canaan

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Canaanregion

A 1692 portrayal of Canaan, by Philip Lea.

Polities andpeoples

Phoenician city statesConfederated tribes of IsraelMoab Ammon Tjeker Philistia Geshur Edom (possibly)

Languages Canaanite languages (Hebrew Phoenician Ammonite Moabite Edomite)

CanaanFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Canaan (/kenn/; Northwest Semitic knan;Phoenician: ; biblical Hebrew: /Knan; Masoretic: / Knan) was, duringthe late 2nd millennium BC, a region in theAncient Near East, which as described in theBible roughly corresponds to the Levant, i.e.,present-day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, westernJordan, and southwestern Syria.

The name Canaan is used commonly in theHebrew Bible, with particular definition inreferences Genesis 10(http://tools.wmflabs.org/bibleversefinder/?book=Genesis&verse=10&src=15-19) andNumbers 34(http://tools.wmflabs.org/bibleversefinder/?book=Numbers&verse=34&src=!), where the"Land of Canaan" extends from Lebanonsouthward to the "Brook of Egypt" and eastwardto the Jordan River Valley. References to Canaanin the Bible are usually backward looking,referring to a region that had become somethingelse (i.e. the Land of Israel). The term"Canaanites" is by far the most frequently used ethnic term in the Bible,[1] in which they are commonlydescribed as a people who had been annihilated.[2]

Archaeological attestation of the name Canaan in Ancient Near Eastern sources is almost exclusively duringthe period in which the region was a colony of the New Kingdom of Egypt, with usage of the name almostdisappearing following the Late Bronze Age collapse.[3] The references suggest that during this period theterm was familiar to the region's neighbors on all sides, although it has been disputed to what extent suchreferences provide a coherent description of its location and boundaries, and regarding whether theinhabitants used the term to describe themselves.[4] The Amarna Letters and other cuneiform documents useKinau, while other sources of the Egyptian New Kingdom mention numerous military campaignsconducted in Ka-na-na.[5]

The name "Canaanites" is attested, many centuries later, as the endonym of the people later known to theAncient Greeks from c.500 BC as Phoenicians,[2] and following the emigration of Canaanite speakers toCarthage, was also used as a self-designation by the Punics. This mirrors later usage in later books of theHebrew Bible, such as at the end of the Book of Zechariah, where it is thought to refer to a class ofmerchants or to non-monotheistic worshippers in Israel or neighbouring Sidon and Tyre, as well as in itssingle independent usage in the New Testament, where it is used as a synonym for Syrophoenician.



Canaan was of significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna period as the area wherethe spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite, and Assyrian Empires converged. Much of the modernknowledge about Canaan stems from archaeological excavation in this area at sites such as Tel Hazor, TelMegiddo and Gezer. Canaanite culture apparently developed in situ from the Circum-Arabian NomadicPastoral Complex, which in turn developed from a fusion of Near Eastern Harifian hunter-gatherers withPre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) farming cultures, practicing animal domestication, during the 6200BCclimatic crisis.[6] The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit (at Ras Shamra in Syria) is consideredquintessentially Canaanite archaeologically,[7] even though its Ugaritic language does not belong to theCanaanite group proper.[8][9][10]

Contents1 Etymology2 Biblical narrative

2.1 Biblical usage2.2 Biblical Canaanites2.3 New Testament usage

3 Archaeological references3.1 Middle Bronze Age3.2 Late Bronze Age cuneiform (15001000 BC)3.3 Late Bronze Age Hieroglyphic and Hieratic (15001000 BC)3.4 Later sources

4 Greco-Roman historiography5 History

5.1 Overview5.2 Prehistory5.3 Early Bronze Age (35002000)5.4 Middle Bronze Age (20001550)5.5 Late Bronze Age (15501200)5.6 Bronze Age collapse5.7 Iron Age

6 Culture7 List of Canaanite rulers8 See also9 Notes10 Bibliography11 External links

EtymologyThe English term Canaan (pronounced /kenn/ since c. AD 1500, due to the Great Vowel Shift) comesfrom the Hebrew (knn), via Greek Khanaan and Latin Canaan. It appears as KUR ki-na-ah-na in the Amarna letters (14th century BC), and knn is found on coins from Phoenicia in the last half of the1st millennium. It first occurs in Greek in the writings of Hecataeus as Khna ().[11] Scholars connect thename Canaan with knn, Kana'an, the general Northwest Semitic name for this region.



Map of Canaan

The etymology is uncertain. An early explanation derives the term from the Semitic root kn "to be low,humble, subjugated".[12] Some scholars have suggested that this implies an original meaning of "lowlands",in contrast with Aram, which would then mean "highlands",[13] whereas others have suggested it meant "thesubjugated" as the name of Egypt's province in the Levant, and evolved into the proper name in a similarfashion to Provincia Nostra (the first Roman colony north of the Alps, which became Provence).[14]

An alternative suggestion suggested by Ephraim Avigdor Speiser in 1936 derives the term from HurrianKinahhu, purportedly referring to the colour purple, so thatCanaan and Phoenicia would be synonyms ("Land of Purple").Tablets found in the Hurrian city of Nuzi in the early 20thcentury appear to use the term Kinahnu as a synonym for red orpurple dye, laboriously produced by the Kassite rulers ofBabylon from murex shells as early as 1600BC, and on theMediterranean coast by the Phoenicians from a byproduct ofglassmaking. Purple cloth became a renowned Canaanite exportcommodity which is mentioned in Exodus. The dyes may havebeen named after their place of origin. The name 'Phoenicia' isconnected with the Greek word for "purple", apparentlyreferring to the same product, but it is difficult to state withcertainty whether the Greek word came from the name, or viceversa. The purple cloth of Tyre in Phoenicia was well known farand wide and was associated by the Romans with nobility androyalty. However, according to Robert Drews, Speiser'sproposal has generally been abandoned.[15][16]

Biblical narrativeBiblical usage

In biblical usage, the name was confined to the country west of the Jordan, the Canaanites being describedas dwelling "by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan" (Numbers 33:51; Joshua 22:9), and wasespecially identified with Phoenicia (Isaiah 23:11).[17] The Philistines, while an integral part of theCanaanite milieu, do not seem to have been ethnic Canaanites, and were listed in the Table of Nations asdescendants of Misraim; the Arameans, Moabites, Ammonites, Midianites and Edomites were alsoconsidered fellow descendants of Shem or Abraham, and distinct from generic Canaanites/Amorites."Heth", representing the Hittites, is a son of Canaan. The later Hittites spoke an Indo-European language(called Nesili), but their predecessors the Hattians had spoken a little-known language (Hattili), of uncertainaffinities.

The Horites formerly of Mount Seir were implied to be Canaanite (Hivite), although unusually there is nodirect confirmation of this in the narrative. The Hurrians based in Northern Mesopotamia, who spoke alanguage isolate, were initially regarded by Bible scholars as akin to the Horites, though this is no longer thecase.

The biblical narrative makes a point of the renaming of the "Land of Canaan" to the "Land of Israel" asmarking the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land.[18]



Map of Canaan, with the border defined byNumbers 34:112 shown in red.

Canaan and the Canaanites are mentioned some 160 times in theHebrew Bible, mostly in the Pentateuch and the books of Joshuaand Judges.[19]

Canaan first appears as one of Noah's grandsons during thenarrative known as the Curse of Ham, in which Canaan iscursed with perpetual slavery because his father Ham had"looked upon" the drunk and naked Noah.

God later promises the land of Canaan to Abraham, andeventually delivers it to descendants of Abraham, theIsraelites.[19] The biblical history has become increasinglyproblematic as the archaeological and textual evidence supportsthe idea that the early Israelites were in fact themselvesCanaanites.[19]

The Hebrew Bible lists borders for the land of Canaan.Numbers 34:2 includes the phrase "the land of Canaan asdefined by its borders." The borders are then delineated inNumbers 34:312. The term "Canaanites" in biblical Hebrew isapplied especially to the inhabitants of the lower regions, alongthe sea coast and on the shores of Jordan, as opposed to theinhabitants of the mountainous regions. By the time of the Second Temple, "Canaanite" in Hebrew hadcome to be not an ethnic designation, so much as a general synonym for "merchant", as it is interpreted in,for example, Job 40:30, or Proverbs 31:24.[20]

John N. Oswalt notes that "Canaan consists of the land west of the Jordan and is distinguished from the areaeast 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".[21]

The Hebrew Bible describes the Israelite conquest of Canaan in the "Former Prophets" (Nevi'im Rishonim[ ] ), viz. the books of Joshua, Judges, 1st & 2nd Samuel, 1st & 2nd Kings. These fivebooks of the Old Testament canon give the narrative of the Israelites after the death of Moses and Joshualeading them into Canaan.[22] In 586BC, the Israelites in turn lost the land to the Babylonians. Thesenarratives of the Former Prophets are also "part of a larger work, called the Deuteronomistic History".[23]

Biblical Canaanites

The part of the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible often called the Table of Nations describes theCanaanites as being descended from an ancestor called Canaan, the son of Ham and grandson of Noah(Hebrew: , Knaan), saying (Genesis 10:1519 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2010:1519;&version=31;)):

Canaan is the father of Sidon, his firstborn; and of the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites,Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clansscattered, and the borders of Canaan reached [across the Mediterranean coast] from Sidon



toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then [inland around the Jordan Valley] toward Sodom,Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

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

Similarly, Canaanite populations are said to have inhabited:

the Mediterranean coastlands (Joshua 5:1 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua%205:1;&version=31;)), including Lebanon corresponding to Phoenicia (Isaiah 23:11(http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2023:11;&version=31;)) and the Gaza Stripcorresponding to Philistia (Zephania 2:5 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zephaniah%202:5;&version=31;)).the Jordan Valley (Joshua 11:3 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua%2011:3;&version=31;), Numbers 13:29 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers%2013:29;&version=31;), Genesis 13:12 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2013:12;&version=31;)).

The Canaanites (Hebrew: , ModernKna'anim, TiberianKnanm) are said to have been one ofseven regional ethnic divisions or "nations" driven out by the Israelites following The Exodus. Specifically,the other nations include the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and theJebusites (Deuteronomy 7:1 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%207:1;&version=31;)).

According to the Book of Jubilees, the Israelite conquest of Canaan is attributed to Canaan's steadfast refusalto join his elder brothers in Ham's allotment beyond the Nile, and instead "squatting" on the eastern shoresof the Mediterranean, within the inheritance delineated for Shem. Canaan thus incurs a further curse fromNoah for disobeying the agreed apportionment of land.

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

While the Hebrew Bible contrasts the Canaanites ethnically from the Ancient Israelites, modern scholarsJonathan Tubb and Mark Smith have theorized the kingdoms of Israel and Judah to be a subset of Canaaniteculture, based on their archaeological and linguistic interpretations.[24][25]

New Testament usage

The term Canaan (Greek: , Chanan) is used only three times in the New Testament: twice in Actswhen paraphrasing Old Testament stories,[26] and once in the Exorcism of the Syrophoenician woman'sdaughter. The latter story is told by both Matthew and Mark; Matthew uses the term Chananaia(), where Mark calls the woman Syrophoenician (). Strong's Concordancedescribes the term Chananaia as "in Christ's time equivalent to Phoenician".[27]

Archaeological referencesMiddle Bronze Age



Ebla tablets (ca. 25002200 BC)

A disputed reference to Lord of ga-na-na in the Semitic Eblaite tablets (dated 2350BC) from the archive ofTell Mardikh has been interpreted by some scholars to mention the deity Dagon by the title "Lord ofCanaan"[28] If correct, this would suggest that Eblaites were conscious of Canaan as an entity by 2500BC.[29] Jonathan Tubb states that the term ga-na-na "may provide a third millennium reference toCanaanite" while at the same time stating that the first certain reference is in the 18th century BC.[30] SeeEbla-Biblical controversy for further details.

Mari letters (ca. 2000 BC)

A letter from Mutu-bisir to Shamshi-Adad I 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, aformer Sumerian and at that time Assyrian outpost in Syria.[7][31] Additional unpublished references toKinahnum in the Mari letters refer to the same episode.[32] Whether the term Kinahnum refers to peoplefrom a specific region or rather people of "foreign origin" has been disputed,[33][34] such that Robert Drewsstates that the "rst certain cuneiform reference" to Canaan is found on the Alalakh statue of King Idrimi(below).[35]

Late Bronze Age cuneiform (15001000 BC)

Alalakh texts[32]

A reference to Ammiya being "in the land of Canaan" is found on the Statue of Idrimi from Alalakh inmodern Syria. After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mother'srelatives 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:[32]

AT 154 (unpublished)AT 181: A list of 'Apiru people with their origins. All are towns, except for CanaanAT 188: A list of Muskenu people with their origins. All are towns, except for three lands includingCanaanAT 48: A contract with a Canaanite hunter

Amarna letters

References to Canaanites are also found throughout the Amarna letters of Pharaoh Akenaton circa 1350BC.In the Amarna letters (circa 1350BC), some of which were sent by governors and princes of Canaan to theirEgyptian overlord Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) in the 14th century BC, are found, beside Amar and Amurru(Amorites), the two forms Kinahhi and Kinahni, corresponding to Kena' and Kena'an respectively, andincluding Syria in its widest extent, as Eduard Meyer has shown. The letters are written in the official anddiplomatic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, though "Canaanitish" words and idioms are alsoin evidence. The known references are:[32]

EA 8: Letter from Burna-Buriash II to Akhenaten, explaining that his merchants "were detained inCanaan for business matters", robbed and killed "in Hinnatuna of the land of Canaan" by the rulers ofAcre and Shamhuna, and asks for compensation because "Canaan is your country"



Amarna tablet EA 9

EA 9: Letter from Burna-Buriash II to Tutankhamen, "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 [my messenger] with safe entry intoEgypt"EA 109: Letter of Rib-Hadda: "Previously, on seeing a man from Egypt, the kings of Canaan fledbefore him, but now the sons of Abdi-Ashirta make men from Egypt prowl about like dogs"EA 110: Letter of Rib-Hadda: "No ship of the army is to leave Canaan"EA 131: Letter of Rib-Hadda: "If he does not send archers, they will take [Byblos] and all the othercities, and the lands of Canaan will not belong to the king. May the king ask Yanhamu about thesematters."EA 137: Letter of Rib-Hadda: "If the king neglects Byblos, of all the cities of Canaan not one will behis"EA 367: "Hani son (of) Mairya, "chief of the stable" of the king in Canaan"EA 162: Letter to Aziru: "You yourself know that the kingdoes not want to go against all of Canaan when he rages"EA 148: Letter from Abimilku to the Pharaoh: "[The king] hastaken over he land of the king for the 'Apiru. May the king askhis commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan"EA 151: Letter from Abimilku to the Pharaoh: "The king, mylord wrote to me: 'write to me what you have heard fromCanaan'." Abimilku describes in response what has happenedin eastern Cilicia (Danuna), the northern coast of Syria(Ugarit), in Syria (Qadesh, Amurru, and Damascus) as well asin Sidon.

Ugarit texts

Text RS 20.182 from Ugarit is a copy of a letter of the king of Ugaritto Ramesses II concerning money paid by "the sons of the land ofUgarit" to the "foreman of the sons of the land of Canaan (*kn'ny)" According to Jonathan Tubb, thissuggests that the Semitic people of Ugarit, contrary to much modern opinion, considered themselves to benon-Canaanite.[24]

The other Ugarit reference, KTU 4.96, shows a list of traders assigned to royal estates, of which one of theestates had three Ugaritans, an Ashdadite, an Egyptian and a Canaanite.[32]

Ashur tablets

A Middle Assyrian letter during the reign of Shalmaneser I includes a reference to the "travel to Canaan" ofan Assyrian official.[32]

Hattusa letters

Four references are known from Hattusa:[32]

An evocation to the Cedar Gods: Includes reference to Canaan alongside Sidon, Tyre and possiblyAmurruKBo XXVIII 1: Ramesses II letter to Hattusili III, in which Ramesses suggested he would meet "hisbrother" in Canaan and bring him to EgyptKUB III 57 (also KUB III 37 + KBo I 17): Broken text which may refer to Canaan as an Egyptiansub-districtKBo I 15+19: Ramesses II letter to Hattusili III, describing Ramesses' visit to the "land of Canaan onhis way to Kinza and Harita



The name Canaan occursin hieroglyphs as k3nnon the Merneptah Stele inthe 13th century BC

Late Bronze Age Hieroglyphic and Hieratic (15001000 BC)

During the 2nd millennium BC, Ancient Egyptian texts use the term Canaan torefer to an Egyptian-ruled colony, whose boundaries generally corroborate thedefinition of Canaan found in the Hebrew Bible, bounded to the west by theMediterranean Sea, to the north in the vicinity of Hamath in Syria, to the eastby the Jordan Valley, and to the south by a line extended from the Dead Sea toaround Gaza. Nevertheless, the Egyptian and Hebrew uses of the term are notidentical: the Egyptian texts also identify the coastal city of Qadesh in northwest Syria near Turkey as part of the "Land of Canaan", so that the Egyptianusage seems to refer to the entire Levantine coast of the Mediterranean Sea,making it a synonym of another Egyptian term for this coastland, Retenu.

Lebanon, in northern Canaan, bordered by the Litani river to the watershed of the Orontes river, was knownby the Egyptians as upper Retjenu.[36] In Egyptian campaign accounts, the term Djahi was used to refer tothe watershed of the Jordan river. Many earlier Egyptian sources also mention numerous military campaignsconducted in Ka-na-na, just inside Asia.[5]

16 references are known in Egyptian sources, from the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt onwards.[32]

Amenhotep II inscriptions: Canaanites are included in a list of prisoners of warThree topographical listsPapyrus Anastasi I 27,1" refers to the route from Sile to Gaza "the [foreign countries] of the end of theland of Canaan"Merneptah StelePapyrus Anastasi IIIA 5-6 and Papyrus Anastasi IV 16,4 refer to "Canaanite slaves from Hurru"Papyrus Harris[37] After the collapse of the Levant under the so-called "Peoples of the Sea" RamessesIII (ca. 1194BC) is said to have built a temple to the god Amen to receive tribute from the southernLevant. This was described as being built in Pa-Canaan, a geographical reference whose meaning isdisputed, with suggestions that it may refer to the city of Gaza or to the entire Egyptian-occupiedterritory in the south west corner of the Near East.[38]

Later sources

Padiiset's Statue is the last known Egyptian reference to Canaan, a small statuette labelled "Envoy of theCanaan and of Palestine, Pa-di-Eset, the son of Apy". It is more than 300 years after the preceding knowninscription.[39]

During the period from c. 900330 BC, the dominant empires of the Neo-Assyrians and AchaemenidPersians make no mention of Canaan.[40]

Greco-Roman historiographyThe Greek term "Phoenicia" is first attested in the first two works of Western literature, Homer's Iliad andOdyssey. It does not occur in the Hebrew Bible, but occurs three times in the New Testament in the Book ofActs.[42] In the 6th century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus affirms that Phoenicia was formerly called , aname that Philo of Byblos subsequently adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians:



Coin of Alexander II Zabinas with theinscription "Laodikeia, metropole ofCanaan"[41]

"Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix". Quoting fragments attributed to Sanchuniathon, he relates thatByblos, Berytus and Tyre were among the first cities ever built, under the rule of the mythical Cronus, andcredits the inhabitants with developing fishing, hunting, agriculture, shipbuilding and writing.

Coins of the city of Beirut / Laodicea bear the legend, "Of Laodicea, a metropolis in Canaan"; these coinsare dated to the reign of Antiochus IV (175164 BC) and hissuccessors until 123BC.[41]

Saint Augustine also mentions that one of the terms the seafaringPhoenicians called their homeland was "Canaan". Augustine alsorecords that the rustic people of Hippo in North Africa retained thePunic self-designation Chanani.[43]

The Greeks also popularized the term Palestine for roughly theregion of Canaan, excluding Phoenicia, with Herodotus' firstrecorded use of Palaistin, ca. 480 BC. From 110 BC, theHasmoneans extended their authority over much of the region, creating a Judean-Samaritan-Idumaean-Ituraean-Galilean alliance. The Judean (Jewish, see Ioudaioi) control over the wider area resulted in it alsobecoming known as Judaea, a term that had previously only referred to the smaller region of the JudeanMountains, the allotment of the Tribe of Judah and heartland of the former Kingdom of Judah.[44][45]Between 7363 BC, the Roman Republic extended its influence into the region in the Third MithridaticWar, conquering Judea in 63 BC, and splitting the former Hasmonean Kingdom into five districts. Around130135 CE, as a result of the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt, the province of Iudaea was joined withGalilee to form new province of Syria Palaestina. There is circumstantial evidence linking Hadrian with thename change,[46] although the precise date is not certain,[46] and the interpretation of some scholars that thename change may have been intended "to complete the dissociation with Judaea"[47][48] is disputed.[49] Theregion of former Canaan continued to be known to all parties as Palestine from 133 until 1948 with theestablishment of the modern State of Israel.

HistoryOverview

Prior to 3500B.C.E (prehistory Stone Age and Chalcolithic): hunter-gatherer societies slowlygiving way to farming and herding societies, and early metal-working in the last thousand years;35002000 (Early Bronze): prior to written records in the area;20001550 (Middle Bronze): city-states;15501200 (Late Bronze): Egyptian hegemony;1200586 (Iron Age, divided into Iron Age I and II): village societies in Iron I giving way tokingdoms in Iron II.

After the Iron Age the periods are named after the various empires that ruled the region: Assyrian,Babylonian, Persian, Greek (Hellenistic) and Roman.[50]

Prehistory



One of the earliest settlements in the region was at Jericho in Canaan. The earliest settlements wereseasonal, but, by the Bronze Age, had developed into large urban centres.

Early Bronze Age (35002000)

By the Early Bronze Age other sites had developed, such as Ebla (where an East Semitic tongue wasspoken), which by ca. 2300BC was incorporated into the Mesopotamia-based Akkadian Empire of Sargonthe Great and Naram-Sin of Akkad (biblical Accad). Sumerian references to the Mar.tu ("tent dwellers",later Amurru, i.e. Amorite) country West of the Euphrates date from even earlier than Sargon, at least to thereign of the Sumerian king, Enshakushanna of Uruk, 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 wasproduced centuries later.

The archives of Ebla show reference to a number of biblical sites, including Hazor, Jerusalem, and as anumber of people have claimed, to Sodom and Gomorrah mentioned in Genesis as well. Ebla and Amoritesat Hazor, Kadesh (Qadesh-on-the-Orontes), and elsewhere in Amurru (Syria) bordered Canaan in the northand northeast. (Ugarit may be included among these Amoritic entities.[51]) The collapse of the AkkadianEmpire in 2154BC saw the arrival of peoples using Khirbet Kerak Ware pottery,[52] coming originally fromthe Zagros Mountains (in modern Iran) east of the Tigris.

The first cities in the southern Levant arose during this period.[53] These "proto-Canaanites" were in regularcontact with the other peoples to their south such as Egypt, and to the north Asia Minor (Hurrians, Hattians,Hittites, Luwians) and Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria), a trend that continued through the IronAge.[53] The end of the period is marked by the abandonment of the cities and a return to lifestyles based onfarming villages and semi-nomadic herding, although specialised craft production continued and traderoutes remained open.[53]

Middle Bronze Age (20001550)

Urbanism returned and the region was divided among small city-states, the most important of which seemsto have been Hazor.[54] Many aspects of Semitic Canaanite material culture now reflected a Mesopotamianinfluence, and the entire region became more tightly integrated into a vast international trading network.[54]

In the Akkadian Empire, as early as Naram-Sin's reign (ca. 2240BC), Amurru was called one of the "fourquarters" surrounding Sumer, along with Subartu/Assyria, Akkad, and Elam. Amorite dynasties also cameto dominate in much of Mesopotamia, including in Larsa, Isin and founding the state of Babylon in1894BC. Later on, Amurru became the Assyrian/Akkadian term for the interior of south as well as fornortherly Canaan. At this time the Canaanite area seemed divided between two confederacies, one centredupon Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley, the second on the more northerly city of Kadesh on the Orontes River.An Amorite chieftain named Sumu-abum founded Babylon as an independent city-state in 1894 BC. OneAmorite king of Babylonia, Hammurabi (17921750BC) founded the first Babylonian Empire, whichlasted only as long as his lifetime. Upon his death, the Amorites were driven from Assyria, but remainedmasters of Babylonia until 1595BC, when they were ejected by the Hittites.



Map of the Ancient Near East during the Amarna Period,showing the great powers of the day: Egypt (orange), Hatti(blue), the Kassite kingdom of Babylon (black), MiddleAssyrian Empire (yellow), and Mitanni (brown). The extentof the Achaean/Mycenaean civilization is shown in purple.

The semi-fictional Story of Sinuhe describes an Egyptian officer, Sinuhe conducting military activities in thearea of "Upper Retchenu" and "Finqu" during the reign of Senusret I (ca. 1950 BC). The earliest bonafideEgyptian report of a campaign to "Mentu", "Retchenu" and "Sekmem" (Shechem) is the Sebek-khu Steledated to the reign of Senusret III (ca. 1862 BC).

Around 1650 BC Canaanites invaded the eastern Delta of Egypt, where, known as the Hyksos, they becamethe dominant power.[55] In Egyptian inscriptions, Amar and Amurru (Amorites) are applied strictly to themore 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 theregion reached its apogee during this Middle Bronze Age period, under leadership of the city of Hazor, atleast nominally tributary to Egypt for much of the period. In the north, the cities of Yamkhad and Qatnawere hegemons of important confederacies, and it would appear that biblical Hazor was the chief city ofanother important coalition in the south.

Late Bronze Age (15501200)

In the early Late Bronze Age, Canaaniteconfederacies were centered on Megiddo andKadesh, before again being brought into theEgyptian Empire and Hittite Empire. Later still,the region was conquered into the Neo AssyrianEmpire.

Among the migrant Semitic tribes who appear tohave settled in the region were the Amorites,who had earlier controlled Babylonia. In the OldTestament, the Amorites are mentioned in theTable of Peoples (Gen. 10:1618a). Evidently,the Amorites played a significant role in theearly history of Canaan. In Gen. 14:7 f., Josh.10:5 f., Deut. 1:19 f., 27, 44, we find themlocated in the southern mountain country, whilein Num. 21:13, Josh. 9:10, 24:8, 12, etc., we aretold of two great Amorite kings residing atHeshbon and Ashteroth, east of the Jordan. However, in other passages such as Gen. 15:16, 48:22, Josh.24:15, Judg. 1:34, etc., the name Amorite is regarded as synonymous with "Canaanite"only "Amorite" isnever used for the population on the coast.

In the centuries preceding the appearance of the biblical Hebrews, parts of Canaan and southwestern Syriabecame tributary to the Egyptian Pharaohs, although domination by the Egyptians was sporadic, and notstrong enough to prevent frequent local rebellions and inter-city struggles. Other areas such as northernCanaan and northern Syria came to be ruled by the Assyrians during this period.

Under Thutmose III (14791426BC) and Amenhotep II (14271400BC), the regular presence of the stronghand 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, arereported 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 elementof the population, prepared to hire themselves to whichever local mayor, king or princeling prepared toundertake their support.

Although Habiru SA-GAZ (a Sumerian ideogram glossed as "brigand" in Akkadian), and sometimes Habiri(an Akkadian word) had been reported in Mesopotamia from the reign of the Sumerian king, Shulgi of UrIII, their appearance in Canaan appears to have been due to the arrival of a new state based in Asia Minor tothe north of Assyria based upon Maryannu aristocracy of horse-drawn charioteers, associated with the Indo-Aryan rulers of the Hurrians, known as Mitanni.

The Habiru seem to have been more a social class than any ethnic group. One analysis shows that themajority were, however, Hurrian (a non Semitic group from Asia Minor who spoke a language isolate),though there were a number of Semites and even some Kassite and Luwian adventurers amongst theirnumber. The reign of Amenhotep III, as a result was not quite so tranquil for the Asiatic province, asHabiru/'Apiru contributed to greater political instability. It is believed that turbulent chiefs began to seektheir opportunities, though as a rule could not find them without the help of a neighbouring king. Theboldest of the disaffected nobles was Aziru, son of Abdi-Ashirta, a prince of Amurru, who even before thedeath of Amenhotep III, endeavoured to extend his power into the plain of Damascus. Akizzi, governor ofKatna (Qatna?) (near Hamath), reported this to the Pharaoh, who seems to have sought to frustrate hisattempts. In the next reign, however, both father and son caused infinite trouble to loyal servants of Egyptlike Rib-Hadda, governor of Gubla (Gebal), not the least through transferring loyalty from the Egyptiancrown to that of the expanding neighbouring Asia Minor based Hittite Empire under Suppiluliuma I.[56]

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

In the Amarna letters, we meet with the Habiri in northern Syria. Etakkama wrote thus to the Pharaoh,

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

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

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

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

"Behold, I and my warriors and my chariots, together with my brethren and my SA-GAZ, and my



Suti?9 are at the disposal of the (royal) troops to go whithersoever the king, my lord, commands."[57]

From the mid 14th century BC through to the 11th century BC, much of Canaan (particularly the north,central and eastern regions of Syria and the north western Mediterranean coastal regions) fell to the MiddleAssyrian Empire, and both Egyptian and Hittite influence waned as a result. Powerful Assyrian kings forcedtribute on Caananite states and cities from north, east and central Syria as far as the Mediterranean.[58] Arik-den-ili (c. 13071296BC), consolidated Assyrian power in the Levant, he defeated and conquered Semitictribes of the so-called Ahlamu group. He was followed by Adad-nirari I (12951275BC) who continuedexpansion to the northwest, mainly at the expense of the Hittites and Hurrians, conquering Hittite territoriessuch as Carchemish and beyond. In 1274BC Shalmaneser I ascended the throne, a powerful warrior king,he annexed territories in Syria and Canaan previously under Egyptian or Hittite influence, and the growingpower of Assyria was perhaps the reason why these two states made peace with one another.[58] This trendcontinued under Tukulti-Ninurta I (12441208BC) and after a hiatus, Tiglath-Pileser I (11151077BC)who conquered the Arameans of northern Syria, and thence he proceeded to conquer Damascus and theCanaanite/Phoenician cities of (Byblos), Sidon, Tyre and finally Arvad.[58]

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 (ca. 18001550 and 720586BC),but that during the intervening Late Bronze (LB) and Iron Age I and IIA/B Ages sites like Jerusalem weresmall and relatively insignificant and unfortified towns.[59]

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

Some believe the "Habiru" signified generally all the nomadic tribes known as "Hebrews", and particularlythe early Israelites of the period of the "judges", who sought to appropriate the fertile region forthemselves.[60] However, the term was rarely used to describe the Shasu. Whether the term may also includeother related Semitic peoples such as the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites is uncertain. It may not be anethnonym at all; see the article Habiru for details.

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, Ammon and Aram-Damascus east of the Jordan River, and Edom to the south. The northern Levant was divided into variouspetty kingdoms, the so-called Syro-Hittite states and the Phoenician city-states.



Map of the southern Levant, c.830sBC. Kingdom of Judah

Kingdom of Israel

Philistine city-states

Phoenician states

Kingdom of Ammon

Kingdom of Edom

Kingdom of Aram-Damascus

Aramean tribes

Arubu tribes

Nabatu tribes

Assyrian Empire

Kingdom of Moab

The entire region (including all Phoenician/Canaanite and Aramean states, together with Israel, Philistia andSamarra) was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the 10th and 9th centuries BC, and wouldremain so for three hundred years until the end of the 7th century BC. Assyrian emperor-kings such asAshurnasirpal, Adad-nirari II, Sargon II, Tiglath-Pileser III, Esarhaddon, Sennacherib and Ashurbanipalcame to dominate Canaanite affairs. The Egyptians, then under a Nubian Dynasty, made a failed attempt toregain a foothold in the region, but were vanquished by the Assyrians, leading to an Assyrian invasion andconquest of Egypt and the destruction of the KushiteEmpire. The Kingdom of Judah was forced to paytribute to Assyria. Between 616 and 605 BC theAssyrian Empire collapsed due to a series of bitterinternal civil wars, followed by an attack by an allianceof Babylonians, Medes and Persians and the Scythians.The Babylonians inherited the western part of theempire of their Assyrian brethren, including all the landsin Canaan and Syria, together with Israel and Judah.They successfully defeated the Egyptians, who hadbelatedly attempted to aid their former masters, theAssyrians, and then remained in the region in an attemptto regain a foothold in the Near East. The BabylonianEmpire itself collapsed in 539 BC, and Canaan fell tothe Persians and became a part of the AchaemenidEmpire. It remained so until in 332 BC it was conqueredby the Greeks under Alexander the Great, later to fall toRome in the late 2nd century BC, and then Byzantium,until the Arab Islamic invasion and conquest of the 7thcentury AD.[61]

CultureCanaan included what today are Lebanon, Israel and thePalestinian territories, northwestern Jordan, and somewestern areas of Syria.[62] According to archaeologistJonathan N. Tubb, "Ammonites, Moabites, Israelitesand Phoenicians undoubtedly achieved their owncultural identities, and yet ethnically they were allCanaanites", "the same people who settled in farmingvillages in the region in the 8th millennium BC."[63]

There is uncertainty about whether the name Canaanrefers to a specific Semitic ethnic group wherever theylive, the homeland of this ethnic group, or a regionunder the control of this ethnic group, or perhaps anycombination of the three.

Canaanite civilization was a response to long periods of stable climate interrupted by short periods ofclimate change. During these periods, Canaanites profited from their intermediary position between theancient civilizations of the Middle EastAncient Egypt, Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria,



Babylonia), the Hittites, and Minoan Creteto become city states of merchant princes along the coast, withsmall kingdoms specializing in agricultural products in the interior. This polarity, between coastal towns andagrarian hinterland, was illustrated in Canaanite mythology by the struggle between the storm god, variouslycalled Teshub (Hurrian) or Ba'al Hadad (Semitic Amorite/Aramean) and Ya'a, Yaw, Yahu or Yam, god ofthe sea and rivers. Early Canaanite civilization was characterized by small walled market towns, surroundedby peasant farmers growing a range of local horticultural products, along with commercial growing ofolives, grapes for wine, and pistachios, surrounded by extensive grain cropping, predominantly wheat andbarley. Harvest in early summer was a season when transhumance nomadism was practicedshepherdsstaying with their flocks during the wet season and returning to graze them on the harvested stubble, closerto water supplies in the summer. Evidence of this cycle of agriculture is found in the Gezer calendar and inthe biblical cycle of the year.

Periods of rapid climate change generally saw a collapse of this mixed Mediterranean farming system;commercial production was replaced with subsistence agricultural foodstuffs; and transhumance pastoralismbecame a year-round nomadic pastoral activity, whilst tribal groups wandered in a circular pattern north tothe 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 areversal of fortune, allies would fall away or intertribal feuding would return. It has been suggested that thePatriarchal tales of the Bible reflect such social forms.[64] During the periods of the collapse of AkkadianEmpire in Mesopotamia and the First Intermediate Period of Egypt, the Hyksos invasions and the end of theMiddle Bronze Age in Assyria and Babylonia, and the Late Bronze Age collapse, trade through theCanaanite area would dwindle, as Egypt, Babylonia, and to a lesser degree Assyria, withdrew into theirisolation. When the climates stabilized, trade would resume firstly along the coast in the area of thePhilistine and Phoenician cities. As markets redeveloped, new trade routes that would avoid the heavytariffs of the coast would develop from Kadesh Barnea, through Hebron, Lachish, Jerusalem, Bethel,Samaria, Shechem, Shiloh through Galilee to Jezreel, Hazor and Megiddo. Secondary Canaanite citieswould develop in this region. Further economic development would see the creation of a third trade routefrom Eilath, Timna, Edom (Seir), Moab, Ammon and thence to the Aramean states of Damascus andPalmyra. Earlier states (for example the Philistines and Tyrians in the case of Judah and Israel, for thesecond route, and Judah and Israel for the third route) tried generally unsuccessfully to control the interiortrade.[65]

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

Tel Kabri contains the remains of a Canaanite city from the Middle Bronze Age (20001550 B.C.). Thecity, the most important of the cities in the Western Galilee during that period, had a palace at its center. TelKabri 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 culturalinfluence is Minoan; Minoan-style frescoes decorate the palace.[66]

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

Confirmed archaeologically

Irkab-Damu, king of EblaIlim-Ilimma I, father of Idrimi, king ofHalabIdrimi, king of AlalakhAmmittamru I of Ugarit (Amarna letters)Niqmaddu II of Ugarit (Amarna letters)(13491315BC)Arhalba of Ugarit (13151313BC)Niqmepa of Ugarit (13131260BC)Ammittamru II of Ugarit (12601235BC)Ibiranu of Ugarit (12351220BC)Ammurapi of Ugarit (12151185BC)Aziru, ruler of Amurru (Amarna letters)Labaya, lord of Shechem (Amarna letters)Abdikheba, mayor of Jerusalem (Amarnaletters)uwardata, mayor of Qiltu (Amarnaletters)

Hebrew Bible and other historiography

Canaan, son of Ham (Gen. 10:6)Sidon, firstborn son of Canaan (Gen.10:15)Heth, son of Canaan (Gen. 10:15)Cronos (Ilus), founder of Byblosaccording to SanchuniathonMamre, an Amorite chieftain (Gen.13:18)Makamaron, king of Canaan (Jubilees46:6)Sihon, king of Amorites (Deut 1:4)Og, king of Bashan (Deut 1:4)Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem (Josh.10:1)Debir, king of Eglon (Josh. 10:3)Jabin, name of two kings of Hazor (Josh.11:1; Judges 5:6)

Rulers of Tyre

Abibaal 990978BCHiram I 978944BCBaal-Eser I (Balbazer I) 944927BCAbdastartus 927918BCMethusastartus 918906BCAstarymus 906897BCPhelles 897896BCEshbaal I 896863BCBaal-Eser II (Balbazer II) 863829BCMattan I 829820BCPygmalion 820774BCEshbaal II 750739BCHiram II 739730BCMattan II 730729BCElulaios 729 694BCAbd Melqart 694680BCBaal I 680660BCTyre may have been under control of Assyria and/orEgypt for 70 yearsEshbaal III 591573BCCarthage becameindependent of Tyre in 574BCBaal II 573564BC (under Babylonian overlords)Yakinbaal 564BCChelbes 564563BCAbbar 563562BCMattan III and Ger Ashthari 562556BCBaal-Eser III 556555BCMahar-Baal 555551BCHiram III 551532BCMattan III (under Persian Control)BoulomenusAbdemon c.420411BC

See alsoAmarna letterslocalities and their rulers



Canaanite religionHistory of the name PalestineLand of IsraelNames of the LevantQemant

Notes1. William G. Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From?

(https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=A_ByXkpofAgC&pg=PA219#v=onepage&q&f=false), p.219, quote:"Canaanite is by far the most common ethnic term in the Hebrew Bible. The pattern of polemics suggests thatmost Israelites knew that they had a shared common remote ancestry and once common culture."

2. Drews 1998, pp.4849: "The name Canaan did not entirely drop out of usage in the Iron Age. Throughout thearea that wewith the Greek speakersprefer to call Phoenicia, the inhabitants in the rst millennium BCEcalled themselves Canaanites. For the area south of Mt. Carmel, however, after the Bronze Age endedreferences to Canaan as a present phenomenon dwindle almost to nothing (the Hebrew Bible of course makesfrequent mention of Canaan and Canaanites, but regularly as a land that had become something else, and as apeople who had been annihilated)."

3. Drews 1998, p.61: "The name Canaan, never very popular, went out of vogue with the collapse of the Egyptianempire."

4. For details of the dispute, see the works of Lemche and Na'aman, its main protagonists.5. Redford, Donald B. (1993) "Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times", (Princeton University Press)6. Zarins, Juris (1992), "Pastoral nomadism in Arabia: ethnoarchaeology and the archaeological recorda case

study" in O. Bar-Yosef and A. Khazanov, eds. "Pastoralism in the Levant"7. Tubb, Jonathan N. (1998), "Canaanites" (British Museum People of the Past)8. Woodard, Roger (2008), The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia.9. Naveh, Joseph (1987), "Proto-Canaanite, Archaic Greek, and the Script of the Aramaic Text on the Tell

Fakhariyah Statue", in Miller et al., Ancient Israelite Religion .10. Coulmas, Florian (1996). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN0-631-

21481-X.11. David Asheri, Alan Lloyd, Aldo Corcella, A Commentary on Herodotus, Books 1-4, Oxford University Press,

2007 p.75.12. Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebrew Lexicon, 183313. Bible Places: The Topography of the Holy Land (http://books.google.co.uk/books?

id=EC6XbOANT04C&pg=PA297), Henry Baker Tristram, 188414. Drews 1998, pp.47-49:"From the Egyptian texts it appears that the whole of Egypts province in the Levant was

called Canaan, and it would perhaps not be incorrect to understand the term as the name of that province...Itmay be that the term began as a Northwest Semitic common noun, the subdued, the subjugated, and that it thenevolved into the proper name of the Asiaticland that had fallen under Egypts dominion (just as the rst Romanprovince in Gaul eventually became Provence)"

15. Drews 1998, p.48: "Until E.A. Speiser proposed that the name Canaan was derived from the (unattested) wordkinahhu, which Speiser supposed must have been an Akkadian term for reddish-blue or purple, Semiticistsregularly explained Canaan (Hebrew knaan; elsewhere in Northwest Semitic knn) as related to the Aramaicverb kn: to bend down, be low. That etymology is perhaps correct after all. Speisers alternative explanationhas been generally abandoned, as has the proposal that Canaan meant the land of merchants."

16. Lemche 1991, pp.243217. The Septuagint translates "Canaanites" by "Phoenicians", and "Canaan" by the "land of the Phoenicians" (Exodus

16:35; Joshua 5:12). "Canaan" article in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia online(http://www.internationalstandardbible.com/C/canaan-canaanites.html)

18. The Land of Israel: National Home Or Land of Destiny, By Eliezer Schweid, Translated by Deborah Greniman,Published 1985 Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, ISBN 0-8386-3234-3, pp. 16-17: ... let us begin by examiningthe kinds of assertions about the land of Israel that we encounter in persuing the books of the Bible. ... A thirdkind of assertion deals with the history of the Land of Israel. Before its settlement by the Israelite tribes, it iscalled The Land of Canaan

19. Killebrew 2005, p.9620. Gesenius, Hebrew Dictionary[1] (http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?

Strongs=H3669&t=KJV)21. John N. Oswalt, "," in R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer and Bruce K. Waltke (eds.), Theological

Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody, 1980) 445446.



22. The Making of the Old Testament Canon. by Lou H. Silberman, The Interpreters One-Volume Commentary onthe Bible. Abingdon Press Nashville 19711991, p1209

23. by Michael Coogan A brief Introduction to the Old Testament, Oxford University Press New York, 2009, p424. Tubb, Jonathan N. (1998) "Canaanites" (British Museum People of the Past) p.1625. Mark Smith in The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel states,

"Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentallydifferent culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of theregion exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period (ca.12001000BC). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with andderived from Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature. Giventhe information available, one cannot maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites andIsraelites for the Iron I period." (pp. 67).Smith, Mark (2002) The Early History of God: Yahwehand Other Deities of Ancient Israel, (Eerdman's)

26. Acts 7:11 and Acts 13:1927. NT 547828. G. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine p. 141.29. J. Dahood, 1978, "Ebla, Ugarit and the Old Testament", in Congress Volume, International Organization for

Study of the Old Testament, p. 83.30. Tubb, Johnathan N. (1998) "Canaanites" (British Museum People of the Past) p.1531. Une mention de Cananens dans une lettre de Mari (http://www.jstor.org/stable/4197896), Georges Dossin,

Syria, T. 50, Fasc. 3/4 (1973), pp. 277-282, Institut Francais du Proche-Orient. Also here(http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/syria_0039-7946_1973_num_50_3_6403)

32. Na'aman 2005, pp.110-120.33. Lemche, pp.27-28: "However, all but one of the references belong to the second half of the 2nd millennium

BCE, the one exception being the mention of some Canaanites in a document from Marl from the 18th centuryBCE. In this document we find a reference to LUhabbatum u LUKi-na-ah-num. The wording of this passagecreates some problems as to the identity of these 'Canaanites', because of the parallelism between LUKh-na-ah-num and LUhabbatum, which is unexpected. The Akkadian word habbatum, the meaning of which is actually'brigands', is sometimes used to translate the Sumerian expression SA.GAZ, which is normally thought to be alogogram for habiru, 'Hebrews'. Thus there is some reason to question the identity of the 'Canaanites' who appearin this text from Marl We may ask whether these people were called 'Canaanites' because they were ethnically ofanother stock than the ordinary population of Mari, or whether it was because they came from a specificgeographical area, the land of Canaan. However, because of the parallelism in this text between LUhabbatum andLUKi-na-ah-num, we cannot exclude the possibility that the expression 'Canaanites' was used here with asociological meaning. It could be that the word 'Canaanites' was in this case understood as a sociologicaldesignation of some sort which shared at least some connotations with the sociological term habiru. Should thisbe the case, the Canaanites of Marl may well have been refugees or outlaws rather than ordinary foreigners froma certain country (from Canaan). Worth considering is also Manfred Weippert's interpretation of the passageLUhabbatum u LUKi-na-ah-numliterally 'Canaanites and brigands'as 'Canaanite brigands', which may weltmean 'highwaymen of foreign origin', whether or not they were actually Canaanites coming from Phoenicia."

34. Reallexikon der Assyriologie, "Kanaan", Manfred Weippert, volume 5, p.35235. Drews 1998, p.46: "An eighteenth-century letter from Mari may refer to Canaan, but the rst certain cuneiform

reference appears on a statue base of Idrimi, king of Alalakh c. 1500 BCE."36. Breasted, J.H. (1906) "Ancient records of Egypt" (University of Illinois Press)37. Higginbotham, Carolyn (2000). Egyptianization and Elite Emulation in Ramesside Palestine: Governance and

Accommodation on the Imperial Periphery (http://books.google.com/books?id=iiTbEFrLSc8C&pg=PA57&dq=Ramesses+III+++built+a+temple+to+tribute#v=onepage&q=Ramesses%20III%20%20%20built%20a%20temple%20to%20tribute&f=false). Brill Academic Pub. p.57. ISBN978-90-04-11768-6.

38. Hasel, Michael (Sep 2010). "Pa-Canaan in the Egyptian New Kingdom: Canaan or Gaza?"(https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/jaei/article/view/5). University of Arizona Institutional Repositorylogo Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 1 (1). Retrieved 12 September 2011.

39. Drews 1998, p.49a:"In the Papyrus Harris, from the middle of the twelfth century, the late Ramesses III claimsto have built for Amon a temple in 'the Canaan' of Djahi. More than three centuries later comes the nextandvery lastEgyptian reference to 'Canaan' or 'the Canaan': a basalt statuette, usually assigned to the Twenty-Second Dynasty, is labeled, 'Envoy of the Canaan and of Palestine, Pa-di-Eset, the son of Apy'."



40. Drews 1998, p.49b:"Although New Assyrian inscriptions frequently refer to the Levant, they make no mentionof Canaan. Nor do Persian and Greek sources refer to it."

41. Cohen, Getzel (2006), The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa(http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RqdPcxuNthcC&pg=PA205#v=onepage&q&f=false), University ofCalifornia Press, p.205, ISBN9780520931022, "Berytos, being part of Phoenicia, was under Ptolemaic controluntil 200 B.C. After the battle of Panion Phoenicia and southern Syria passed to the Seleucids. In the secondcentury B.C. Laodikeia issued both autonomous as well as quasi-autonomous coins. The autonomous bronzecoins had a Tyche on the obverse. The reverse often had Poseidon or Astarte standing on the prow of a ship, theletters BH or [lambda alpha] and the monogram [phi], that is, the initials of Berytos/Laodikeia and Phoenicia,and, on a few coins, the Phoenician legend LL'DK' 'S BKN 'N or LL'DK' 'M BKN N, which has been read as"Of Laodikcia which is in Canaan" or "Of Laodikcia Mother in Canaan. The quasi-municipal coins - issued underAntiochos IV Epiphanes ( 175-164 B.c.) and continuing with Alexander I Balas (150-145 B.c.), Demetrios IINikator (146-138 B.C.), and Alexander II Zabinas (128-123 n.c.) - contained the king's head on the obverse, andon the reverse the name of the king in Greek, the city name in Phoenician (LL'DK' 'S BKN N or LL'DK 'M BKN'N), the Greek letters [lambda alpha], and the monogram [phi]. After c.123 B.C. the Phoenician "Of Laodikciawhich is in Canaan" / "Of Laodikcia Mother in Canaan is no longer attested"

42. The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopaedia(https://archive.org/stream/popularandcriti01willgoog/popularandcriti01willgoog_djvu.txt), The three occasionsare Acts 11:19 (http://tools.wmflabs.org/bibleversefinder/?book=Acts&verse=11:19&src=!), Acts 15:3(http://tools.wmflabs.org/bibleversefinder/?book=Acts&verse=15:3&src=!) and Acts 21:2(http://tools.wmflabs.org/bibleversefinder/?book=Acts&verse=21:2&src=!)

43. Expos. Ep. ad Romanos, cited by Gesenius, Hebrew Lexicon[2](http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H3667&t=KJV)

44. "Cambridge History of Judaism" (http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/series/series_display/item3937015/?site_locale=en_GB) 3. Cambridge.org. p.210. Retrieved 16 August 2011. "In both the Idumaean and the Ituraeanalliances, and in the annexation of Samaria, the Judaeans had taken the leading role. They retained it. The wholepoliticalmilitaryreligious league that now united the hill country of Palestine from Dan to Beersheba, whateverit called itself, was directed by, and soon came to be called by others, 'the Ioudaioi'"

45. A History of the Jewish People, edited by Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson, page 226 (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2kSovzudhFUC&pg=PA226#v=onepage&q&f=false), "The name Judea no longer referred only to...."

46. Feldman, Louis (1990). "Some Observations on the Name of Palestine" (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pACJYw0bg3QC&pg=PA553). Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, OH 61: 123. Retrieved 12 Feb 2011.

47. Lehmann, Clayton Miles (Summer 1998). "Palestine: History: 135337: Syria Palaestina and the Tetrarchy"(http://www.usd.edu/~clehmann/erp/Palestine/history.htm#135-337). The On-line Encyclopedia of the RomanProvinces. University of South Dakota. Retrieved 2008-07-06.

48. Sharon, 1998, p. 4. According to Moshe Sharon: "Eager to obliterate the name of the rebellious Judaea", theRoman authorities (General Hadrian) renamed it Palaestina or Syria Palaestina.

49. Jacobson, David (1999). "Palestine and Israel". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.JSTOR1357617 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1357617).

50. Noll 2001, p.2651. Woodard. The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia (http://books.google.com/books?id=vTrT-

bZyuPcC&pg=PA5). Cambridge University Press. pp.5. ISBN978-1-139-46934-0. Retrieved 5 May 2013.52. See (http://www.ientneareast.net/wares_kerak.html)53. Golden 2009, p.554. Golden 2009, pp.5655. Golden 2009, pp.6756. F Leo Oppenheim Ancient Mesopotamia57. El Amarna letter, EA 189.58. Georges Roux Ancient Iraq59. Killebrew Ann E. "Biblical Jerusalem: An Archaeological Assessment" in Andrew G. Vaughn and Ann E.

Killebrew, eds., "Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period" (SBL Symposium Series 18;Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003)

60. Wolfe, Robert. "From Habiru to Hebrews: The Roots of the Jewish Tradition"(http://www.newenglishreview.org/Robert_Wolfe/From_Habiru_to_Hebrews%3A_The_Roots_of_the_Jewish_Tradition/). Retrieved 2013.

61. Georges Roux Ancient Iraq62. Tubb 1998, p.1363. Tubb 1998, pp.131464. Seters John van, (1987), Abraham in Myth and Tradition (Yale University Press)65. Thompson, Thomas L. (2000), Early History of the Israelite People: From the Written & Archaeological Sources

(Brill Academic)



BibliographyBishop Moore, Megan; Kelle, Brad E. (2011). Biblical History and Israel's Past: The Changing Studyof the Bible and History (http://books.google.com/?id=Qjkz_8EMoaUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Biblical+history+and+Israel%27s+past#v=onepage&q=Biblical%20history%20and%20Israel%27s%20past&f=false). Eerdmans. ISBN9780802862600.Day, John (2002). Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan (http://books.google.com/?id=y-gfwlltlRwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Canaan#v=onepage&q=Canaan&f=false). Continuum.ISBN9780826468307.Coogan, Michael D. (1978). Stories from Ancient Canaan (http://books.google.com/?id=1q2TzqnFWqQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Stories+from+Ancient+Canaan#v=onepage&q=Stories%20from%20Ancient%20Canaan&f=false). Westminster Press. ISBN0-8061-3108-X.Finkelstein, Israel (1996). "Towards a new periodization and nomenclature of the archaeology of thesouthern Levant". In Cooper, Jerrold S.; Schwartz, Glenn M. The study of the ancient Near East in thetwenty-first century (http://books.google.com/?id=3hc1Yp0VcjoC&pg=PA103&dq=Towards+a+new+periodization+and+nomenclature+of+the+archaeology+of+the+southern+levant#v=onepage&q=Towards%20a%20new%20periodization%20and%20nomenclature%20of%20the%20archaeology%20of%20the%20southern%20levant&f=false).Eisenbrauns. ISBN9780931464966.Golden, Jonathan M. (2009). Ancient Canaan and Israel: An Introduction (http://books.google.com/?id=o1-PHIGNcyQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ancient+Canaan+and+Israel#v=onepage&q=Ancient%20Canaan%20and%20Israel&f=false). Oxford University Press. ISBN9780195379853.Killebrew, Ann E. (2005). Biblical peoples and ethnicity (http://books.google.com.au/books?id=VtAmmwapfVAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Biblical+peoples+and+ethnicity:+an+archaeological#v=onepage&q&f=false). SBL. ISBN9781589830974.Na'aman, Nadav (2005). Canaan in the 2nd millennium B.C.E. (http://books.google.com/?id=HmTOoQmf23AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Canaan+in+the+2nd+millennium+B.C.E.#v=onepage&q=Canaan%20in%20the%202nd%20millennium%20B.C.E.&f=false) Eisenbrauns.ISBN9781575061139.Lemche, Niels-Peter (1991). The Canaanites and their land: the tradition of the Canaanites(http://books.google.com/?id=cVuNKseq23oC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Canaanites+and+Their+Land#v=onepage&q&f=false). Continuum. ISBN9780567451118.Noll, K.L. (2001). Canaan and Israel in antiquity: an introduction (http://books.google.com/?id=2rnyjxLHy-QC&pg=PA21&dq=The+Canaanites+and+Their+Land#v=onepage&q=The%20Canaanites%20and%20Their%20Land&f=false). Continuum. ISBN9781841273181.Smith, Mark S. (2002). The early history of God (http://books.google.com/?id=RwrrUuHFb6UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Early+History+of+the+Israelite+People#v=onepage&q=Early%20History%20of%20the%20Israelite%20People&f=false). Eerdmans.Tubb, Jonathan N. (1998). Canaanites (http://books.google.com/?id=GH-n4ctvlDYC&pg=PA40&dq=The+Canaanites+and+Their+Land#v=onepage&q=The%20Canaanites%20and%20Their%20Land&f=false). University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN0-8061-3108-X.Drews, Robert (1998), "Canaanites and Philistines", Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 81:3961

External linksCanaan & Ancient Israel (http://www.penn.museum/sites/Canaan/index.html), University ofPennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Explores their identities (land-time, dailylife, economy & religion) in pre-historical times through the material remains that they have left

66. "Remains Of Minoan-Style Painting Discovered During Excavations Of Canaanite Palace", ScienceDaily (Dec.7, 2009) [3] (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091109121119.htm)



behind.Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03569b.htm).Antiquities of the Jews (http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=2359&pageno=1)by Flavius Josephus.When Canaanites and Philistines Ruled Ashkelon (http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/canaanites-and-philistines.asp) Biblical Archaeology Society

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