle Bronze Age (2000-1550)[link]

Urbanism returned and the region was divided among small city-states, the most important of which seems to have been Hazor.^[21] Many aspects of Semitic Canaanite material culture now reflected a Mesopotamian influence, and the entire region became more tightly integrated into a vast international trading network.^[21] It was during this period too that Canaanites invaded the eastern Delta of Egypt, where, known as the Hyksos, they became the dominant power.^[22] In Egyptian inscriptions Amar and Amurru are applied strictly to the more northerly mountain region east of Phoenicia, extending to the Orontes. In the Akkadian Empire, as early as Naram-Sin's reign (ca. 2240 BC), Amurru was called one of the "four quarters" surrounding Sumer, along with Subartu/Assyria, Akkad, and Elam. Amorite dynasties also came to dominate in much of Mesopotamia, including in Larsa, Isin and founding the state of Babylon in 1894 BC. Later on, Amurru became the Assyrian/Akkadian term for the interior of south as well as for northerly Canaan. At this time the Canaanite area seemed divided between two confederacies, one centred upon Tel Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley, the second on the more northerly city of Kadesh on the Orontes River. One Amorite king of Babylonia, Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) founded the first Babylonian Empire, which lasted only as long as his lifetime. Upon his death, the Amorites were driven from Assyria, but remained masters of Babylonia until 1595 BC, when they were ejected by the Hittites.

Late Bronze Age (1550–1200)[link]

Map of the Ancient Near East during the Amarna Period, showing the great powers of the day: Egypt (green), Hatti (yellow), the Kassite kingdom of Babylon (purple), Assyria (grey), and Mitanni (red). Lighter areas show direct control, darker areas represent spheres of influence. The extent of the Achaean/Mycenaean civilization is shown in orange.

During the 2nd millennium BC, Ancient Egyptian texts use the term Canaan to refer to an Egyptian-ruled colony, whose boundaries generally corroborate the definition of Canaan found in the Hebrew Bible, bounded to the west by the Mediterranean Sea, to the north in the vicinity of Hamath in Syria, to the east by the Jordan Valley, and to the south by a line extended from the Dead Sea to around Gaza. Nevertheless, the Egyptian and Hebrew uses of the term are not identical: the Egyptian texts also identify the coastal city of Qadesh in north west Syria near Turkey as part of the "Land of Canaan", so that the Egyptian usage seems to refer to the entire levantine coast of the Mediterranean Sea, making it a synonym of another Egyptian term for this coastland, Retenu.

There is uncertainty about whether the name Canaan refers to a specific Semitic ethnic group wherever they live, the homeland of this ethnic group, or a region under the control of this ethnic group, or perhaps any of the three.

At the end of what is referred to as the Middle Kingdom era of Egypt, there was a breakdown in centralised power, the assertion of independence by various nomarchs and the assumption of power in the Delta by Pharaohs of the 17th Dynasty. Around 1674 BC, these Canaanites, whom the Egyptians referred to as "rulers of foreign lands" (Egyptian, Heqa Khasut), hence "Hyksos" (Greek), invaded Lower Egypt (northern Egypt), where they would rule for over a century.

Among the migrant Semitic tribes who appear to have settled in the region were the Amorites. In the Old Testament, the Amorites are mentioned in the Table of Peoples (Gen. 10:16–18a). Evidently, the Amorites played a significant role in the early history of Canaan. In Gen. 14:7 f., Josh. 10:5 f., Deut. 1:19 f., 27, 44, we find them located in the southern mountain country, while in Num. 21:13, Josh. 9:10, 24:8, 12, etc., we are told of two great Amorite kings residing at Heshbon and Ashtaroth, east of the Jordan. However, in other passages such as Gen. 15:16, 48:22, Josh. 24:15, Judg. 1:34, etc., the name Amorite is regarded as synonymous with "Canaanite"—only "Amorite" is never used for the population on the coast.

In the centuries preceding the appearance of the Biblical Hebrews, Canaan and parts of Syria became tributary to the Egyptian Pharaohs, although domination by the sovereign was not so strong as to prevent frequent local rebellions and inter-city struggles. Under Thutmose III (1479–1426 BC) and Amenhotep II (1427–1400 BC), the regular presence of the strong hand of the Egyptian ruler and his armies kept the Amorites and Canaanites sufficiently loyal. Nevertheless, Thutmose III reported a new and troubling element in the population. Habiru or (in Egyptian) 'Apiru, are reported for the first time. These seem to have been mercenaries, brigands or outlaws, who may have at one time led a settled life, but with bad-luck or due to the force of circumstances, contributed a rootless element of the population, prepared to hire themselves to whichever local mayor, king or princeling prepared to undertake their support. Although Habiru SA-GAZ (a Sumerian ideogram glossed as "brigand" in Akkadian), and sometimes Habiri (an Akkadian word) had been reported in Mesopotamia from the reign of Shulgi of Ur III, their appearance in Canaan appears to have been due to the arrival of a new state based to the north of Assyria based upon Maryannu aristocracy of horse drawn charioteers, associated with the Indo-Aryan rulers of the Hurrians, known as Mitanni. The Habiru seem to have been more a social class than any ethnic group. One analysis shows that the majority were, however, Hurrian (a non Semitic group from Asia Minor who spoke a Language Isolate), though there were a number of Semites and even some Kassite adventurers amongst their number. The reign of Amenhotep III, as a result was not quite so tranquil for the Asiatic province, as Habiru/'Apiru contributed to greater political instability. It is believed^{[by whom?]} that turbulent chiefs began to seek their opportunities, though as a rule could not find them without the help of a neighboring king. The boldest of the disaffected nobles was Aziru, son of Abdi-Ashirta, a prince of Amurru, who even before the death of Amenhotep III, endeavoured to extend his power into the plain of Damascus. Akizzi, governor of Katna (Qatna?) (near Hamath), reported this to the Pharaoh, who seems to have sought to frustrate his attempts. In the next reign, however, both father and son caused infinite trouble to loyal servants of Egypt like Rib-Addi, governor of Gubla (Gebal), not the least through transferring loyalty from the Egyptian crown to that of the expanding neighbouring Asia Minor based Hittite Empire under Suppiluliumas I.^[23]

Egyptian power in Canaan thus suffered a major setback when the Hittites (or Hatti) advanced into Syria in the reign of Amenhotep III, and became even more threatening in that of his successor, displacing the Amorites and prompting a resumption of Semitic migration. Abd-Ashirta and his son Aziru, at first afraid of the Hittites, afterwards made a treaty with their king, and joining with the Hittites, attacked and conquered the districts remaining loyal to Egypt. In vain did Rib-Addi send touching appeals for aid to the distant Pharaoh, who was far too engaged in his religious innovations to attend to such messages.

In the el Amarna letters (circa 1350 BC), some of which were sent by governors and princes of Canaan to their Egyptian overlord Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) in the 14th century BC—commonly known as the Tel-el-Amarna tablets—are found, beside Amar and Amurru (Amorites), the two forms Kinahhi and Kinahni, corresponding to Kena' and Kena'an respectively, and including Syria in its widest extent, as Eduard Meyer has shown. The letters are written in the official and diplomatic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, though "Canaanitish" words and idioms are also in evidence.

In the El Amarna letters(~1350 BC), we meet with the Habiri in northern Syria. Itakkama wrote thus to the Pharaoh,

"Behold, Namyawaza has surrendered all the cities of the king, my lord to the SA-GAZ in the land of Kadesh and in Ubi. But I will go, and if thy gods and thy sun go before me, I will bring back the cities to the king, my lord, from the Habiri, to show myself subject to him; and I will expel the SA-GAZ."

Similarly, Zimrida, king of Sidon (named 'Siduna'), declared, "All my cities which the king has given into my hand, have come into the hand of the Habiri." The king of Jerusalem, Abdi-Heba, reported to the Pharaoh,

"If (Egyptian) troops come this year, lands and princes will remain to the king, my lord; but if troops come not, these lands and princes will not remain to the king, my lord."

Abdi-heba's principle trouble arose from persons called Iilkili and the sons of Labaya, who are said to have entered into a treasonable league with the Habiri. Apparently this restless warrior found his death at the siege of Gina. All these princes, however, maligned each other in their letters to the Pharaoh, and protested their own innocence of traitorous intentions. Namyawaza, for instance, whom Itakkama (see above) accused of disloyalty, wrote thus to the Pharaoh,

"Behold, I and my warriors and my chariots, together with my brethren and my SA-GAZ, and my Suti ?9 are at the disposal of the (royal) troops to go whithersoever the king, my lord, commands."^[24]

From the late 14th century BC through to the 11th century BC, much of Canaan fell to the middle Assyrian Empire, with Assyrian kings forcing tribute on Caananite states and cities from central Syria as far as the Mediterranean.^[25] Arik-den-ili (c. 1307-1296 BC), consolidated Assyrian power in the Levant, he defeated and conquered Semitic tribes of the so-called Ahlamu group. He was followed by Adad-nirari I (1295-1275 BC) who continued expansion to the northwest, mainly at the expense of the Hittites and Hurrians, conquering Hittite territories such as Carchemish and beyond. In 1274 BC Shalmaneser I ascended the throne, a powerful warrior king, he annexed territories in Syria and Canaan previously under Egyptian or Hittite influence, and the growing power of Assyria was perhaps the reason why these two states made peace with one another.^[26] This trend continued under Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244-1208 BC) and after a hiatus, Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1077 BC) who conquered the Aramaeans of northern Syria, and thence he proceeded to conquer Damascus and the Canaanite/Phoenician cities of (Byblos), Sidon, Tyre and finally Arvad.^[26]

Bronze Age collapse[link]

The name Canaan occurs in hieroglyphs as k3nˁnˁ on the Merneptah Stele in the 13th century BC

Just after the Amarna period a new problem arose which was to trouble the Egyptian control of Canaan. Pharaoh Horemhab campaigned against Shasu (Egyptian = "wanderers") or living in nomadic pastoralist tribes, who had moved across the Jordan to threaten Egyptian trade through Galilee and Jezreel. Seti I (ca. 1290 BC) is said to have conquered these Shasu, Semitic nomads living just south and east of the Dead Sea, from the fortress of Taru (Shtir?) to "Ka-n-'-na". After the near collapse of the Battle of Kadesh, Rameses II had to campaign vigorously in Canaan to maintain Egyptian power. Egyptian forces penetrated into Moab and Ammon, where a permanent fortress garrison (Called simply "Rameses") was established.

After the collapse of the Levant under the so called "Peoples of the Sea" Ramesses III (ca. 1194 BC) is said to have built a temple to the god Amen to receive tribute from the Levant.^[27] This was described as being built in Pa-Canaan, a geographical reference whose meaning is disputed, with suggestions that it may refer to the city of Gaza or to the entire Egyptian-occupied territory in Asia.^[28]

Some believe the "Habiru" signified generally all the nomadic tribes known as "Hebrews," and particularly the early Israelites, who sought to appropriate the fertile region for themselves^{[citation needed]}. However, the term was rarely used to describe the Shasu. Whether the term may also include other related peoples such as the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites is uncertain. It may not be an ethnonym at all; see the article Habiru for details.

Iron Age[link]

Map of the southern Levant,^{[original research?]} c.830s BC.

  Kingdom of Judah

  Kingdom of Israel

  Philistine city-states

  Phoenician states

  Kingdom of Ammon

  Kingdom of Edom

  Kingdom of Aram-Damascus

  Aramean tribes

  Arubu tribes

  Nabatu tribes

  Assyrian Empire

  Kingdom of Moab

By the Early Iron Age, the southern Levant came to be dominated by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, besides the Philistine city-states on the Mediterranean coast, and the kingdoms of Moab, Ammon and Aram-Damascus east of the Jordan River, and Edom to the south. The northern Levant was divided into various petty kingdoms, the so-called Syro-Hittite states and the Phoenician city-states.

The entire region, was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the 10th and 9th centuries BC, and would remain so until the end of the 7th Century BC. The Egyptians, then under a Nubian Dynasty, made a failed attempt to regain a foothold in the region, but were vanquished by the Assyrians, leading to an Assyrian invasion of Egypt and the destruction of the Kushite Empire. The Kingdom of Judah was forced to pay tribute to Assyria, and was eventually conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire during the 6th century BC.

Canaan in the Hebrew Bible[link]

Map of Canaan, with the border defined by Numbers 34:1–12 shown in red.

Canaan and the Canaanites are mentioned some 160 times in the Hebrew Bible, mostly in the Pentateuch and the books of Joshua and Judges.^[29] Canaan first appears as one of Noah's grandsons, cursed with perpetual slavery because his father Ham had "looked upon" the drunk and naked Noah; God later promises Canaan's land to Abraham and eventually delivers it to the Israelites.^[29] The Biblical history has become increasingly problematic as the archaeological and textual evidence supports the idea that the early Israelites were in fact themselves Canaanites.^[29]

The Hebrew Bible lists borders for the land of Canaan. Numbers 34:2 includes the phrase "the land of Canaan as defined by its borders." The borders are then delineated in Numbers 34:3–12. The term "Canaanites" in Biblical Hebrew is applied especially to the inhabitants of the lower regions, along the sea coast and on the shores of Jordan, as opposed to the inhabitants of the mountainous regions. By the time of the Second Temple, "Canaanite" in Hebrew had come to be not an ethnic designation, so much as a general synonym for "merchant", as it is interpreted in, for example, Job 40:30, or Proverbs 31:24.^[30]

John N. Oswalt notes that "Canaan consists of the land west of the Jordan and is distinguished from the area east of the Jordan." Oswalt then goes on to say that in Scripture Canaan "takes on a theological character" as "the land which is God's gift" and "the place of abundance".^[31]

The Hebrew Bible describes the Israelite conquest of Canaan in the "Former Prophets" (Nevi'im Rishonim [נביאים ראשונים] ), viz. the books of Joshua, Judges, 1st & 2nd Samuel, 1st & 2nd Kings. These five books of the Old Testament canon give the narrative of the Israelites after the death of Moses and Joshua leading them into Canaan.^[32] In 586 BC, the Israelites in turn lost the land to the Babylonians. These narratives of the Former Prophets are also "part of a larger work, called the Deuteronomistic History".^[33]

Biblical Canaanites[link]

The part of the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible often called the Table of Nations describes the Canaanites as being descended from an ancestor called Canaan The son of Ham, the Grandson of Noah (Hebrew: כְּנַעַן‎, Knaan), saying (Genesis 10:15–19):

Canaan is the father of Sidon, his firstborn; and of the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans scattered, and the borders of Canaan reached [across the Mediterranean coast] from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then [inland around the Jordan Valley] toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

The Biblical scholar, Richard Friedman, argues that this part of Genesis showing the origin of the Canaanites was written by the hypothetical Priestly Source.^[34][35]

The Sidon whom the Table identifies as the firstborn son of Canaan has the same name as that of the coastal city of Sidon, in Lebanon. This city dominated the Phoenician coast, and may have enjoyed hegemony over a number of ethnic groups, who are said to belong to the "Land of Canaan".

Similarly, Canaanite populations are said to have inhabited:

• the Mediterranean coastlands (Joshua 5:1), including Lebanon corresponding to Phoenicia (Isaiah 23:11) and the Gaza Strip corresponding to Philistia (Zephania 2:5).
• the Jordan Valley (Joshua 11:3, Numbers 13:29, Genesis 13:12).

The Canaanites (Hebrew: כנענים, Modern Kna'anim Tiberian Kənaʻănîm) are said to have been one of seven regional ethnic divisions or "nations" driven out before the Israelites following the Exodus. Specifically, the other nations include the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (Deuteronomy 7:1).

According to the Book of Jubilees, the Israelite conquest of Canaan, and the curse, are attributed to Canaan's steadfast refusal to join his elder brothers in Ham's allotment beyond the Nile, and instead "squatting" on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, within the inheritance delineated for Shem.

One of the 613 mitzvot (precisely n. 596) prescribes that no inhabitants of the cities of six Canaanite nations, the same as mentioned in 7:1, minus the Girgashites, were to be left alive.

While the Hebrew Bible contrasts the Canaanites ethnically from the Ancient Israelites, modern scholars consider the kingdoms of Israel and Judah to be a subset of Canaanite culture on archaeological and linguistic grounds.^[14][36]

List of Canaanite rulers[link]

Names of Canaanite kings or other figures mentioned in historiography or known through archaeology

Archaeological sites[link]

Tel Kabri contains the remains of a Canaanite city from the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550 B.C.). The city, the most important of the cities in the Western Galilee during that period, had a palace at its center. Tel Kabri is the only Canaanite city that can be excavated in its entirety because after the city was abandoned, no other city was built over its remains. It is notable because the predominant extra-Canaanite cultural influence is Minoan; Minoan-style frescoes decorate the palace.^[37]

See also[link]

• Amarna letters–localities and their rulers
• Canaanite religion
• History of the name Palestine
• Land of Israel
• Names of the Levant
• Qemant

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Bishop Moore, Megan; Kelle, Brad E. (2011). Biblical History and Israel's Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History. Eerdmans. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Qjkz_8EMoaUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Biblical+history+and+Israel%27s+past&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2cUCT_n-HO-KmQX1wYmGAg&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Biblical%20history%20and%20Israel%27s%20past&f=false. 
• Day, John (2002). Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan. Continuum. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=y-gfwlltlRwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Canaan&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AG0CT6ClCsnemAWIlMCeAg&ved=0CFcQ6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=Canaan&f=false. 
• Coogan, Michael D. (1978). Stories from Ancient Canaan. Westminster Press. ISBN 0-8061-3108-X. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=1q2TzqnFWqQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Stories+from+Ancient+Canaan&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xiUCT-j7EKStiAedk7GaDQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Stories%20from%20Ancient%20Canaan&f=false. 
• Finkelstein, Israel (1996). "Towards a new periodization and nomenclature of the archaeology of the southern Levant". In Cooper, Jerrold S.; Schwartz, Glenn M.. The study of the ancient Near East in the twenty-first century. Eisenbrauns. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=3hc1Yp0VcjoC&pg=PA103&dq=Towards+a+new+periodization+and+nomenclature+of+the+archaeology+of+the+southern+levant&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1XICT-OdG8rJmQWPxKy1Ag&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Towards%20a%20new%20periodization%20and%20nomenclature%20of%20the%20archaeology%20of%20the%20southern%20levant&f=false. 
• Golden, Jonathan M. (2009). Ancient Canaan and Israel: An Introduction. Oxford University Press. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=o1-PHIGNcyQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ancient+Canaan+and+Israel&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PCkCT_yWEeK5iAeO98mCBQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Ancient%20Canaan%20and%20Israel&f=false. 
• Killebrew, Ann E. (2005). Biblical peoples and ethnicity. SBL. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=VtAmmwapfVAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Biblical+peoples+and+ethnicity:+an+archaeological#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Na'aman, Nadav (2005). Canaan in the 2nd millennium B.C.E.. Eisenbrauns. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=HmTOoQmf23AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Canaan+in+the+2nd+millennium+B.C.E.&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BWcCT7axKumImQXRnpzwBw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Canaan%20in%20the%202nd%20millennium%20B.C.E.&f=false. 
• Lemche, Niels-Peter (1991). The Canaanites and their land: the tradition of the Canaanites. Continuum. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=cVuNKseq23oC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Canaanites+and+Their+Land&source=bl&ots=4ViN2DC4jU&sig=-rCfWwmzJwOBVa9T18l3FeqBGWI&hl=en&ei=kzFWTPucNY2Pce_xxL8M&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Noll, K.L. (2001). Canaan and Israel in antiquity: an introduction. Continuum. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=2rnyjxLHy-QC&pg=PA21&dq=The+Canaanites+and+Their+Land&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=3#v=onepage&q=The%20Canaanites%20and%20Their%20Land&f=false. 
• Smith, Mark S. (2002). The early history of God. Eerdmans. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=1yM3AuBh4AsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Early+History+of+God&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RQIET6GiGcnUmAX68LyEAw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Early%20History%20of%20God&f=false. 
• Thompson, Thomas L. (2000). Early History of the Israelite People. Brill. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=RwrrUuHFb6UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Early+History+of+the+Israelite+People&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uNcDT-D1BYyXmQX_173aBA&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Early%20History%20of%20the%20Israelite%20People&f=false. 
• Tubb, Jonathan N. (1998). Canaanites. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3108-X. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=GH-n4ctvlDYC&pg=PA40&dq=The+Canaanites+and+Their+Land&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=3#v=onepage&q=The%20Canaanites%20and%20Their%20Land&f=false. 

External links[link]

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