The Canaanites
Who Were the Canaanites?
The Canaanites lived in the land of Canaan, an area which, according to ancient texts, may have included parts of modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.
Much of what scholars know about the Canaanites comes from records left by the people they contacted. Some of the most detailed surviving records come from the site of Amarna in Egypt and the Hebrew Bible. Additional information comes from excavations of archaeological sites that the Canaanites are thought to have lived in.
Scholars doubt that the Canaanites were ever politically united into a single kingdom. In fact, archaeological excavations indicate that the "Canaanites" were different ethnic groups. During the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 B.C.), "Canaan was not made up of a single 'ethnic' group but consisted of a population whose diversity may be hinted at by the great variety of burial customs and cultic structures," wrote an archaeology professor.
Canaanite languages
• Phoenician
• Ammonite
• Moabite
• Hebrew
• Edomite
Canaan (the country or area)/Canaanites (the people), was a Semitic-speaking civilization and region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium B.C. 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, which relate to or denote a family of languages that includes Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic and specific ancient languages such as Phoenician and Akkadian, constituting the central subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic family. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna Period (14th century B.C.), where the spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite, Mitanni, and Assyrian Empires converged or overlapped. Much of present-day knowledge about Canaan stems from archaeological excavation in this area at sites such as Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo, En Esur, and Gezer.
The name "Canaan" appears throughout the Bible, where it corresponds to "the *Levant," in particular to the areas of the Southern Levant that provide the main settings of the narratives of the Bible: the Land of Israel, Philistia, and Phoenicia, that is, the countries bordering on the eastern Mediterranean Sea — often thought of as extending from Greece to Egypt. It is by far the most frequently used ethnic term in the Bible. The Book of Joshua includes Canaanites in a list of nations to exterminate, and scripture elsewhere portrays them as a group that the Israelites had annihilated.
Biblical scholars note that archaeological data suggests "that the Israelite culture largely overlapped Canaanite culture and was derived from Canaanite culture." In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature." The name "Canaanites" is confirmed, many centuries later, as the *endonym of the people later known to the Ancient Greeks from c.?500 BC as Phoenicians, and after the emigration of some Canaanite-speakers to Carthage (founded in the 9th century B.C.), was also used as a self-designation by the *Punics (as "Chanani") of North Africa during Late Antiquity.
*endonym - A name used by a group or category of people to refer to themselves or their language, as opposed to a name given to them by another group
*Punics - The Punics were a Semitic-speaking people from Carthage in North Africa who traced their origins to Phoenicians and North
ETYMOLOGY
The etymology is uncertain. An early explanation derives the term from the Semitic root, "to be low, humble, subjugated." Some scholars have suggested that this implies an original meaning of "lowlands," unlike Aram, which means "highlands." In contrast, others have suggested it meant "the subjugated," which was the name of Egypt's province in the Levant and similarly evolved into the proper name to Provincia Nostra (the first Roman colony north of the Alps, which became Provence).
Overview
There are several periodization systems for Canaan. One of them is the following.
o Prior to 4500 BC (prehistory – Stone Age): hunter-gatherer societies slowly gave way to farming and herding societies;
o 4500–3500 BC (Chalcolithic): early metalworking and farming
o 3500–2000 B.C. (Early Bronze): prior to written records in the area
o 2000–1550 BC (Middle Bronze): city-states
o 1550–1200 BC (Late Bronze): Egyptian domination
After the Iron Age, the periods are named after the various empires that ruled the region: Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic (related to Greece), and Roman.
Canaanite culture developed in situ (in the natural or original position or place.) 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 (Relating to or denoting a late Mesolithic culture of the Middle East, dated to about 12,500–10,000 years ago. It provides evidence for the first settled villages. The use of microliths characterizes it and of bone for implements.) and Harifian cultures (Harifian is a specialized regional cultural development of the Epipalaeolithic - of the Negev Desert. It corresponds to the latest stages of the Natufian culture with Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) farming cultures, practicing animal domestication, during the 6200 BC climatic crisis which led to the Neolithic Revolution/First Agricultural Revolution in the Levant. Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) is part of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, a Neolithic culture centered in upper Mesopotamia and the Levant, dating to c.?10,800 – c.?8,500 years ago, that is, 8800–6500 BC. Like the earlier PPNA people, the PPNB culture developed from the *Mesolithic Natufian culture. However, it shows a northerly origin, possibly indicating an influx from northeastern Anatolia.
*Mesolithic relating to or denoting the middle part of the Stone Age, between the Paleolithic and Neolithic.
The majority of the Eastern Mediterranean conifer-sclerophyllous-broadleaf forests, also known as the Eastern Mediterranean conifer-broadleaf forests, is an ecoregion in the eastern Mediterranean Basin. It covers portions of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestinian territories, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia if Canaan is covered by the Eastern Mediterranean conifer–scleropossibly indicating an influx from northeastern Anatolia.
Chalcolithic (4500–3500)
The first wave of migration, called *Ghassulian culture, entered Canaan approximately 4500 BC.
*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).
Rami Arav argues that the site of Rogem Hiri in the Golan was a particular type of Chalcolithic Age sanctuary, explicitly built for ritual excarnation—that is, exposing the dead bodies to vultures to divest them of their flesh.
This is the start of the Chalcolithic in Canaan. The Ghassulians original homeland was generally where the south Caucasus and the northwest Zagros Mountains meet. They brought an already complete craft tradition of metal work from their unknown homeland. They were expert coppersmiths; their work was the most advanced metal technology in the ancient world. Their work is similar to artifacts from the later *Maykop culture, leading some scholars to believe they represent two branches of an original metalworking tradition.
*Maykop - The Maykop culture (Russian: ??????, [mai. k?p], scientific transliteration: Majkop,), c. 3700 BC–3000 BC, was a primary Bronze Age archaeological culture in the western Caucasus region.
It extends along the area from the Taman Peninsula at the Kerch Strait to near the modern border of Dagestan and southwards to the Kura River. The culture takes its name from a royal burial, the Maykop kurgan in the Kuban River valley.
Early Bronze Age (3500–2000)
Violin-shaped female *Cycladic figurines
Cycladic culture (also known as Cycladic civilization or, chronologically, as Cycladic chronology) was a *Bronze Age culture (c. 3200–c. 1050 BC) found throughout the islands of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea. In chronological terms, it is a relative dating system for artifacts that broadly complement Helladic chronology (mainland Greece) and Minoan chronology (Crete) during the same period.
*Bronze Age - The Bronze Age is a historical period, approximately 3300 BCE to 1200 BCE, characterized by the use of bronze, in some areas *proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in 1836 by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, for classifying and studying ancient societies and history.
The rise of states or kingdoms marked the Bronze Age—large-scale societies joined under a central government by a powerful ruler. Bronze Age states interacted with each other through trade, warfare, migration, and the spread of ideas. Major Bronze Age kingdoms included Sumer and Babylonia in Mesopotamia and Athens in Ancient Greece.
*Proto-writing consists of visible marks communicating limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early as the 7th millennium B.C. in China. They used ideographic or early mnemonic symbols or both to represent a limited number of concepts, in contrast to accurate writing systems, which record the writer's language.
By the Early Bronze Age, additional sites had developed, such as Ebla (where an East Semitic language, Eblaite, was spoken), which by c.?2300 BC was incorporated into the Mesopotamia-based Akkadian Empire of Sargon the 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 River date from even earlier than Sargon, at least to the reign of the Sumerian king, Enshakushanna of Uruk, and one tablet credits the early Sumerian king Lugal-Anne-Mundu with holding sway in the region. However, this tablet is considered less credible because it was produced centuries later.
Amorites at Hazor, Kadesh (Qadesh-on-the-Orontes), and elsewhere in Amurru (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 ware (pottery), coming originally from the Zagros Mountains (in modern Iran) east of the Tigris. 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 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 (Hurrians, Hattians, Hittites, Luwians) and Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria), 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. However, specialized craft production continued, and trade routes remained open.
Archaeologically, the Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit (at Ras Shamra in Syria) is considered essentially Canaanite, even though its Ugaritic language does not belong to the Canaanite language group proper. A disputed reference to Lord of ga-na-na in the Semitic Ebla tablets (dated 2350 BC) from the archive of Tell Mardikh 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 specific reference is in the 18th century B.C. See Ebla-Biblical controversy for further details.
Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550)
Around 1950 BCE, urban life revived in Canaan. For the first time, palaces were built in the largest settlements. These palace towns controlled nearby villages and vied with one another for power. From Syria to the Egyptian Delta, rulers competed for prestige through warfare, trade, building projects, and fine crafts. In Egypt, near the middle of the 17th century BCE, a group of Canaanites known as Hyksos came into power and ruled the northern part of the country as self-styled Pharaohs for over 100 years. Eventually, an Egyptian royal family-centered in Thebes in southern Egypt gathered enough power to challenge the Hyksos. In 1539, Pharaoh Ahmose drove the Hyksos out of Egypt and built an empire.
The weapons of the warriors were now made of bronze. Bronze is an alloy of copper with 5-10% tin, which was likely imported from Afghanistan. New types of weapons made in the Middle Bronze Age were the duckbill ax, the narrow, chisel-shaped ax, and a leaf-shaped dagger with a wooden handle and a stone pommel.
The Middle Bronze Age was a period of great wealth and strong self-government of individual city-states. The local aristocratic rulers embellished their cities with large-scale public buildings, temples, and palaces. Orthogonal (rectangular) town planning was in effect, with paved streets at right angles. Cities were surrounded by massive fortifications, with ramparts built to defend against the battering rams of enemies. The chariot was used in battle at this time. Despite their great defenses, many of the cities in Canaan were destroyed in the turmoil following the Egyptian expulsion of the Hyksos in the mid-16th century BCE. This event led to the collapse of the Middle Bronze Age social system in Canaan.
Canaanite sarcophagi
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, afterward made a treaty with their king and, joining with the Hittites, attacked and conquered the districts remaining loyal to Egypt. In vain, Rib-Hadda sent emotional appeals to aid the distant Pharaoh, who was far too engaged in his religious innovations to attend to such messages.
Around the beginning of the New Kingdom period, Egypt ruled much of the Levant. The rule remained strong during the Eighteenth Dynasty, but Egypt's rule became precarious during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. Ramses II maintained control over it in the stalemated battle against the Hittites at Kadesh in 1275 BC, but soon after that, the Hittites successfully took over the northern Levant (Syria and Amurru). Ramses II obsessed with his building projects while neglecting Asiatic contacts, allowing control over the region to continue dwindling. During his successor, Merneptah, the Merneptah Stele, claimed to have destroyed various sites in the southern Levant, including a people known as "Israel." However, archaeological findings show no destruction at the sites mentioned in the Merneptah stele. So it is considered an exercise in propaganda, and the campaign most likely avoided the central highlands in the southern Levant. Throughout the reign of Ramses III (1186-1155 BC), Egyptian control over the southern Levant completely collapsed in the wake of the invasion of the Sea Peoples (more specifically the Philistines) who settled into the southwestern Israeli coastal plain.
Bronze Age collapse
Ann Killebrew has shown that cities such as Jerusalem were significant and vital walled settlements in the pre-Israelite Middle Bronze IIB and the Israelite Iron Age IIC period (c.?1800–1550 and c.?720–586 BC), but that during the intervening Late Bronze (L.B.) 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: trouble with 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 to threaten Egyptian trade through Galilee and Jezreel. Seti I (c.?1290 BC) is said to have conquered these Shasu; Semitic-speaking nomads are living just south and east of the Dead Sea, from the fortress of Taru (Shtir?) to "Ka-n-'-na." After the near-collapse of the Battle of Kadesh, Rameses II had to campaign vigorously in Canaan to maintain Egyptian power. Egyptian forces penetrated Moab and Ammon, establishing a permanent fortress garrison (Called simply "Rameses").
Some believe the "Habiru" generally signified all the nomadic tribes known as "Hebrews," and particularly the early Israelites of the period of the "judges," who sought to appropriate the fertile region for themselves. However, the term was rarely used to describe the Shasu. The term may include other related ancient Semitic-speaking peoples such as the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites
Iron Age
Levant (c. 830 BCE)
By the Early Iron Age, the southern Levant came to be dominated by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the Philistine city-states on the Mediterranean coast, and the kingdoms of Moab, Ammon, and Aram-Damascus east of the Jordan River, and Edom to the south. The northern Levant was divided into various petty kingdoms, the so-called Syro-Hittite states and the Phoenician city-states.
The entire region (including all Phoenician/Canaanite and Aramean states, together with Israel, Philistia, and Samarra) was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the 10th and 9th centuries B.C. It would remain so for three hundred years until the end of the 7th century B.C. Emperor-kings Ashurnasirpal, Adad-nigari II, Sargon II, Tiglath-Pileser III, Esarhaddon, Sennacherib, and Ashurbanipal dominate Canaanite affairs. Between 616 and 605 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire collapsed due to bitter civil wars, followed by an alliance of Babylonians, Medes, 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 the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. They successfully defeated the Egyptians and remained in the region to regain a foothold in the Near East.
The Neo-Babylonian Empire collapsed in 539 BC, and the region became a part of the Achaemenid Empire. It remained so until in 332 BC, Alexander the Great, later to fall to the Roman Empire in the late 2nd century B.C., and then Byzantium until the Arab Islamic invasion and conquest of the 7th century A.D.
