Canaan (;
Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ;
he, כְּנַעַן – , in
pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;
[The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interpretes. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : Dt. Bibelges., 2006 . However, in modern Greek the accentuation is , while the current (28th) scholarly edition of the New Testament has .] ar, كَنْعَانُ – ) was a
Semitic-speaking civilization and region in the
Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran (Elam, ...
during the late
2nd millennium BC
The 2nd millennium BC spanned the years 2000 BC to 1001 BC.
In the Ancient Near East, it marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age.
The Ancient Near Eastern cultures are well within the historical era:
The first half of the mil ...
. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the
Late Bronze Age Amarna Period (14th century BC) as the area where the
spheres of interest
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military or political exclusivity.
While there may be a formal al ...
of the
Egyptian,
Hittite,
Mitanni and
Assyrian Empire
Assyrian may refer to:
* Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia.
* Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire.
** Early Assyrian Period
** Old Assyrian Period
** Middle Assyrian Empire
** Neo-Assyrian Empire
* Assyrian ...
s converged or overlapped. Much of present-day knowledge about Canaan stems from
archaeological excavation
In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...
in this area at sites such as
Tel Hazor,
Tel Megiddo,
En Esur
En Esur, also En Esur (; ) or Ein Asawir ( ar, عين الأساور, lit=Spring of the Braceletes) is an ancient site located on the northern Sharon Plain, at the entrance of the Wadi Ara pass leading from the Coastal Plain further inland. The s ...
, and
Gezer.
The name "Canaan" appears throughout the
Bible, where it corresponds to "the
Levant", in particular to the areas of the
Southern Levant
The Southern Levant is a geographical region encompassing the southern half of the Levant. It corresponds approximately to modern-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan; some definitions also include southern Lebanon, southern Syria and/or the Sinai Pe ...
that provide the main settings of the narratives of the Bible: the
Land of Israel,
Philistia, and
Phoenicia, among others.
The word ''Canaanites'' serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled and
nomadic-pastoral groups—throughout the regions of the southern Levant or Canaan. It is by far the most frequently used ethnic term in the Bible.
The
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua ( he, סֵפֶר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ ', Tiberian: ''Sēp̄er Yŏhōšūaʿ'') is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israe ...
includes Canaanites in a list of nations to
exterminate, and scripture elsewhere portrays them as a group which the
Israelites had annihilated.
Biblical scholar
Mark Smith notes that archaeological data suggests "that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature."
The name "Canaanites" is attested, many centuries later, as the
endonym of the people later known to the
Ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
from BC as Phoenicians,
[
: "The name 'Canaan' did not entirely drop out of usage in the Iron Age. Throughout the area that we—with the Greek speakers—prefer to call 'Phoenicia', the inhabitants in the first millennium BC called themselves 'Canaanites'. For the area south of Mt. Carmel, however, after the Bronze Age ended references to 'Canaan' as a present phenomenon dwindle almost to nothing (the Hebrew Bible of course makes frequent mention of 'Canaan' and 'Canaanites', but regularly as a land that had become something else, and as a people who had been annihilated)."
] and after the emigration of some Canaanite-speakers to
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
(founded in the 9th century BC), was also used as a self-designation by the
Punics
The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...
(as ) of North Africa during
Late Antiquity.
Etymology
The English term "Canaan" (pronounced since , due to the
Great Vowel Shift) comes from the Hebrew (), via the
Koine Greek and the
Latin . It appears as ''Kinâḫna'' ( akk, 𒆳𒆠𒈾𒄴𒈾, ''
KURki-na-aḫ-na'') in the
Amarna letters
The Amarna letters (; sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA, for "El Amarna") are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between t ...
(14th century BC) and several other ancient Egyptian texts. In Greek, it first occurs in the writings of
Hecataeus as "" (). It is attested in Phoenician on coins from
Berytus
) or Laodicea in Canaan (2nd century to 64 BCE)
, image = St. George's Cathedral, Beirut.jpg
, image_size =
, alt =
, caption = Roman ruins of Berytus, in front of Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral in mode ...
dated to the 2nd century BCE.
The etymology is uncertain. An early explanation derives the term from the
Semitic root
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or " radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowe ...
, "to be low, humble, subjugated". Some scholars have suggested that this implies an original meaning of "lowlands", in contrast with
Aram, which would then mean "highlands", whereas others have suggested it meant "the subjugated" as the name of Egypt's province in the Levant, and evolved into the proper name in a similar fashion to
Provincia Nostra (the first Roman colony north of the Alps, which became
Provence).
An alternative suggestion, put forward by
Ephraim Avigdor Speiser
Ephraim Avigdor Speiser (January 24, 1902 – June 15, 1965) was a Polish-born American Assyriologist. He discovered the ancient site of Tepe Gawra in 1927 and supervised its excavation between 1931 and 1938.
Speiser was married to Sue Gimbel ...
in 1936, derives the term from
Hurrian , purportedly referring to the colour purple, so that "Canaan" and "
Phoenicia" would be synonyms ("Land of Purple"). Tablets found in the Hurrian city of
Nuzi in the early 20th century appear to use the term as a synonym for red or
purple dye, laboriously produced by the
Kassite
The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology).
They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babyl ...
rulers of
Babylon from
murex molluscs 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
Exodus or the Exodus may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible
* The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan
Historical events
* E ...
. 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
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
with nobility and royalty. However, according to
Robert Drews, Speiser's proposal has generally been abandoned.
Archaeology and history
Overview
There are several periodization systems for Canaan. One of them is the following.
* Prior to 4500 BC (prehistory –
Stone Age): hunter-gatherer societies slowly giving way to farming and herding societies
* 4500–3500 BC (
Chalcolithic): early metal-working and farming
* 3500–2000 BC (Early Bronze): prior to written records in the area
* 2000–1550 BC (Middle Bronze):
city-state
A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...
s
* 1550–1200 BC (Late Bronze): Egyptian hegemony
After the Iron Age the periods are named after the various empires that ruled the region:
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
n, Babylonian,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
,
Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...
(related to
Greece) and
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
.
Canaanite culture developed
''in situ'' from multiple waves of migration merging with the earlier
Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex, which in turn developed from a fusion of their ancestral
Natufian
The Natufian culture () is a Late Epipaleolithic archaeological culture of the Levant, dating to around 15,000 to 11,500 years ago. The culture was unusual in that it supported a sedentary or semi-sedentary population even before the introducti ...
and
Harifian culture
Harifian is a specialized regional cultural development of the Epipalaeolithic of the Negev Desert. It corresponds to the latest stages of the Natufian culture.
History
Like the Natufian, Harifian is characterized by semi-subterranean houses. ...
s with
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) farming cultures, practicing
animal domestication
The domestication of animals is the mutual relationship between non-human animals and the humans who have influence on their care and reproduction.
Charles Darwin recognized a small number of traits that made domesticated species different from ...
, during the
6200 BC climatic crisis which led to the
Neolithic Revolution/First Agricultural Revolution in the
Levant. The majority of Canaan is covered by the
Eastern Mediterranean conifer–sclerophyllous–broadleaf forests ecoregion.
Chalcolithic (4500–3500)
The first wave of migration, called
Ghassulian
Ghassulian refers to a culture and an archaeological stage dating to the Middle and Late Chalcolithic Period in the Southern Levant (c. 4400 – c. 3500 BC). Its type-site, Teleilat Ghassul ( Teleilat el-Ghassul, Tulaylat al-Ghassul), is l ...
culture, entered Canaan circa 4500 BC.
Genetic analysis has shown the Ghassulians belonged to
Y-Halplogroup T1a1a.
The end of the Chalcolithic period saw the rise of the urban settlement of
'En Esur
En Esur, also En Esur (; ) or Ein Asawir ( ar, عين الأساور, lit=Spring of the Braceletes) is an ancient site located on the northern Sharon Plain, at the entrance of the Wadi Ara pass leading from the Coastal Plain further inland. The ...
on the southern Mediterranean coast.
Early Bronze Age (3500–2000)
By the
Early Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
other sites had developed, such as
Ebla
Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...
(where an
East Semitic language,
Eblaite, was spoken), which by BC was incorporated into the
Mesopotamia-based
Akkadian Empire
The Akkadian Empire () was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centered in the city of Akkad () and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one ru ...
of
Sargon the Great and
Naram-Sin of Akkad (biblical Accad). Sumerian references to the ''Mar.tu'' ("tent dwellers", later ''Amurru'', i.e.
Amorite
The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied la ...
) country west of the
Euphrates River date from even earlier than Sargon, at least to the reign of the
Sumerian king,
Enshakushanna
Enshakushanna ( sux, , ), or Enshagsagana, En-shag-kush-ana, Enukduanna, En-Shakansha-Ana, En-šakušuana was a king of Uruk around the mid-3rd millennium BC who is named on the '' Sumerian King List'', which states his reign to have been 60 year ...
of
Uruk
Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
, and one tablet credits the early Sumerian king
Lugal-Anne-Mundu with holding sway in the region, although this tablet is considered less credible because it was produced centuries later.
Amorites at
Hazor,
Kadesh
Qadesh, Qedesh, Qetesh, Kadesh, Kedesh, Kadeš and Qades come from the common Semitic root " Q-D-Š", which means "sacred."
Kadesh and variations may refer to:
Ancient/biblical places
* Kadesh (Syria) or Qadesh, an ancient city of the Levant, on ...
(Qadesh-on-the-Orontes), and elsewhere in
Amurru Amurru may refer to:
* Amurru kingdom, roughly current day western Syria and northern Lebanon
* Amorite, ancient Syrian people
* Amurru (god)
Amurru, also known under the Sumerian name Martu, was a Mesopotamian god who served as the divine perso ...
(Syria) bordered Canaan in the north and northeast. (Ugarit may be included among these Amoritic entities.)
The collapse of the Akkadian Empire in 2154 BC saw the arrival of peoples using
Khirbet Kerak
Khirbet Kerak ( ar, خربة الكرك , "the ruin of the fortress") or Beth Yerah ( he, בית ירח , "House of the Moon (god)") is a tell (archaeological mound) located on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee in modern-day Israel. The t ...
ware (pottery), coming originally from the
Zagros Mountains
The Zagros Mountains ( ar, جبال زاغروس, translit=Jibal Zaghrus; fa, کوههای زاگرس, Kuh hā-ye Zāgros; ku, چیاکانی زاگرۆس, translit=Çiyakani Zagros; Turkish: ''Zagros Dağları''; Luri: ''Kuh hā-ye Zāgr ...
(in modern
Iran) east of the
Tigris
The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the P ...
. In addition,
DNA analysis revealed that between 2500–1000 BC, populations from the Chalcolithic Zagros and Bronze Age
Caucasus migrated to the Southern Levant.
The first cities in the southern Levant arose during this period. The major sites were
'En Esur
En Esur, also En Esur (; ) or Ein Asawir ( ar, عين الأساور, lit=Spring of the Braceletes) is an ancient site located on the northern Sharon Plain, at the entrance of the Wadi Ara pass leading from the Coastal Plain further inland. The ...
and
Meggido. These "proto-Canaanites" were in regular contact with the other peoples to their south such as
Egypt, and to the north
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
(
Hurrians,
Hattians,
Hittites,
Luwians
The Luwians were a group of Anatolian peoples who lived in central, western, and southern Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They spoke the Luwian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian sub-fam ...
) and
Mesopotamia (
Sumer,
Akkad,
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
), a trend that continued through the
Iron Age. 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.
Archaeologically, the Late Bronze Age state of
Ugarit (at
Ras Shamra in
Syria) is considered quintessentially Canaanite,
even though its
Ugaritic language
Ugaritic () is an extinct Northwest Semitic language, classified by some as a dialect of the Amorite language and so the only known Amorite dialect preserved in writing. It is known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeologi ...
does not belong to the
Canaanite language group proper.
A disputed reference to ''Lord of ga-na-na'' in the Semitic
Ebla tablets
The Ebla tablets are a collection of as many as 1,800 complete clay tablets, 4,700 fragments, and many thousands of minor chips found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria. The tablets were discovered by Italian archaeologist P ...
(dated 2350 BC) from the archive of
Tell Mardikh
Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...
has been interpreted by some scholars to mention the deity
Dagon by the title "Lord of Canaan" If correct, this would suggest that Eblaites were conscious of Canaan as an entity by 2500 BC. Jonathan Tubb states that the term ''ga-na-na'' "may provide a third-millennium reference to ''Canaanite''", while at the same time stating that the first certain reference is in the 18th century BC.
See
Ebla-Biblical controversy for further details.
Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550)
Urbanism returned and the region was divided among small city-states, the most important of which seems to have been Hazor.
Many aspects of Canaanite material culture now reflected a Mesopotamian influence, and the entire region became more tightly integrated into a vast international trading network.
As early as
Naram-Sin of Akkad's reign ( BC), ''Amurru'' was called one of the "four quarters" surrounding
Akkad, along with
Subartu
The land of Subartu (Akkadian ''Šubartum/Subartum/ina Šú-ba-ri'', Assyrian '' mât Šubarri'') or Subar (Sumerian Su-bir4/Subar/Šubur, Ugaritic 𐎘𐎁𐎗 ṯbr) is mentioned in Bronze Age literature. The name also appears as ''Subari'' in ...
/
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
,
Sumer, and
Elam. Amorite dynasties also came to dominate in much of Mesopotamia, including in
Larsa,
Isin
Isin (, modern Arabic: Ishan al-Bahriyat) is an archaeological site in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq. Excavations have shown that it was an important city-state in the past.
History of archaeological research
Ishan al-Bahriyat was visited b ...
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
Megiddo Megiddo may refer to:
Places and sites in Israel
* Tel Megiddo, site of an ancient city in Israel's Jezreel valley
* Megiddo Airport, a domestic airport in Israel
* Megiddo church (Israel)
* Megiddo, Israel, a kibbutz in Israel
* Megiddo Junctio ...
in the
Jezreel Valley, the second on the more northerly city of
Kadesh
Qadesh, Qedesh, Qetesh, Kadesh, Kedesh, Kadeš and Qades come from the common Semitic root " Q-D-Š", which means "sacred."
Kadesh and variations may refer to:
Ancient/biblical places
* Kadesh (Syria) or Qadesh, an ancient city of the Levant, on ...
on the Orontes River. An Amorite chieftain named
Sumu-abum founded Babylon as an independent city-state in 1894 BC. One Amorite king of Babylonia,
Hammurabi (1792–1750 BC), founded the
First Babylonian Empire
The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to BC – BC, and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynasty ...
, 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.
The semi-fictional ''
Story of Sinuhe
''The Story of Sinuhe'' (also known as Sanehat) Retrieved November 6, 2018. is considered one of the finest works of ancient Egyptian literature. It is a narrative set in the aftermath of the death of Pharaoh Amenemhat I, founder of the 12th D ...
'' describes an Egyptian officer, Sinuhe, conducting military activities in the area of "Upper
Retjenu" and "
Fenekhu" during the reign of
Senusret I ( BC). The earliest ''bona fide'' Egyptian report of a campaign to "Mentu", "Retjenu" and "Sekmem" (
Shechem) is the
Sebek-khu Stele
The Sebek-khu Stele, also known as the Stele of Khu-sobek, is an inscription in honour of a man named Sebek-khu (Khu-sobek), who lived during the reign of Senusret III (reign: 1878 – 1839 BC) discovered by John Garstang in 1901 outside Khu-sobek ...
, dated to the reign of
Senusret III ( BC).
A letter from
Mut-bisir Mut-bisir or Mutu-bisir (fl. 19th century BC) was a senior military official to the Amorite king Shamshi-Adad I. His name appears repeatedly in the Mari letters
Mari (Cuneiform: , ''ma-riki'', modern Tell Hariri; ar, تل حريري) was an anc ...
to
Shamshi-Adad I
Shamshi-Adad ( akk, Šamši-Adad; Amorite: ''Shamshi-Addu''), ruled 1808–1776 BC, was an Amorite warlord and conqueror who had conquered lands across much of Syria, Anatolia, and Upper Mesopotamia.Some of the Mari letters addressed to Shamsi ...
( BC) of the
Old Assyrian Empire (2025–1750 BC) has been translated: "It is in Rahisum that the brigands (habbatum) and the Canaanites (Kinahnum) are situated". It was found in 1973 in the ruins of
Mari, an
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
n outpost at that time in
Syria.
Additional unpublished references to Kinahnum in the Mari letters refer to the same episode. Whether the term Kinahnum refers to people from a specific region or rather people of "foreign origin" has been disputed, such that Robert Drews states that the "first certain cuneiform reference" to Canaan is found on the Alalakh statue of King Idrimi (below).
A reference to Ammiya being "in the land of Canaan" is found on the
Statue of Idrimi
The Statue of Idrimi is an important ancient Middle Eastern sculpture found at the site of Alalakh by the British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley in 1939, dating from the 15th century BC. The statue is famous for its long biographical inscriptio ...
(16th century BC) from
Alalakh
Alalakh (''Tell Atchana''; Hittite: Alalaḫ) is an ancient archaeological site approximately northeast of Antakya (historic Antioch) in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province. It flourished, as an urban settlement, in the Middle and Late Bronze Ag ...
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. The other references in the Alalakh texts are:
* AT 154 (unpublished)
* AT 181: A list of 'Apiru people with their origins. All are towns, except for Canaan
* AT 188: A list of Muskenu people with their origins. All are towns, except for three lands including Canaan
* AT 48: A contract with a Canaanite hunter.
Around 1650 BC, Canaanites invaded the eastern
Nile delta, where, known as the
Hyksos, they became the dominant power. In Egyptian inscriptions, ''Amar'' and ''Amurru'' (
Amorite
The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied la ...
s) are applied strictly to the more northerly mountain region east of Phoenicia, extending to the
Orontes.
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
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
period, under the leadership of the city of
Hazor, at least nominally
tributary to Egypt for much of the period. In the north, the cities of
Yamkhad
Yamhad was an ancient Semitic kingdom centered on Ḥalab (Aleppo), Syria. The kingdom emerged at the end of the 19th century BC, and was ruled by the Yamhadite dynasty kings, who counted on both military and diplomacy to expand their realm. ...
and
Qatna
Qatna (modern: ar, تل المشرفة, Tell al-Mishrifeh) (also Tell Misrife or Tell Mishrifeh) was an ancient city located in Homs Governorate, Syria. Its remains constitute a tell situated about northeast of Homs near the village of al ...
were
hegemons
Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one state over other states. In Ancient Greece (8th BC – AD 6th ), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of the ''hegemon'' city-state over other city-states ...
of important
confederacies, and it would appear that biblical Hazor was the chief city of another important
coalition in the south.
Late Bronze Age (1550–1200)
In the early Late Bronze Age, Canaanite confederacies centered on
Megiddo Megiddo may refer to:
Places and sites in Israel
* Tel Megiddo, site of an ancient city in Israel's Jezreel valley
* Megiddo Airport, a domestic airport in Israel
* Megiddo church (Israel)
* Megiddo, Israel, a kibbutz in Israel
* Megiddo Junctio ...
and
Kadesh
Qadesh, Qedesh, Qetesh, Kadesh, Kedesh, Kadeš and Qades come from the common Semitic root " Q-D-Š", which means "sacred."
Kadesh and variations may refer to:
Ancient/biblical places
* Kadesh (Syria) or Qadesh, an ancient city of the Levant, on ...
, before being fully brought into the
Egyptian Empire and Hittite Empire. Later still, the
Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew t ...
assimilated the region.
According to the Bible, the migrant
ancient Semitic-speaking peoples who appear to have settled in the region included (among others) the
Amorites
The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied la ...
, who had earlier controlled Babylonia. The
Hebrew Bible mentions the ''Amorites'' in the ''
Table of Peoples'' (
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning"). ...
10:16–18a). Evidently, the Amorites played a significant role in the early history of Canaan. In Book of Genesis 14:7 ''f''.,
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua ( he, סֵפֶר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ ', Tiberian: ''Sēp̄er Yŏhōšūaʿ'') is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israe ...
10:5 ''f''.,
Book of Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy ( grc, Δευτερονόμιον, Deuteronómion, second law) is the fifth and last book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called (Hebrew: hbo, , Dəḇārīm, hewords Moses.html"_;"title="f_Moses">f_Moseslabel=none)_and_th ...
1:19 ''f''., 27, 44, we find them located in the southern mountain country, while verses such as
Book of Numbers
The book of Numbers (from Greek Ἀριθμοί, ''Arithmoi''; he, בְּמִדְבַּר, ''Bəmīḏbar'', "In the desert f) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and com ...
21:13, Book of Joshua 9:10, 24:8, 12, etc., tell of two great Amorite kings residing at
Heshbon
Heshbon (also Hesebon, Esebon, Esbous, Esebus; ar, حشبون, links=no, la, Esebus, links=no, he, חשבון, links=no, grc, Ἐσεβών, Ἐσσεβών, Ἐσβούτα, Ἐσβούς, Ἔσβους, Ἔξβους, links=no) were at leas ...
and
Ashteroth, east of the Jordan. However, other passages such as Book of Genesis 15:16, 48:22, Book of Joshua 24:15,
Book of Judges
The Book of Judges (, ') is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom ...
1:34, as well as others regard the name ''Amorite'' as synonymous with "Canaanite"; however "Amorite" is never used for the population on the coast.
In the centuries preceding the appearance of the biblical Hebrews, parts of Canaan and southwestern Syria became tributary to the Egyptian
pharaohs, although domination by the Egyptians remained sporadic, and not strong enough to prevent frequent local rebellions and inter-city struggles. Other areas such as northern Canaan and northern Syria came to be ruled by the Assyrians during this period.
Under
Thutmose III (1479–1426 BC) and
Amenhotep II
Amenhotep II (sometimes called ''Amenophis II'' and meaning ''Amun is Satisfied'') was the seventh pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Amenhotep inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few militar ...
(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 to the population, prepared to hire themselves to whichever local mayor, king, or princeling would pay for their support.
Although Habiru (a
Sumerian ideogram glossed as "brigand" in
Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to:
* Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire
* Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language
* Akkadian literature, literature in this language
* Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic ...
), and sometimes (an Akkadian word) had been reported in Mesopotamia from the reign of the
Sumerian king,
Shulgi
Shulgi ( dŠulgi, formerly read as Dungi) of Ur was the second king of the Third Dynasty of Ur. He reigned for 48 years, from c. 2094 – c. 2046 BC (Middle Chronology) or possibly c. 2030 – 1982 BC (Short Chronology). His accomplishmen ...
of
Ur III, their appearance in Canaan appears to have been due to the arrival of a new state based in Asia Minor to the north of Assyria and based upon a
Maryannu
Maryannu is an ancient word for the caste of chariot-mounted hereditary warrior nobility, which existed in many of the societies of the Middle East during the Bronze Age.
The term is attested in the Amarna letters written by Haapi. Robert Drew ...
aristocracy of horse-drawn
chariot
A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000&nb ...
eers, associated with the
Indo-Aryan rulers of the
Hurrians, known as
Mitanni.
The Habiru seem to have been more a social class than an ethnic group. One analysis shows that the majority were Hurrian, although there were a number of Semites and even some
Kassite
The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology).
They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babyl ...
and
Luwian
The Luwians were a group of Anatolian peoples who lived in central, western, and southern Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They spoke the Luwian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian sub-fam ...
adventurers amongst their number. The reign of
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...
, as a result, was not quite so tranquil for the Asiatic province, as Habiru/'Apiru contributed to greater political instability. It is believed that turbulent chiefs began to seek their opportunities, although as a rule they could not find them without the help of a neighbouring king. The boldest of the disaffected nobles was
Aziru
Aziru was the Canaanite ruler of Amurru, modern Lebanon, in the 14th century BC. He was the son of Abdi-Ashirta, the previous Egyptian vassal of Amurru and a direct contemporary of Akhenaten.
The dealings of Aziru are well-known from the Amarn ...
, son of
Abdi-Ashirta
Abdi-Ashirta ( Akkadian: 𒀵𒀀𒅆𒅕𒋫 ''Warad-Ašîrta'' RAD2-A-ši-ir-ta fl. 14th century BC) was the ruler of Amurru who was in conflict with King Rib-Hadda of Byblos.
While some contend that Amurru was a new kingdom in southern Syria ...
, who endeavoured to extend his power into the plain of
Damascus.
Akizzi
Prince Akizzi was the ruler of Qatna in the fourteenth century BC. Prince Akizzi wrote three of the Amarna letters
The Amarna letters (; sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA, ...
, governor of Katna (
Qatna
Qatna (modern: ar, تل المشرفة, Tell al-Mishrifeh) (also Tell Misrife or Tell Mishrifeh) was an ancient city located in Homs Governorate, Syria. Its remains constitute a tell situated about northeast of Homs near the village of al ...
?) (near
Hamath
Hama ( ar, حَمَاة ', ; syr, ܚܡܬ, ħ(ə)mɑθ, lit=fortress; Biblical Hebrew: ''Ḥamāṯ'') is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial ca ...
), reported this to Amenhotep III, who seems to have sought to frustrate Aziru's attempts. In the reign of the next pharaoh,
Akhenaten
Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth D ...
(reigned 1352 to 1335 BC) both father and son caused infinite trouble to loyal servants of Egypt like
Rib-Hadda
Rib-Hadda (also rendered Rib-Addi, Rib-Addu, Rib-Adda) was king of Byblos during the mid fourteenth century BCE. He is the author of some sixty of the Amarna letters all to Akhenaten. His name is Akkadian in form and may invoke the Northwest Semiti ...
, governor of
Gubla (Gebal), by transferring their loyalty from the Egyptian crown to the Hittite Empire under
Suppiluliuma I (reigned 1344–1322 BC).
Egyptian power in Canaan thus suffered a major setback when the Hittites (or Hat.ti) advanced into Syria in the reign of Amenhotep III, and when they became even more threatening in that of his successor, displacing the Amorites and prompting a resumption of Semitic migration. Abdi-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-Hadda send touching appeals for aid to the distant Pharaoh, who was far too engaged in his religious innovations to attend to such messages.
The Amarna letters tell of the Habiri in northern Syria.
Etakkama
Etakkama, as a common name, but also, Aitukama, Atak(k)ama, Etak(k)ama, and Itak(k)ama is the name for the 'mayor' (king) of Qidšu, ( Kadesh) of the 1350– 1335 BC Amarna letters correspondence. (Qidšu is also referenced as: Qinšu, also Kissa ...
wrote thus to the Pharaoh:
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
Abdi-Heba (Abdi-Kheba, Abdi-Hepat, or Abdi-Hebat) was a local chieftain of Jerusalem during the Amarna period (mid-1330s BC). Abdi-Heba's name can be translated as "servant of Hebat", a Hurrian goddess. Whether Abdi-Heba was himself of Hurrian ...
, reported to the Pharaoh:
Abdi-heba's principal 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 Etakkama (see above) accused of disloyalty, wrote thus to the Pharaoh,
Around the beginning of the
New Kingdom period, Egypt exerted rule over much of the Levant. Rule remained strong during the
Eighteenth Dynasty, but Egypt's rule became precarious during the
Nineteenth and
Twentieth Dynasties.
Ramses II was able to maintain control over it in the
stalemated battle against the Hittites at
Kadesh
Qadesh, Qedesh, Qetesh, Kadesh, Kedesh, Kadeš and Qades come from the common Semitic root " Q-D-Š", which means "sacred."
Kadesh and variations may refer to:
Ancient/biblical places
* Kadesh (Syria) or Qadesh, an ancient city of the Levant, on ...
in 1275 BC, but soon thereafter, the Hittites successfully took over the northern Levant (Syria and Amurru). Ramses II, obsessed with his own building projects while neglecting Asiatic contacts, allowed control over the region to continue dwindling. During the reign of his successor
Merneptah, the
Merneptah Stele was issued which claimed to have destroyed various sites in the southern Levant, including a people known as "Israel". However, archaeological findings show no destruction at any of the sites mentioned in the Merneptah Stele and so it is considered to be an exercise in propaganda, and the campaign most likely avoided the central highlands in the southern Levant. Egypt’s withdrawal from the
southern Levant
The Southern Levant is a geographical region encompassing the southern half of the Levant. It corresponds approximately to modern-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan; some definitions also include southern Lebanon, southern Syria and/or the Sinai Pe ...
was a protracted process lasting some one hundred years beginning in the late 13th century BCE and ending close to the end of the 12th century BCE. The reason for the Egypt's withdrawal was most likely a product of the political turmoil in Egypt proper rather than the invasion by the
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples are a hypothesized seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions in the Eastern Mediterranean, East Mediterranean prior to and during the Late Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 Common Era, BCE).. Quote: ...
as there is little evidence that the Sea Peoples caused much destruction ca. 1200 BCE. Many Egyptian garrisons or sites with an “Egyptian governor’s residence” in the southern Levant were abandoned without destruction including
Dier el-Balah,
Ashkelon
Ashkelon or Ashqelon (; Hebrew: , , ; Philistine: ), also known as Ascalon (; Ancient Greek: , ; Arabic: , ), is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with ...
, Tel Mor,
Tell el-Far'ah (South),
Tel Gerisa
Tel Gerisa (Hebrew) or Tell Jerishe and Tell Jarisha (Arabic), commonly known as Tel Napoleon or Napoleon's Hill (as his army camped on it during the siege of Jaffa), is an archaeological site on the southern bank of the Yarkon River in Israel. Th ...
,
Tell Jemmeh
Tell Jemmeh ( ar, تل جمه), also known in Hebrew as Tel Gamma (תל גמה) or Tel Re'im (תל רעים), is a prominent mound, or tell, located in the region of the northwestern Negev and the southern coastal plain of Israel, about 12  ...
, Tel Masos, and Qubur el-Walaydah.
Not all Egyptian sites in the southern Levant were abandoned without destruction. The Egyptian garrison at
Aphek was destroyed, likely in an act of warfare at the end of the 13th century.
The Egyptian gate complex uncovered at
Jaffa was destroyed at the end of the 12th century between 1134-1115 based on C14 dates, while
Beth-Shean
Beit She'an ( he, בֵּית שְׁאָן '), also Beth-shean, formerly Beisan ( ar, بيسان ), is a town in the Northern District of Israel. The town lies at the Beit She'an Valley about 120 m (394 feet) below sea level.
Beit She'an is be ...
was partially though not completely destroyed, possibly by an earthquake, in the mid-12th century.
Amarna letters
References to Canaanites are also found throughout the Amarna letters of Pharaoh
Akhenaten
Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth D ...
BC. In these letters, some of which were sent by governors and princes of Canaan to their Egyptian overlord
Akhenaten
Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth D ...
(Amenhotep IV) in the 14th century BC, are found, beside ''Amar'' and ''Amurru'' (
Amorites
The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied la ...
), the two forms ''Kinahhi'' and ''Kinahni'', corresponding to ''Kena'' and ''Kena'an'' respectively, and including
Syria in its widest extent, as
Eduard Meyer
Eduard Meyer (25 January 1855 – 31 August 1930) was a German historian. He was the brother of Celticist Kuno Meyer (1858–1919).
Biography
Meyer was born in Hamburg and educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums and later at the univer ...
has shown. The letters are written in the official and diplomatic
East Semitic Akkadian language
Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218-280 is an extinct East Semitic language th ...
of
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
and
Babylonia, though "Canaanitish" words and idioms are also in evidence. The known references are:
* EA 8: Letter from
Burna-Buriash II
Burna-Buriaš II, rendered in cuneiform as ''Bur-na-'' or ''Bur-ra-Bu-ri-ia-aš'' in royal inscriptions and letters, and meaning ''servant'' or ''protégé of the Lord of the lands'' in the Kassite language, where Buriaš (, dbu-ri-ia-aš₂) is a ...
to
Akhenaten
Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth D ...
, explaining that his merchants "were detained in Canaan for business matters", robbed and killed "in Hinnatuna of the land of Canaan" by the rulers of
Acre and Shamhuna, and asks for compensation because "Canaan is your country"
*
EA 9: Letter from
Burna-Buriash II
Burna-Buriaš II, rendered in cuneiform as ''Bur-na-'' or ''Bur-ra-Bu-ri-ia-aš'' in royal inscriptions and letters, and meaning ''servant'' or ''protégé of the Lord of the lands'' in the Kassite language, where Buriaš (, dbu-ri-ia-aš₂) is a ...
to
Tutankhamun, "all the Canaanites wrote to
Kurigalzu saying 'come to the border of the country so we can revolt and be allied with you'"
* EA 30: Letter from
Tushratta: "To the kings of Canaan... Provide
y messenger
Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or sevent ...
with safe entry into Egypt"
* EA 109: Letter of
Rib-Hadda
Rib-Hadda (also rendered Rib-Addi, Rib-Addu, Rib-Adda) was king of Byblos during the mid fourteenth century BCE. He is the author of some sixty of the Amarna letters all to Akhenaten. His name is Akkadian in form and may invoke the Northwest Semiti ...
: "Previously, on seeing a man from Egypt, the kings of Canaan fled before him, but now the sons of
Abdi-Ashirta
Abdi-Ashirta ( Akkadian: 𒀵𒀀𒅆𒅕𒋫 ''Warad-Ašîrta'' RAD2-A-ši-ir-ta fl. 14th century BC) was the ruler of Amurru who was in conflict with King Rib-Hadda of Byblos.
While some contend that Amurru was a new kingdom in southern Syria ...
make men from Egypt prowl about like dogs"
* EA 110: Letter of
Rib-Hadda
Rib-Hadda (also rendered Rib-Addi, Rib-Addu, Rib-Adda) was king of Byblos during the mid fourteenth century BCE. He is the author of some sixty of the Amarna letters all to Akhenaten. His name is Akkadian in form and may invoke the Northwest Semiti ...
: "No ship of the army is to leave Canaan"
* EA 131: Letter of
Rib-Hadda
Rib-Hadda (also rendered Rib-Addi, Rib-Addu, Rib-Adda) was king of Byblos during the mid fourteenth century BCE. He is the author of some sixty of the Amarna letters all to Akhenaten. His name is Akkadian in form and may invoke the Northwest Semiti ...
: "If he does not send archers, they will take
yblosand all the other cities, and the lands of Canaan will not belong to the king. May the king ask
Yanhamu Yanhamu, also Yenhamu, and Enhamu, was an Egyptian commissioner of the 1350-1335 BC Amarna letters correspondence.
Yanhamu is referenced in 16 of the 60–letter ''"Rib-Hadda of Gubla"''-(Byblos) sub-corpus, and also 12 additional letters.
...
about these matters."
* EA 137: Letter of
Rib-Hadda
Rib-Hadda (also rendered Rib-Addi, Rib-Addu, Rib-Adda) was king of Byblos during the mid fourteenth century BCE. He is the author of some sixty of the Amarna letters all to Akhenaten. His name is Akkadian in form and may invoke the Northwest Semiti ...
: "If the king neglects
Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 880 ...
, of all the cities of Canaan not one will be his"
*
EA 367: "Hani son (of) Mairēya, "chief of the stable" of the king in Canaan"
* EA 162: Letter to
Aziru
Aziru was the Canaanite ruler of Amurru, modern Lebanon, in the 14th century BC. He was the son of Abdi-Ashirta, the previous Egyptian vassal of Amurru and a direct contemporary of Akhenaten.
The dealings of Aziru are well-known from the Amarn ...
: "You yourself know that the king does not want to go against all of Canaan when he rages"
* EA 148: Letter from
Abimilku
Abimilki ( ''Amorite'': , '' LÚa-bi-mil-ki'', ) around 1347 BC held the rank of Prince of Tyre (called "Surru" in the letters), during the period of the Amarna letters correspondence (1350–1335 BC). He is the author of ten letters to the Egypt ...
to the Pharaoh: "
he king
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
has taken over the land of the king for the 'Apiru. May the king ask his commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan"
* EA 151: Letter from
Abimilku
Abimilki ( ''Amorite'': , '' LÚa-bi-mil-ki'', ) around 1347 BC held the rank of Prince of Tyre (called "Surru" in the letters), during the period of the Amarna letters correspondence (1350–1335 BC). He is the author of ten letters to the Egypt ...
to the Pharaoh: "The king, my lord wrote to me: 'write to me what you have heard from Canaan'." Abimilku describes in response what has happened in eastern
Cilicia (
Danuna), the northern coast of Syria (
Ugarit), in Syria (
Qadesh,
Amurru Amurru may refer to:
* Amurru kingdom, roughly current day western Syria and northern Lebanon
* Amorite, ancient Syrian people
* Amurru (god)
Amurru, also known under the Sumerian name Martu, was a Mesopotamian god who served as the divine perso ...
, and
Damascus) as well as in
Sidon.
Other Late Bronze Age mentions
Text RS 20.182 from
Ugarit is a copy of a letter of the king of Ugarit to
Ramesses II concerning money paid by "the sons of the land of Ugarit" to the "foreman of the sons of the land of Canaan (''*kn'ny'')" According to Jonathan Tubb, this suggests that the people of Ugarit, contrary to much modern opinion, considered themselves to be non-Canaanite.
The other Ugarit reference, KTU 4.96, shows a list of traders assigned to royal estates, of which one of the estates had three Ugaritans, an Ashdadite, an Egyptian and a Canaanite.
=Ashur tablets
=
A Middle
Assyrian
Assyrian may refer to:
* Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia.
* Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire.
** Early Assyrian Period
** Old Assyrian Period
** Middle Assyrian Empire
** Neo-Assyrian Empire
* Assyri ...
letter during the reign of
Shalmaneser I
Shalmaneser I (𒁹𒀭𒁲𒈠𒉡𒊕 md''sál-ma-nu-SAG'' ''Salmanu-ašared''; 1273–1244 BC or 1265–1235 BC) was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian Empire. Son of Adad-nirari I, he succeeded his father as king in 1265 BC.
Accord ...
includes a reference to the "travel to Canaan" of an Assyrian official.
=Hattusa letters
=
Four references are known from Hattusa:
* An evocation to the Cedar Gods: Includes reference to Canaan alongside Sidon, Tyre and possibly Amurru
* KBo XXVIII 1:
Ramesses II letter to
Hattusili III, in which Ramesses suggested he would meet "his brother" in Canaan and bring him to Egypt
* KUB III 57 (also KUB III 37 + KBo I 17): Broken text which may refer to Canaan as an Egyptian sub-district
* KBo I 15+19:
Ramesses II letter to
Hattusili III, describing Ramesses' visit to the "land of Canaan on his way to Kinza and Harita
Bronze Age collapse
Ann 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 ( and BC), 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.
Just after the Amarna period, a new problem arose which was to trouble the Egyptian control of southern Canaan (the rest of the region now being under Assyrian control). Pharaoh Horemhab campaigned against
Shasu (Egyptian = "wanderers") living in
nomadic pastoralist tribes, who had moved across the
Jordan River
The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...
to threaten Egyptian trade through
Galilee and
Jezreel.
Seti I
Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom period, ruling c.1294 or 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II.
The ...
( BC) is said to have conquered these Shasu, Semitic-speaking nomads living just south and east of the
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank t ...
, from the fortress of Taru (Shtir?) to "''Ka-n-'-na''". After the near collapse of the
Battle of Kadesh
The Battle of Kadesh or Battle of Qadesh took place between the forces of the New Kingdom of Egypt under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River, just upstream of Lake Homs near the mode ...
,
Rameses II had to campaign vigorously in Canaan to maintain Egyptian power. Egyptian forces penetrated into
Moab
Moab ''Mōáb''; Assyrian: 𒈬𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀 ''Mu'abâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀
''Ma'bâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒀊 ''Ma'ab''; Egyptian: 𓈗𓇋𓃀𓅱𓈉 ''Mū'ībū'', name=, group= () is the name of an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territ ...
and
Ammon
Ammon (Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; he, עַמּוֹן ''ʻAmmōn''; ar, عمّون, ʻAmmūn) was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in p ...
, where a permanent fortress garrison (called simply "Rameses") was established.
Some believe the "
Habiru" signified generally all the nomadic tribes known as "Hebrews", and particularly the early
Israelites of the period of the "
judges
A judge is an official who presides over a court.
Judge or Judges may also refer to:
Roles
*Judge, an alternative name for an adjudicator in a competition in theatre, music, sport, etc.
*Judge, an alternative name/aviator call sign for a membe ...
", who sought to appropriate the fertile region for themselves. However, the term was rarely used to describe the Shasu. Whether the term may also include other related ancient Semitic-speaking peoples such as the
Moab
Moab ''Mōáb''; Assyrian: 𒈬𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀 ''Mu'abâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀
''Ma'bâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒀊 ''Ma'ab''; Egyptian: 𓈗𓇋𓃀𓅱𓈉 ''Mū'ībū'', name=, group= () is the name of an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territ ...
ites,
Ammon
Ammon (Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; he, עַמּוֹן ''ʻAmmōn''; ar, عمّون, ʻAmmūn) was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in p ...
ites and
Edomites is uncertain.
There is little evidence that any major city or settlement in the southern Levant was destroyed around 1200 BCE.
At
Lachish, The Fosse Temple III was ritually terminated while a house in Area S appears to have burned in a house fire as the most severe evidence of burning was next to two ovens while no other part of the city had evidence of burning. After this though the city was rebuilt in a grander fashion than before. For
Megiddo Megiddo may refer to:
Places and sites in Israel
* Tel Megiddo, site of an ancient city in Israel's Jezreel valley
* Megiddo Airport, a domestic airport in Israel
* Megiddo church (Israel)
* Megiddo, Israel, a kibbutz in Israel
* Megiddo Junctio ...
, most parts of the city did not have any signs of damage and it is only possible that the palace in Area AA might have been destroyed though this is not certain.
While the monumental structures at Hazor were indeed destroyed, this destruction was in the mid-13th century BCE long before the end of the Late Bronze Age began. However, many sites were not burned to the ground around 1200 BCE including:
Ashkelon
Ashkelon or Ashqelon (; Hebrew: , , ; Philistine: ), also known as Ascalon (; Ancient Greek: , ; Arabic: , ), is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with ...
,
Ashdod
Ashdod ( he, ''ʾašdōḏ''; ar, أسدود or إسدود ''ʾisdūd'' or '' ʾasdūd'' ; Philistine: 𐤀𐤔𐤃𐤃 *''ʾašdūd'') is the sixth-largest city in Israel. Located in the country's Southern District, it lies on the Mediterran ...
,
Tell es-Safi
Tell es-Safi ( ar, تل الصافي, Tall aṣ-Ṣāfī, "White hill"; he, תל צפית, ''Tel Tzafit'') was an Arab Palestinian village, located on the southern banks of Wadi 'Ajjur, northwest of Hebron which had its Arab population expelled ...
,
Tel Batash
Timnath or Timnah was a Philistine city in Canaan that is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in and in connection with Samson. Modern archaeologists identify the ancient site with a tell lying on a flat, alluvial plain, located in the Sorek Valley ...
,
Tel Burna
Tel Burna is an Israeli archaeological site located in the Shephelah (Judean foothills), along the banks of Nahal Guvrin, not far from modern-day Qiryat Gat.
History and identification
The site was primarily inhabited in the Bronze and Iron Ages, ...
,
Tel Dor,
Tel Gerisa
Tel Gerisa (Hebrew) or Tell Jerishe and Tell Jarisha (Arabic), commonly known as Tel Napoleon or Napoleon's Hill (as his army camped on it during the siege of Jaffa), is an archaeological site on the southern bank of the Yarkon River in Israel. Th ...
,
Tell Jemmeh
Tell Jemmeh ( ar, تل جمه), also known in Hebrew as Tel Gamma (תל גמה) or Tel Re'im (תל רעים), is a prominent mound, or tell, located in the region of the northwestern Negev and the southern coastal plain of Israel, about 12  ...
, Khirbet Rabud,
Tel Zeror
Tel Zeror is an archaeological tel on the Sharon Plain, approximately four km east of Hadera, SE of Kibbutz Gan Shmuel and south of Moshav Talmei Elazar. The tel, unconventionally, has two peaks, and between them is a field. The site is just sout ...
, and
Tell Abu Hawam
Tell Abu Hawam is the site of a small city established in the Late Bronze Age (14th century BCE) in the area of modern-day Haifa, Israel. The sixth century BCE geographer Scylax described the city as being located "between the bay and the promont ...
among others.
Despite many theories which claim that trade relations broke down after 1200 BCE in the southern Levant, there is ample evidence that trade with other regions continued after the end of the Late Bronze Age in the Southern Levant. Archaeologist Jesse Millek has shown that while the common assuption is that trade in Cypriot and Mycenaean pottery ended around 1200 BCE, trade in
Cypriot pottery The pottery of ancient Cyprus starts during the Neolithic period.
Throughout the ages, Cypriot ceramics demonstrate many connections with cultures from around the Mediterranean.
During the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, it is especially imaginative ...
actually largely came to an end at 1300, while for
Mycenaean pottery, this trade ended at 1250 BCE, and destruction around 1200 BCE could not have affected either pattern of international trade since it ended before the end of the Late Bronze Age. He has also demonstrated that trade with
Egypt continued after 1200 BCE. Archaeometallurgical studies performed by various teams have also shown that trade in
tin, a non-local metal necessary to make
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
, did not stop or decrease after 1200 BCE, even though the closest source of the metal were modern Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, or perhaps even Cornwall, England.
Lead from
Sardinia was still being imported to the southern Levant after 1200 BCE during the early Iron Age.
Iron Age
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
Moab ''Mōáb''; Assyrian: 𒈬𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀 ''Mu'abâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀
''Ma'bâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒀊 ''Ma'ab''; Egyptian: 𓈗𓇋𓃀𓅱𓈉 ''Mū'ībū'', name=, group= () is the name of an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territ ...
,
Ammon
Ammon (Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; he, עַמּוֹן ''ʻAmmōn''; ar, عمّون, ʻAmmūn) was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in p ...
, and
Aram-Damascus
The Kingdom of Aram-Damascus () was an Aramean polity that existed from the late-12th century BCE until 732 BCE, and was centred around the city of Damascus in the Southern Levant. Alongside various tribal lands, it was bounded in its later ye ...
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 (including all Phoenician/Canaanite and
Aramean
The Arameans ( oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; syc, ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Ārāmāyē) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean h ...
states, together with
Israel,
Philistia, and
Samarra
Samarra ( ar, سَامَرَّاء, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional ar ...
) was conquered by the
Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew t ...
during the 10th and 9th centuries BC, and would remain so for three hundred years until the end of the 7th century BC. Emperor-kings such as
Ashurnasirpal,
Adad-nirari II
Adad-nirari II (reigned from 911 to 891 BC) was the first King of Assyria in the Neo-Assyrian period.
Biography
Adad-nirari II's father was Ashur-dan II, whom he succeeded after a minor dynastic struggle. It is probable that the accession encour ...
,
Sargon II,
Tiglath-Pileser III
Tiglath-Pileser III (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "my trust belongs to the son of Ešarra"), was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 745 BC to his death in 727. One of the most prominent and historically significant Assyrian kings, Tig ...
,
Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , also , meaning " Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his ...
,
Sennacherib and
Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning " Ashur is the creator of the heir") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BCE to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king of Assyria. Inheriting the throne as ...
came to dominate Canaanite affairs. During the
Twenty-fifth Dynasty the Egyptians made a failed attempt to regain a foothold in the region, but were vanquished by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, leading to an
Assyrian conquest of Egypt
The Assyrian conquest of Egypt covered a relatively short period of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 673 BCE to 663 BCE. The conquest of Egypt not only placed a land of great cultural prestige under Assyrian rule but also brought the Neo-Assyrian Empi ...
. Between 616 and 605 BC the Neo-Assyrian Empire collapsed due to a series of bitter civil wars, followed by an attack by an alliance of
Babylonians
Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...
,
Medes
The Medes (Old Persian: ; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, ...
, and Persians and the
Scythians. The
Neo-Babylonian Empire inherited the western part of the empire, including all the lands in Canaan and
Syria, together with
Kingdom of Israel
The Kingdom of Israel may refer to any of the historical kingdoms of ancient Israel, including:
Fully independent (c. 564 years)
*Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy) (1047–931 BCE), the legendary kingdom established by the Israelites and uniting ...
and the
Kingdom of Judah. They successfully defeated the Egyptians and remained in the region in an attempt to regain a foothold in the
Near East.
The Neo-Babylonian Empire itself collapsed in 539 BC, and the region became a part of the
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...
. It remained so until in 332 BC it was conquered by the
Greeks under
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
, later to fall to the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
in the late 2nd century BC, and then
Byzantium
Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' con ...
, until the
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, No ...
Islamic invasion and conquest of the 7th century AD.
Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic (1500–1000 BC)
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
Hama ( ar, حَمَاة ', ; syr, ܚܡܬ, ħ(ə)mɑθ, lit=fortress; Biblical Hebrew: ''Ḥamāṯ'') is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial ca ...
in Syria, to the east by the
Jordan Valley
The Jordan Valley ( ar, غور الأردن, ''Ghor al-Urdun''; he, עֵמֶק הַיַרְדֵּן, ''Emek HaYarden'') forms part of the larger Jordan Rift Valley. Unlike most other river valleys, the term "Jordan Valley" often applies just to ...
, and to the south by a line extended from the
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank t ...
to around
Gaza. Nevertheless, the Egyptian and
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
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,
Retjenu.
Lebanon, in northern Canaan, bordered by the
Litani river
The Litani River ( ar, نهر الليطاني, Nahr al-Līṭānī), the classical Leontes ( grc-gre, Λέοντες, Léontes, lions), is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley, west of Ba ...
to the watershed of the
Orontes River, was known by the Egyptians as upper
Retjenu. In Egyptian campaign accounts, the term
Djahi Djahi, Djahy or Tjahi ( Egyptian: ''ḏhj'', ''ḏꜣhy'') was the Egyptian designation for southern Retjenu.
It ran from approximately Ashkelon in Israel to Lebanon and inland as far as Galilee.Steindorff, George. ''When Egypt Ruled the East.'' ...
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.
Archaeological attestation of the name "Canaan" in
Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran (Elam, ...
ern sources relates almost exclusively to the period in which the region operated as a colony of the
New Kingdom of Egypt (16th–11th centuries BC), with usage of the name almost disappearing following the
Late Bronze Age collapse ( BC). The references suggest that during this period the term was familiar to the region's neighbors on all sides, although scholars have disputed to what extent such references provide a coherent description of its location and boundaries, and regarding whether the inhabitants used the term to describe themselves.
16 references are known in Egyptian sources, from the
Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt onwards.
*
Amenhotep II
Amenhotep II (sometimes called ''Amenophis II'' and meaning ''Amun is Satisfied'') was the seventh pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Amenhotep inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few militar ...
inscriptions: Canaanites are included in a list of prisoners of war
* Three topographical lists
*
Papyrus Anastasi I {{More footnotes, date=March 2017
Papyrus Anastasi I (officially designated papyrus British Museum 10247) is an ancient Egyptian papyrus containing a satirical text used for the training of scribes during the Ramesside Period (i.e. Nineteenth and ...
27,1" refers to the route from Sile to Gaza "the
oreign countriesof the end of the land of Canaan"
*
Merneptah Stele
*
Papyrus Anastasi IIIA 5–6 and
Papyrus Anastasi IV
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a d ...
16,4 refer to "Canaanite slaves from Hurru"
*
Papyrus Harris
Papyrus Harris I is also known as the Great Harris Papyrus and (less accurately) simply the Harris Papyrus (though there are a number of other papyri in the Harris collection). Its technical designation is ''Papyrus British Museum EA 9999''. At 41 ...
After the collapse of the Levant under the so-called "
Peoples of the Sea"
Ramesses III ( BC) is said to have built a temple to the god
Amen
Amen ( he, אָמֵן, ; grc, ἀμήν, ; syc, ܐܡܝܢ, ; ar, آمين, ) is an Abrahamic declaration of affirmation which is first found in the Hebrew Bible, and subsequently found in the New Testament. It is used in Jewish, Christian, an ...
to receive tribute from the southern Levant. 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 the south west corner of the
Near East.
Greco-Roman historiography
The Greek term ''Phoenicia'' is first attested in the first two works of
Western literature,
Homer's ''
Iliad'' and ''
Odyssey''. It does not occur in the
Hebrew Bible, but occurs three times in the
New Testament in the
Book of Acts
The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...
. In the 6th century BC,
Hecataeus of Miletus affirms that Phoenicia was formerly called , 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
Sanchuniathon (; Ancient Greek: ; probably from Phoenician: , "Sakon has given"), also known as Sanchoniatho the Berytian, was a Phoenician author. His three works, originally written in the Phoenician language, survive only in partial paraphras ...
, he relates that
Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 880 ...
,
Berytus
) or Laodicea in Canaan (2nd century to 64 BCE)
, image = St. George's Cathedral, Beirut.jpg
, image_size =
, alt =
, caption = Roman ruins of Berytus, in front of Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral in mode ...
and
Tyre were among the first cities ever built, under the rule of the mythical
Cronus
In Ancient Greek religion and mythology, Cronus, Cronos, or Kronos ( or , from el, Κρόνος, ''Krónos'') was the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans, the divine descendants of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) an ...
, and credits the inhabitants with developing fishing, hunting, agriculture, shipbuilding and writing.
Coins of the city of
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of ...
/ Laodicea bear the legend, "Of Laodicea, a metropolis in Canaan"; these coins are dated to the reign of
Antiochus IV
Antiochus IV Epiphanes (; grc, Ἀντίοχος ὁ Ἐπιφανής, ''Antíochos ho Epiphanḗs'', "God Manifest"; c. 215 BC – November/December 164 BC) was a Greek Hellenistic king who ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC until his deat ...
(175–164 BC) and his successors until 123 BC.
Saint Augustine also mentions that one of the terms the seafaring Phoenicians called their homeland was "Canaan". Augustine also records that the rustic people of
Hippo
The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extant ...
in North Africa retained the
Punic self-designation ''Chanani''. Since 'punic' in Latin also meant 'non-Roman', some scholars however argue that the language referred to as Punic in Augustine may have been
Libyan
Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The ...
.
The Greeks also popularized the term ''Palestine'', named after the Philistines or the Aegean
Pelasgians, for roughly the region of Canaan, excluding Phoenicia, with
Herodotus' first recorded use of ''
Palaistinê'', BC. From 110 BC, the
Hasmoneans extended their authority over much of the region, creating a
Judean
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous sout ...
-
Samaritan-
Idumaean-
Ituraean
Iturea ( grc, Ἰτουραία, ''Itouraía'') is the Greek name of a Levantine region north of Galilee during the Late Hellenistic and early Roman periods. It extended from Mount Lebanon across the plain of Marsyas to the Anti-Lebanon Mountai ...
-
Galilean alliance. The Judean (Jewish, see
Ioudaioi
''Ioudaios'' ( grc, Ἰουδαῖος; pl. ''Ioudaioi''). is an Ancient Greek ethnonym used in classical and biblical literature which commonly translates to " Jew" or "Judean".
The choice of translation is the subject of frequent scholarly de ...
) control over the wider area resulted in it also becoming known as
Judaea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous sou ...
, a term that had previously only referred to the smaller region of the
Judean Mountains
The Judaean Mountains, or Judaean Hills ( he, הרי יהודה, translit=Harei Yehuda) or the Hebron Mountains ( ar, تلال الخليل, translit=Tilal al-Khalīl, links=, lit=Hebron Mountains), is a mountain range in Palestine and Israel whe ...
, the allotment of the
Tribe of Judah
According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe of Judah (, ''Shevet Yehudah'') was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel, named after Judah, the son of Jacob. Judah was the first tribe to take its place in the Land of Israel, occupying the southern ...
and heartland of the former
Kingdom of Judah. Between 73–63 BC, the
Roman Republic extended its influence into the region in the
Third Mithridatic War, conquering Judea in 63 BC, and splitting the former Hasmonean Kingdom into five districts. Around 130–135 AD, as a result of the suppression of the
Bar Kochba
Simon ben Koseba or Cosiba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כֹסֵבָא, translit= Šīmʾōn bar Ḵōsēḇaʾ ; died 135 CE), commonly known as Bar Kokhba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כּוֹכְבָא, translit=Šīmʾōn bar ...
revolt, the province of Iudaea was joined with
Galilee to form new province of
Syria Palaestina. There is
circumstantial evidence
Circumstantial evidence is evidence that relies on an inference to connect it to a conclusion of fact—such as a fingerprint at the scene of a crime. By contrast, direct evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly—i.e., without need f ...
linking
Hadrian with the name change,
although the precise date is not certain,
and the interpretation of some scholars that the name change may have been intended "to complete the dissociation with Judaea"
[ Sharon, 1998, p. 4. According to ]Moshe Sharon
Moshe Sharon ( he, משה שָׁרוֹן; born December 18, 1937) is an Israeli historian of Islam.
He is currently Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he serves as Chair in Bah� ...
, "Eager to obliterate the name of the rebellious Judaea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous sou ...
", the Roman authorities (General Hadrian) renamed it ''Palaestina'' or ''Syria Palaestina''. is disputed.
Later sources
Padiiset's Statue
Padiiset's Statue or Pateese's Statue, also described as the Statue of a vizier usurped by Padiiset, is a basalt statue found in 1894 in an unknown location in the Egyptian delta which includes an inscription referring to trade between Canaan and ...
is the last known Egyptian reference to Canaan, a small statuette labelled "Envoy of the Canaan and of
Peleset, Pa-di-Eset, the son of Apy". The inscription is dated to 900–850 BC, more than 300 years after the preceding known inscription.
During the period from BC, the dominant
Neo-Assyrian and
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...
make no mention of Canaan.
Canaanites
The Canaanites were the inhabitants of ancient Canaan, a region that roughly corresponds to present-day
Israel and the
Palestinian Territories
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. The ...
, western
Jordan, southern and coastal
Syria,
Lebanon, and continued up to the southern border of
Turkey. They are believed to have been one of the oldest civilizations in
human history.
History
The
Levant was inhabited by people who referred to the land as ''ca-na-na-um'' as early as the mid-third millennium BCE. The
Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to:
* Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire
* Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language
* Akkadian literature, literature in this language
* Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic ...
word "''kinahhu''" referred to the purple-coloured wool, dyed from the
Murex molluscs of the coast—which was a key export of the region. When the
ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
later traded with the Canaanites, this meaning of the word seems to have predominated, as they referred to the Canaanites as ''Phoenikes'' (
Phoenicians), which may derive from the
Greek-language word "''phoenix''" (), and also described the cloth for which the Greeks traded. The word "''phoenix''" was
transcribed by the
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
to "''poenus''"; the descendants of the Canaanite settlers in
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
were likewise referred to as
''Punic''.
Thus, while "Phoenician" and "Canaanite" refer to the same culture, archaeologists and historians commonly refer to the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
pre-1200 BCE Levantine peoples as Canaanites, while their
Iron Age descendants, particularly those living on the coast, are referred to as Phoenicians. More recently, the term "Canaanite" has been used for the secondary Iron Age states of the Levantine interior that were not ruled by
Aramean peoples, that is, that were ruled by a separate and closely-related ethnic group which included the
Philistines and the
Israelite kingdoms of
Israel and Judah
The history of ancient Israel and Judah begins in the Southern Levant during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. "Israel" as a people or tribal confederation (see Israelites) appears for the first time in the Merneptah Stele, an inscripti ...
.
Culture
Canaan included what today are Lebanon, Israel,
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...
, northwestern Jordan, and some western areas of Syria.
According to archaeologist Jonathan N. Tubb, "
Ammon
Ammon (Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; he, עַמּוֹן ''ʻAmmōn''; ar, عمّون, ʻAmmūn) was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in p ...
ites,
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 BCE."
There is uncertainty about whether the name "Canaan" refers to a specific
Semitic-speaking ethnic group wherever they live, the homeland of this ethnic group, a region under the control of this ethnic group, or perhaps any combination of the three.
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 civilizations of the Middle East—
Ancient Egypt,
Mesopotamia (
Sumer,
Akkad,
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
,
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
The Canaanite religion was the group of ancient Semitic religions practiced by the Canaanites living in the ancient Levant from at least the early Bronze Age through the first centuries AD. Canaanite religion was polytheistic and, in some cases, ...
by the struggle between the storm god, variously called
Teshub
Teshub (also written Teshup, Teššup, or Tešup; cuneiform ; hieroglyphic Luwian , read as ''Tarhunzas'';Annick Payne (2014), ''Hieroglyphic Luwian: An Introduction with Original Texts'', 3rd revised edition, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, p.& ...
(
Hurrian) or
Ba'al Hadad (
Semitic Amorite
The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied la ...
/
Aramean
The Arameans ( oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; syc, ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Ārāmāyē) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean h ...
) and
Ya'a, Yaw, 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
pistachio
The pistachio (, ''Pistacia vera''), a member of the Anacardiaceae, cashew family, is a small tree originating from Central Asia and the Middle East. The tree produces nut (fruit)#Culinary definition and uses, seeds that are widely consumed as f ...
s, surrounded by extensive
grain cropping, predominantly
wheat and
barley. Harvest in early summer was a season when
transhumance nomadism
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...
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
The Gezer calendar is a small limestone tablet with an early Canaanite inscription discovered in 1908 by Irish archaeologist R. A. Stewart Macalister in the ancient city of Gezer, 20 miles west of Jerusalem. It is commonly dated to the 10th cen ...
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
Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no s ...
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 intertribal feuding would return. It has been suggested that the Patriarchal tales of the Bible reflect such social forms. During the periods of the collapse of
Akkadian Empire
The Akkadian Empire () was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centered in the city of Akkad () and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one ru ...
in
Mesopotamia and the
First Intermediate Period of Egypt, the Hyksos invasions and the end of the Middle Bronze Age in Assyria and Babylonia, and the Late
Bronze Age collapse
The Late Bronze Age collapse was a time of widespread societal collapse during the 12th century BC, between c. 1200 and 1150. The collapse affected a large area of the Eastern Mediterranean (North Africa and Southeast Europe) and the Near Eas ...
, trade through the Canaanite area would dwindle, as Egypt, Babylonia, and to a lesser degree
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
, withdrew into their isolation. When the climates stabilized, trade would resume firstly along the coast in the area of the
Philistine and Phoenician cities. As markets redeveloped, new trade routes that would avoid the heavy tariffs of the coast would develop from
Kadesh Barnea
Kadesh or Qadesh or Cades (in classical Hebrew he, קָדֵשׁ, from the root "holy") is a place-name that occurs several times in the Hebrew Bible, describing a site or sites located south of, or at the southern border of, Canaan and the Kin ...
, through
Hebron,
Lachish,
Jerusalem,
Bethel
Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite sanct ...
,
Samaria,
Shechem,
Shiloh through
Galilee to
Jezreel,
Hazor, and
Megiddo Megiddo may refer to:
Places and sites in Israel
* Tel Megiddo, site of an ancient city in Israel's Jezreel valley
* Megiddo Airport, a domestic airport in Israel
* Megiddo church (Israel)
* Megiddo, Israel, a kibbutz in Israel
* Megiddo Junctio ...
. Secondary Canaanite cities would develop in this region. Further economic development would see the creation of a third trade route from
Eilath
Eilat ( , ; he, אֵילַת ; ar, إِيلَات, Īlāt) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan ...
,
Timna
Timna ( Qatabānic: , romanized: , ; ar, تمنع, translit=Timnaʿ) is an ancient city in Yemen, the capital of the Qataban kingdom; it is distinct from a valley in southern Israel that shares the same name.
During ancient times, Timna was an i ...
,
Edom (
Seir
Seir or SEIR may refer to:
*Mount Seir, a mountainous region stretching between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba
*Seir the Horite, chief of the Horites, a people mentioned in the Torah
* Sa'ir, also Seir, a Palestinian town in the Hebron Govern ...
),
Moab
Moab ''Mōáb''; Assyrian: 𒈬𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀 ''Mu'abâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀
''Ma'bâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒀊 ''Ma'ab''; Egyptian: 𓈗𓇋𓃀𓅱𓈉 ''Mū'ībū'', name=, group= () is the name of an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territ ...
,
Ammon
Ammon (Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; he, עַמּוֹן ''ʻAmmōn''; ar, عمّون, ʻAmmūn) was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in p ...
, and thence to the Aramean states of
Damascus and
Palmyra. Earlier states (for example the Philistines and
Tyrians in the case of
Judah and
Samaria, for the second route, and Judah and Israel for the third route) tried generally unsuccessfully to control the interior trade.
Eventually, the prosperity of this trade would attract more powerful regional neighbours, such as
Ancient Egypt,
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
, the Babylonians,
Persians,
Ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
, and
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
, 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
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) is part of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, a Neolithic culture centered in upper Mesopotamia and the Levant, dating to years ago, that is, 8800–6500 BC. It was typed by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon during h ...
,
Ghassulian
Ghassulian refers to a culture and an archaeological stage dating to the Middle and Late Chalcolithic Period in the Southern Levant (c. 4400 – c. 3500 BC). Its type-site, Teleilat Ghassul ( Teleilat el-Ghassul, Tulaylat al-Ghassul), is l ...
,
Uruk
Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
, and the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
cycles already mentioned). The fall of later Canaanite civilization occurred with the incorporation of the area into the
Greco-Roman world (as
Iudaea
Judaea ( la, Iudaea ; grc, Ἰουδαία, translit=Ioudaíā ) was a Roman province which incorporated the regions of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea from 6 CE, extending over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of ...
province), and after
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
times, into the Muslim
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, No ...
and proto-Muslim
Umayyad 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 CE. A separate
Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to:
* Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire
* Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language
* Akkadian literature, literature in this language
* Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic ...
-infused
Eastern Aramaic
The Eastern Aramaic languages have developed from the varieties of Aramaic that developed in and around Mesopotamia (Iraq, southeast Turkey, northeast Syria and northwest and southwest Iran), as opposed to western varieties of the Levant (modern ...
is still spoken by the existing
Assyrians of
Iraq,
Iran, northeast Syria, and southeast
Turkey.
Tel Kabri
Tel Kabri ( he, תֵל כַבְרִי), or Tell al-Qahweh ( ar, تَلْ ألْقَهوَة, , mound of coffee), is an archaeological tell (mound created by accumulation of remains) containing one of the largest Middle Bronze Age (2,100–1,5 ...
contains the remains of a Canaanite city from the Middle
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
(2000–1550 BCE). 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.
Significant figures
Figures mentioned in
historiography or known through archaeology
Confirmed archaeologically
* Niqmaddu I of
Ugarit (Known from a seal used by Ugaritan Kings)
* Yaqarum I of
Ugarit (Known from a seal used by Ugaritan Kings)
*
Ammittamru I
Ammittamru I (Known by some sources as Amishtammru I or Amistammru I) was a king of the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit who ruled c. 1350 BC.
Reign
The first mention of him is EA 45 sent by Ammittamru I to Egypt, either in the late reign of Ameno ...
of
Ugarit (Amarna letters)
*
Niqmaddu II of
Ugarit (Amarna letters) (1349–1315 BCE)
*
Arhalba
Ar-Halba was the third known ruler of Ugarit, an Ancient Syrian city state in northwestern Syria, reigning for no less than two years, possibly from 1315 to 1313 BC. He succeeded king Niqmaddu II.
Very little is known about his short reign, as h ...
of
Ugarit (1315–1313 BCE)
*
Niqmepa
Niqmepa (died 1270 BC) was the fifth-from-last King of Ugarit, a city-state in northwestern Syria.
Reign
He was the son of Niqmaddu II, and the brother and successor of Arhalba.
Niqmepa was installed by the Hittite king Mursili II after forc ...
of
Ugarit (1313–1260 BCE)
*
Ammittamru II
Ammittamru II was a king of the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit who ruled from 1260 to 1235 BC. He reigned for 25 years, being the son of former king Niqmepa, who was famously forced to sign a treaty of vassalization to the Hittites.
His mother A ...
of
Ugarit (1260–1235 BCE)
*
Ibiranu
Ibiranu (reigned 1235 BC – 1225/20 BC) was the sixth king of Ugarit, a city-state in northwestern Syria. Ibiranu reigned between c. 1235 and 1225/20 BC, and was a contemporary of Tudhaliya IV and Arnuwanda III of Hatti. As a vassal state ...
of
Ugarit (1235–1220 BCE)
*
Ammurapi of
Ugarit (1215–1185 BCE)
*
Aziru
Aziru was the Canaanite ruler of Amurru, modern Lebanon, in the 14th century BC. He was the son of Abdi-Ashirta, the previous Egyptian vassal of Amurru and a direct contemporary of Akhenaten.
The dealings of Aziru are well-known from the Amarn ...
, ruler of
Amurru Amurru may refer to:
* Amurru kingdom, roughly current day western Syria and northern Lebanon
* Amorite, ancient Syrian people
* Amurru (god)
Amurru, also known under the Sumerian name Martu, was a Mesopotamian god who served as the divine perso ...
(Amarna letters)
*
Labaya, lord of
Shechem (Amarna letters)
*
Abdi-Heba
Abdi-Heba (Abdi-Kheba, Abdi-Hepat, or Abdi-Hebat) was a local chieftain of Jerusalem during the Amarna period (mid-1330s BC). Abdi-Heba's name can be translated as "servant of Hebat", a Hurrian goddess. Whether Abdi-Heba was himself of Hurrian ...
, local chieftain of pre-Israelite Jerusalem (
Jebus) (Amarna letters)
*
Šuwardata, king of the Canaanite city of Gath or 'mayor' of Qiltu (Amarna letters)
Rulers of Tyre
*
Abibaal
Abibaal ( phn, 𐤀𐤁𐤉𐤁𐤏𐤋, ʾabībaʿl, ''"My father is Baal"'') was a king of Tyre in the 10th century BC, father of the famous Hiram I. The only information known about him is derived from two passages in Josephus's ''Against Apion ...
990–978 BCE
*
Hiram I 978–944 BCE
*
Baal-Eser I
Baal-Eser I (Beleazarus I, Ba‘l-mazzer I) was a king of Tyre. His father, Hiram I, was a contemporary of David and Solomon, kings of Israel. The only information available about Baal-Eser I comes from the following citation of the Phoenician au ...
(Balbazer I) 944–927 BCE
*
Abdastartus
Abdastartus ( Phoenician: 𐤏𐤁𐤃𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 ''’bd’štrt'', possibly pronounced akin to ''’Abd-’Ashtart'') was a king of Tyre, son of Baal-Eser I (Beleazarus) and grandson of Hiram I. The only information available about A ...
927–918 BCE
*
Methusastartus 918–906 BCE
*
Astarymus
Astarymus (also called Aserymus; possibly Phoenician: 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤓𐤌 ''‘štrrm'', "Ashtar is great") was a king of Tyre and the third of four brothers who held the kingship. The only information available about him comes from Joseph ...
906–897 BCE
*
Phelles
Phelles was a King of Tyre and the last of four brothers who held the kingship. The only information available about Phelles comes from Josephus’s citation of the Phoenician author Menander of Ephesus, in ''Against Apion'' i.18. Here it is sai ...
897–896 BCE
*
Ithobaal I 896–863 BCE
*
Baal-Eser II
Baal-Eser II (846–841 BC), also known as Balbazer II and Ba'l-mazzer I was a king of Tyre, the son of Ithobaal I, brother of Jezebel and brother-in-law of Ahab.
The primary information related to Baal-Eser II comes from Josephus's citation of ...
(Balbazer II) 863–829 BCE
*
Mattan I 829–820 BCE
*
Pygmalion 820–774 BCE
*
Ithobaal II
Ithobaal II (also Itto-Baal, Ethobaal or Ethbaal, from ''Tuba'il'') was an eighth-century BC Phoenician king of Tyre. Nothing is known of his reign except that he paid tribute to the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in 738. He was succeeded that y ...
750–739 BCE
*
Hiram II
Hiram II (''Hi-ru-mu'') was the Phoenician king of Tyre from 737 to 729 BC. In 738 he was listed as a tributary of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III. His predecessor, Ithobaal II, was also stated to have paid tribute in that year. It is possib ...
739–730 BCE
*
Mattan II Mattan may refer to:
* Mattan, Jammu and Kashmir, a town in India
* Matan (given name), also spelt Mattan, a Hebrew given name
* Mattan I
Mattan, Matan, or Mittin ruled Tyre from 840 to 832 BC, succeeding his father Baal-Eser II.
He was the f ...
730–729 BCE
*
Luli {{About, , the Central Asian ethnic group, Lyuli, the Chilean model, Nicole Moreno
Luli or Elulaios was king of the Phoenician city of Tyre (729–694 BC). During his reign, Tyre lost what remained of its power to Assyria.
The reign of Luli is cha ...
729 694 BCE
*
Abd Melqart 694–680 BCE
*
Baal I
Baal I was a king of Tyre (680–660 BC). His name is the same as that of the Phoenician deity, Baal. He was tributary to the Assyrians, who had conquered the rest of Phoenicia.
Treaty with Esarhaddon
In c. 675 BC, Baal I entered into a vassa ...
680–660 BCE
Note:Tyre may have been under control of Assyria and/or Egypt for 70 years
*
Eshbaal III 591–573 BCE – ''
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
became independent of Tyre in 574 BCE''
*
Baal II
Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to ...
573–564 BCE (under Babylonian overlords)
*
Yakinbaal 564 BCE
*
Chelbes 564–563 BCE
*
Abbar Abbar is a name.
People with this given name include:
* Abbar (563-562 BC), king of Tyre
People with this surname include:
* Mohammed bin Ali Al Abbar (born 1956), United Arab Emirati businessman
Places
* Ab Bar, Iran
{{surname
Arabic-langu ...
563–562 BCE
*
Mattan III Mattan may refer to:
* Mattan, Jammu and Kashmir, a town in India
* Matan (given name), also spelt Mattan, a Hebrew given name
* Mattan I
Mattan, Matan, or Mittin ruled Tyre from 840 to 832 BC, succeeding his father Baal-Eser II.
He was the f ...
and
Ger Ashthari 562–556 BCE
*
Baal-Eser III 556–555 BCE
*
Mahar-Baal 555–551 BCE
*
Hiram III
Hiram may refer to:
People
* Hiram (name)
Places
* Hiram, Georgia
** Hiram High School, Hiram, Georgia
* Hiram, Maine
* Hiram, Missouri
* Hiram, Ohio
** Hiram College, a private liberal arts college located in Hiram, Ohio
***Hiram Terriers, the ...
551–532 BCE
*
Mattan III Mattan may refer to:
* Mattan, Jammu and Kashmir, a town in India
* Matan (given name), also spelt Mattan, a Hebrew given name
* Mattan I
Mattan, Matan, or Mittin ruled Tyre from 840 to 832 BC, succeeding his father Baal-Eser II.
He was the f ...
(under Persian control)
*
Boulomenus
*
Abdemon
Abdemon ( grc, Αὐδήμων, ''gen''.: Αὐδήμονος), was a king of Cyprus towards the end of the 5th century BC. He was of Phoenician origin and was born either in Tyre or Kition on Cyprus. Around 415 BC, Abdemon deposed the Phoenician ...
BCE
Legends
*
Cronos (Ilus), founder of
Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 880 ...
according to
Sanchuniathon
Sanchuniathon (; Ancient Greek: ; probably from Phoenician: , "Sakon has given"), also known as Sanchoniatho the Berytian, was a Phoenician author. His three works, originally written in the Phoenician language, survive only in partial paraphras ...
*
Makamaron, king of Canaan (Jubilees 46:6)
Characters in the Hebrew Bible
*
Canaan, son of Ham
Canaan ( – ''Kənáʿan'', in pausa – ''Kənā́ʿan''), according to the ''Book of Genesis'' in the Hebrew Bible, was a son of Ham and grandson of Noah, as well as the father of the Canaanites.
Etymology
The English term ''Canaan'' ( ...
(Gen. 10:6)
*
Sidon, firstborn son of Canaan (Gen. 10:15)
*
Heth
Heth, sometimes written Chet, but more accurately Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Ḥēt 𐤇 , Hebrew Ḥēth , Aramaic Ḥēth , Syriac Ḥēṯ ܚ, Arabic Ḥā' , and Maltese Ħ, ħ.
Heth origina ...
, son of Canaan (Gen. 10:15)
*
Sihon
Sihon was an Amorite king mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, who refused to let the Israelites pass through his country.
Biblical accounts
The Book of Numbers recounts that as the Israelites making their Exodus journey came to the country east of ...
, king of Amorites (Deut 1:4)
*
Og, king of
Bashan
Bashan (; he, הַבָּשָׁן, translit=ha-Bashan; la, Basan or ''Basanitis'') is the ancient, biblical name used for the northernmost region of the Transjordan during the Iron Age. It is situated in modern-day Syria. Its western part, now ...
(Deut 1:4)
*
Adonizedek
According to the Book of Joshua, Adonizedek ( ''ʾĂḏōnī-ṣeḏeq'', also transliterated Adoni-zedec) was king of Jerusalem at the time of the Israelite invasion of Canaan. According to Cheyne and Black, the name originally meant "Ṣedeḳ ...
, king of
Jerusalem (Josh. 10:1)
*
Debir A Biblical word, dvir () may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Names
* Debir King of Eglon, a Canaanite king of Eglon, slain by Joshua (). Aided by miracles, Joshua's army routed the Canaanite military, forcing Debir and the other kings to seek refuge in a cave ...
, king of
Eglon (Josh. 10:3)
*
Jabin
Jabin ( he, יָבִין ''Yāḇīn'') is a Biblical name meaning 'discerner', or 'the wise'. It may refer to:
* A king of Hazor at the time of the entrance of Israel into CanaanJoshua 11:1, whose overthrow and that of the northern chiefs with w ...
, name of two kings of
Hazor (Josh. 11:1; Judges 5:6)
Genetic studies
A 2020 genetic analysis has found that the Bronze Age Canaanite population descended from earlier local
Neolithic populations together with populations related to the Chalcolithic
Zagros Mountains
The Zagros Mountains ( ar, جبال زاغروس, translit=Jibal Zaghrus; fa, کوههای زاگرس, Kuh hā-ye Zāgros; ku, چیاکانی زاگرۆس, translit=Çiyakani Zagros; Turkish: ''Zagros Dağları''; Luri: ''Kuh hā-ye Zāgr ...
and the Bronze Age
Caucasus. According to the researchers, this mixture is probably the result of a continuing migration from the Zagros and/or Caucasus to the Levant between 2500–1000 BCE. The study has also shown that the Canaanite population contributed to most present-day Jewish groups and Levantine Arabic-speaking groups. These populations are consistent with having 50% or more of their ancestry from people related to groups who lived in the Bronze Age Levant and the Chalcolithic Zagros. These present-day groups also show ancestries that cannot be modeled by the available ancient DNA data, highlighting the importance of additional major genetic effects on the region since the Bronze Age.
In Jewish and Christian scriptures
Hebrew Bible
Canaan and the Canaanites are mentioned some 160 times in the
Hebrew Bible, mostly in the
Torah and the books of
Joshua and
Judges
A judge is an official who presides over a court.
Judge or Judges may also refer to:
Roles
*Judge, an alternative name for an adjudicator in a competition in theatre, music, sport, etc.
*Judge, an alternative name/aviator call sign for a membe ...
.
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.
While the Hebrew Bible distinguishes the Canaanites ethnically from the ancient
Israelites, modern scholars Jonathan Tubb and
Mark S. Smith
Mark Stratton John Matthew Smith (born December 6, 1956) is an American biblical scholar, anthropologist, and professor.
Early life and education
Born in Paris to Donald Eugene Smith and Mary Elizabeth (Betty) Reichert, Smith grew up in Washing ...
have theorized—based on their archaeological and linguistic interpretations—that the
Kingdom of Israel
The Kingdom of Israel may refer to any of the historical kingdoms of ancient Israel, including:
Fully independent (c. 564 years)
*Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy) (1047–931 BCE), the legendary kingdom established by the Israelites and uniting ...
and the
Kingdom of Judah represented a subset of Canaanite culture.
In the Hebrew Bible an
ancestor
An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...
called
Canaan
Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Te ...
first appears as one of
Noah's grandsons. He appears during the narrative known as the
curse of Ham
The curse of Ham is described in the Book of Genesis as imposed by the patriarch Noah upon Ham's son Canaan. It occurs in the context of Noah's drunkenness and is provoked by a shameful act perpetrated by Noah's son Ham, who "saw the nakedness o ...
, in which Canaan is cursed with perpetual slavery because his father
Ham
Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term " ...
had "looked upon" the drunk and naked Noah. The expression "look upon" at times has sexual overtones in the Bible, as in Leviticus 20:11, "The man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness..." As a result, interpreters have proposed a variety of possibilities as to what kind of transgression has been committed by Ham, including the possibility that maternal incest is implied.
The passage in the Book of Genesis often called the
Table of Nations
The Generations of Noah, also called the Table of Nations or Origines Gentium, is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, according to the Hebrew Bible ( Genesis ), and their dispersion into many lands after the Flood, focusing on the major known soci ...
presents the Canaanites as descendants of Canaan, (, ). Genesis 10:15–19 states:
Canaanite populations are said to have inhabited the Mediterranean coastlands (), including
Lebanon corresponding to Phoenicia () and the
Gaza Strip corresponding to
Philistia () and the
Jordan Valley
The Jordan Valley ( ar, غور الأردن, ''Ghor al-Urdun''; he, עֵמֶק הַיַרְדֵּן, ''Emek HaYarden'') forms part of the larger Jordan Rift Valley. Unlike most other river valleys, the term "Jordan Valley" often applies just to ...
(, , ).
The
Philistines, while an integral part of the Canaanite milieu, do not seem to have been ethnic Canaanites, and were listed in the
Table of Nations
The Generations of Noah, also called the Table of Nations or Origines Gentium, is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, according to the Hebrew Bible ( Genesis ), and their dispersion into many lands after the Flood, focusing on the major known soci ...
as descendants of
Mizraim
Mizraim (; cf. Arabic مصر, ''Miṣr'') is the Hebrew and Aramaic name for the land of Egypt, with the dual suffix ''-āyim'', perhaps referring to the "two Egypts": Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Mizraim is the dual form of matzor, meaning a "moun ...
. The
Arameans
The Arameans ( oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; syc, ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Ārāmāyē) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean ...
,
Moab
Moab ''Mōáb''; Assyrian: 𒈬𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀 ''Mu'abâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀
''Ma'bâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒀊 ''Ma'ab''; Egyptian: 𓈗𓇋𓃀𓅱𓈉 ''Mū'ībū'', name=, group= () is the name of an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territ ...
ites,
Ammon
Ammon (Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; he, עַמּוֹן ''ʻAmmōn''; ar, عمّون, ʻAmmūn) was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in p ...
ites,
Midianites and
Edomites were also considered fellow descendants of
Shem or
Abraham
Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews ...
, and distinct from generic Canaanites/
Amorites
The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied la ...
.
Heth
Heth, sometimes written Chet, but more accurately Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Ḥēt 𐤇 , Hebrew Ḥēth , Aramaic Ḥēth , Syriac Ḥēṯ ܚ, Arabic Ḥā' , and Maltese Ħ, ħ.
Heth origina ...
, representing the
Hittites, is a son of Canaan. The later Hittites spoke an
Indo-European language
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dut ...
(called
''Nesili''), but their predecessors the
Hattians had spoken a little-known language (
Hattili), of uncertain affinities.
The
Horites
The Horites ( he, ''Ḥōrīm''), were a people mentioned in the Torah (, ) inhabiting areas around Mount Seir in Canaan ().
Name
According to Archibald Sayce (1915), the Horites have been identified with references in Egyptian inscriptions ...
, formerly of
Mount Seir, were implied to be Canaanite (
Hivite
The Hivites ( he, ''Ḥiwwîm'') were one group of descendants of Canaan, son of Ham, according to the Table of Nations in (10:17). A variety of proposals have been made, but beyond the references in the Bible to Hivites in the land of Canaan, ...
), although unusually there is no direct confirmation of this in the narrative. The
Hurrians, based in
Upper Mesopotamia, spoke the
Hurrian language.
Biblical borders
In biblical usage, the name was confined to the country west of the
Jordan River
The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...
. The Canaanites were described as living "by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan" (
Book of Numbers
The book of Numbers (from Greek Ἀριθμοί, ''Arithmoi''; he, בְּמִדְבַּר, ''Bəmīḏbar'', "In the desert f) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and com ...
13:29) and "around Jordan" (
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua ( he, סֵפֶר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ ', Tiberian: ''Sēp̄er Yŏhōšūaʿ'') is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israe ...
22:9).
John N. Oswalt
John N. Oswalt is an American scholar and distinguished professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. He teaches in theology, Old Testament and ancient semitic languages including Hebrew. He is the author of 11 scholarly books; foremo ...
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". The
Book of Numbers
The book of Numbers (from Greek Ἀριθμοί, ''Arithmoi''; he, בְּמִדְבַּר, ''Bəmīḏbar'', "In the desert f) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and com ...
, 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 the Jordan River, as opposed to the inhabitants of the mountainous regions.
Conquest of Canaan
Yahweh promises the land of Canaan to
Abraham
Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews ...
in the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning"). ...
. and eventually delivers it to
descendants of Abraham, the
Israelites. The Hebrew Bible describes the Israelite
conquest of Canaan in the "
Former Prophets
Nevi'im (; he, נְבִיאִים ''Nəvīʾīm'', Tiberian: ''Năḇīʾīm,'' "Prophets", literally "spokespersons") is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the Torah (instruction) and Ketuvim (wri ...
" (, ), viz. the books of
Joshua,
Judges
A judge is an official who presides over a court.
Judge or Judges may also refer to:
Roles
*Judge, an alternative name for an adjudicator in a competition in theatre, music, sport, etc.
*Judge, an alternative name/aviator call sign for a membe ...
,
Samuel, and
Kings
Kings or King's may refer to:
*Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings
*One of several works known as the "Book of Kings":
**The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts
**The ''Shahnameh'' ...
. These books give the narrative of the Israelites after the death of
Moses and their entry into Canaan under the leadership of
Joshua. The renaming of the
Land of Canaan as the
Land of Israel marks the
Israelite conquest of the
Promised Land
The Promised Land ( he, הארץ המובטחת, translit.: ''ha'aretz hamuvtakhat''; ar, أرض الميعاد, translit.: ''ard al-mi'ad; also known as "The Land of Milk and Honey"'') is the land which, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew ...
.
The Canaanites () are said to have been one of seven regional ethnic divisions or "nations" driven out by the
Israelites following
the Exodus
The Exodus (Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yeẓi’at Miẓrayim'': ) is the founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four books of the Torah (or Pentateuch, corresponding to the first five books of the Bible), namely ...
. Specifically, the other nations include the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the
Perizzites, the
Hivites
The Hivites ( he, ''Ḥiwwîm'') were one group of descendants of Canaan, son of Ham, according to the Table of Nations in (10:17). A variety of proposals have been made, but beyond the references in the Bible to Hivites in the land of Canaan, ...
, and the
Jebusites (). One of the
613 commandments
The Jewish tradition that there are 613 commandments ( he, תרי״ג מצוות, taryag mitzvot) or mitzvot in the Torah (also known as the Law of Moses) is first recorded in the 3rd century AD, when Rabbi Simlai mentioned it in a sermon that is ...
prescribes that no inhabitants of the cities of six Canaanite nations, the same as mentioned in 7:1, minus the
Girgashites
Girgashites (Heb. גִּרְגָּשִׁי) are one of the tribes who had invaded the land of Canaan as mentioned in Gen. 15:21; Deut. 7:1; Josh. 3:10; Neh. 9:8. The Girgashites are also known as the fifth ethnic group that descended from Canaan (G ...
, were to be left alive. ().
In 738 BC, the
Neo-Assyrian empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew t ...
conquered the
Kingdom of Israel
The Kingdom of Israel may refer to any of the historical kingdoms of ancient Israel, including:
Fully independent (c. 564 years)
*Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy) (1047–931 BCE), the legendary kingdom established by the Israelites and uniting ...
. In 586 BC, the
Kingdom of Judah was annexed into the
Neo-Babylonian Empire. The city of
Jerusalem fell after
a siege which lasted either eighteen or thirty months. By 586 BC, much of Judah was devastated, and the former kingdom suffered a steep decline of both economy and population.
New Testament
"Canaan" (,
) is used only twice in the New Testament: both times in
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...
when paraphrasing
Old Testament stories. Additionally, the derivative (, "Canaanite woman") is used in
Matthew's version of the
exorcism of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter
The Exorcism of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter is one of the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels and is recounted in the Gospel of Mark in Chapter 7 () and in the Gospel of Matthew in Chapter 15 (). In Matthew, the story is recounted as the he ...
, while the
Gospel of Mark uses the term ().
Uses of the name
By the
Second Temple period (530 BC – 70 AD), "Canaanite" in the
Hebrew language had come to be not an ethnic designation, so much as a general synonym for "
merchant", as it is interpreted in, for example,
Book of Job
The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars are ...
40:30, or
Book of Proverbs
The Book of Proverbs ( he, מִשְלֵי, , "Proverbs (of Solomon)") is a book in the third section (called Ketuvim) of the Hebrew Bible and a book of the Christian Old Testament. When translated into Greek and Latin, the title took on differen ...
31:24.
The name "Canaanites" is attested as the
endonym of the people later known to the
Ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
from BC as Phoenicians,
and following the emigration of Canaanite-speakers to
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
(founded in the 9th century BC), was also used as a self-designation by the
Punics
The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...
(''chanani'') of North Africa during
Late Antiquity. This mirrors usage of the names Canaanites and Phoenicians in later books of the Hebrew Bible (such as at the end of the
Book of Zechariah
The Book of Zechariah, attributed to the Hebrew prophet Zechariah, is included in the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Bible.
Historical context
Zechariah's prophecies took place during the reign of Darius the Great and were contemporar ...
, where it is thought to refer to a class of merchants or to non-monotheistic worshippers in Israel or neighbouring
Sidon and
Tyre), as well as in its single independent usage in the
New Testament (where it
alternates with the term "Syrophoenician" in two parallel passages).
The
Septuagint (3rd and 2nd century BC) translates Canaan as "Phoenicia".
Legacy
"Canaan" is used as a synonym of the
Promised Land
The Promised Land ( he, הארץ המובטחת, translit.: ''ha'aretz hamuvtakhat''; ar, أرض الميعاد, translit.: ''ard al-mi'ad; also known as "The Land of Milk and Honey"'') is the land which, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew ...
; for instance, it is used in this sense in the hymn "Canaan's Happy Shore", with the
line
Line most often refers to:
* Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity
* Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system
Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to:
Art ...
s: "Oh, brothers, will you meet me, (3x)/On Canaan's happy shore," a hymn set to the tune later used in ''
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
The "Battle Hymn of the Republic", also known as "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" or "Glory, Glory Hallelujah" outside of the United States, is a popular American patriotic song written by the abolitionist writer Julia Ward Howe.
Howe wrote her l ...
''.
In the 1930s and 1940s, some
Revisionist Zionist
Revisionist Zionism is an ideology developed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who advocated a "revision" of the " practical Zionism" of David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann which was focused on the settling of ''Eretz Yisrael'' (Land of Israel) by independent ...
intellectuals in
Mandatory Palestine founded the ideology of
Canaanism
Canaanism was a cultural and ideological movement founded in 1939 that reached its peak in the 1940s among the Jews of Mandatory Palestine. It has had significant effect on the course of Israeli art, literature and spiritual and political thoug ...
, which sought to create a unique Hebrew identity, rooted in ancient Canaanite culture, rather than a Jewish one.
See also
*
Amarna letters–localities and their rulers
This is a list of Amarna letters –Text corpus, categorized by: Amarna letters–localities and their rulers. It includes countries, regions, and the cities or city-states. The regions are included in Canaan and the Levant.
EA: '' 'el Amarna ...
*
Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions
The Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, also known as Northwest Semitic inscriptions, are the primary extra-Biblical source for understanding of the society and history of the ancient Phoenicians, Ancient Hebrews, Hebrews and Arameans. Semitic ins ...
*
Canaanite gate of ancient Tell
The Canaanite Gate of ancient Tell is a monument located in downtown Beirut, Lebanon.
Overview
A gate and an L-shaped passage (circa 1500 BC) were discovered during the mid-1990s excavations. They led to a fortified enclosure around the temple ...
*
Canaanite shift
In historical linguistics, the Canaanite shift is a vowel shift/ sound change that took place in the Canaanite dialects, which belong to the Northwest Semitic branch of the Semitic languages family. This sound change caused Proto-NW-Semitic *ā ...
*
Curse of Canaan
The curse of Ham is described in the Book of Genesis as imposed by the patriarch Noah upon Ham's son Canaan. It occurs in the context of Noah's drunkenness and is provoked by a shameful act perpetrated by Noah's son Ham, who "saw the nakedness o ...
*
Names of the Levant
Over recorded history, there have been many names of the Levant, a large area in the Middle East, or its constituent parts. These names have applied to a part or the whole of the Levant. On occasion, two or more of these names have been used at th ...
*
Proto-Canaanite alphabet
Proto-Canaanite is the name given to
:(a) the Proto-Sinaitic script when found in Canaan, dating to about the 17th century BC and later.
:(b) a hypothetical ancestor of the Phoenician script before some cut-off date, typically 1050 BCE, with an u ...
*
Knanaya
*
Ugarit
*
Yahwism
Citations
General bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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External links
Canaan & Ancient Israel University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Explores their identities (land-time, daily life, economy & religion) in pre-historical times through the material remains that they have left behind.
by Flavius Josephus.
When Canaanites and Philistines Ruled AshkelonBiblical Archaeology Society
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Amarna letters locations
Ancient history of Jordan
Land of Israel