View source for Canaan

{{Short description|Region in the ancient Near East}}
{{Other uses}}
{{redirect|Canaanites||Canaanite (disambiguation)}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date = January 2025}}
{{Infobox archaeological culture
| name         = Canaan<br/>
{{Nobold|{{native name|phn|𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍}}<br/>{{native name|he|{{Script/Hebrew|כְּנַעַן}}}}<br/>{{native name|grc-x-biblical|Χαναάν}}<br/>{{native name|ar|كَنْعَانُ}}}}
| map          = A dictionary of the Bible.. (1887) (14781539332).jpg
| mapcaption   = 
| altnames     = 
| religion     = [[Canaanite religion]]
| language     = [[Canaanite languages]]
| horizon      =
| region       = [[Levant]]
| period       = [[Bronze Age]], [[Iron Age]]
| majorsites   = {{hlist |[[Gezer]] |[[Tel Hazor]] |[[Jericho]] |[[Tel Megiddo]] |[[Shechem]]}}
| precededby   = [[Ghassulian]]
| followedby   = {{hlist |[[Phoenicia]] |[[Moab]] |[[Edom]] |[[Aram-Damascus]] |[[Philistia]] |[[Ammon]] |[[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Israel]] |[[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]]}}
}}
'''Canaan'''{{efn-lr|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|eɪ|n|ən}}; [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]]: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – {{transliteration|phn|KNʿN}}; {{langx|he|כְּנַעַן}} – {{transliteration|hbo|Kənáʿan}}, in [[pausa]] {{lang|he|{{Script/Hebrew|כְּנָעַן}}}} – {{transliteration|hbo|Kənāʿan}}; {{langx|grc-x-biblical|Χαναάν}} – {{transliteration|grc|Khanaán}}; {{langx|ar|كَنْعَانُ}} – {{transliteration|ar|Kan'ān}}}}<ref name="MedalsHill1910">{{cite book | author1 = British Museum. Department of Coins and Medals | author2 = Sir George Francis Hill | date = 1910 | title = Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Phoenicia | publisher = order of the Trustees | page = 52 | oclc = 7024106 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=R0fTGZhvYRUC&pg=PA52}}</ref><ref name="GreekName">The current scholarly edition of the [[Septuagint|Greek Old Testament]] spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : Dt. Bibelges., 2006 {{ISBN|978-3-438-05119-6}}. However, in modern Greek, the accentuation is {{lang|el|Xαναάν}}, while the [[Novum Testamentum Graece|current (28th) scholarly edition of the New Testament]] has {{lang|grc|Xανάαν}}.</ref> was an [[Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples|ancient Semitic-speaking]] civilization and region of the [[Southern Levant]] during the late [[2nd millennium BC]]. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the [[Late Bronze Age]] [[Amarna Period]] (14th century&nbsp;BC) as the area where the [[sphere of influence|spheres of interest]] of the [[Egyptian Empire|Egyptian]], [[Hittites|Hittite]], [[Mitanni]], and [[Assyrian Empire]]s converged or overlapped. Much of present-day knowledge about Canaan stems from [[Excavation (archaeology)|archaeological excavation]] in this area at sites such as [[Tel Hazor]], [[Tel Megiddo]], [[En Esur]], and [[Gezer]].

The name "Canaan" appears throughout the [[Bible]] as a geography associated with the "[[Promised Land]]". The [[demonym]] "Canaanites" serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled and [[Nomadic pastoralism|nomadic-pastoral]] groups—throughout the regions of the southern [[Levant]].<ref name=":4">{{cite web |url= https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1043&context=humbiol_preprints |first1= Aaron J. |last1= Brody |first2= Roy J. |last2= King |title= Genetics and the Archaeology of Ancient Israel |work= Wayne State University |date= 1 December 2013 |access-date= 9 October 2018 |archive-date= 30 April 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180430114916/https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1043&context=humbiol_preprints |url-status= live }}</ref> It is by far the most frequently used [[Biblical terminology for race|ethnic term in the Bible]].<ref name="Dever">{{cite book |first=William G. |last=Dever |author-link=William G. Dever |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=A_ByXkpofAgC&pg=PA219 |title= Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? |page=219 |quote= Canaanite is by far the most common ethnic term in the Hebrew Bible. The pattern of polemics suggests that most Israelites knew that they had a shared common remote ancestry and once common culture. |isbn= 978-0-8028-4416-3 |year= 2006 |publisher= Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing }}</ref> Biblical scholar [[Mark S. Smith|Mark Smith]], citing archaeological findings, suggests "that the [[Israelite]] culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture&nbsp;... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature."<ref name="JonTubb" />{{rp|13–14}}<ref name="MarkSmith">{{cite book |first=Mark S. |last=Smith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1yM3AuBh4AsC |title=The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel |quote=Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period ({{circa| 1200–1000}} BC). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature. Given the information available, one cannot maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites and Israelites for the Iron I period. |pages=6–7 |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8028-3972-5 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |access-date=9 October 2018 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429061954/https://books.google.com/books?id=1yM3AuBh4AsC |url-status=live }}</ref>

The name "Canaanites" is attested, many centuries later, as the [[Exonym and endonym|endonym]] of the people later known to the [[Ancient Greeks]] from {{circa|500}} BC as [[Phoenicia]]ns,<ref name="Drews4849">
{{harvnb|Drews|1998|pp=48–49}}: "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&nbsp;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)."
</ref> and after the [[Phoenician settlement of North Africa|emigration of Phoenicians]] and Canaanite-speakers to [[Carthage]] (founded in the 9th century BC), was also used as a self-designation by the [[Punics]] (as {{transliteration|pnh|"Chanani"|italic=no}}) of North Africa during [[Late Antiquity]].

==Etymology==
{{see also|Names of the Levant}}
===Canaan===
The English term "Canaan" (pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|eɪ|n|ən}} since {{circa|1500}}, due to the [[Great Vowel Shift]]) comes from the Hebrew {{lang|he|כנען}} ({{transliteration|he|Kənaʿan}}), via the [[Koine Greek]] {{lang|grc|Χανααν}} {{transliteration|grc|Khanaan}} and the [[Latin]] {{lang|la|Canaan}}. It appears as ''Kinâḫna'' ({{langx|akk|𒆳𒆠𒈾𒄴𒈾}}, ''<sup>KUR</sup>ki-na-aḫ-na'') in the [[Amarna letters]] (14th century BC) and several other ancient Egyptian texts.<ref>{{cite book |author= Shmuel Ahituv |title= Canaanite Toponyms in Ancient Egyptian Documents |publisher= The Magnes Press, Hebrew University of Jerusalem |year= 1984 |pages= 83–84}}</ref> In Greek, it first occurs in the writings of [[Hecataeus of Miletus|Hecataeus]] (c. 550–476 BC) as "{{transliteration|grc|Khna}}" ({{lang|grc|Χνᾶ}}).<ref>{{cite book |isbn=978-0-19-814956-9 |first1=David |last1=Asheri |first2=Alan |last2=Lloyd |first3=Aldo |last3=Corcella |title=A Commentary on Herodotus, Books 1–4 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |page=75}}</ref> It is attested in Phoenician on coins from [[Berytus]] dated to the 2nd century BC.<ref>{{cite book| author = Katell Berthelot | chapter = Where May Canaanites Be Found? Canaanites, Phoenicians and Others in Jewish Texts from the Hellenistic and Roman Period | title = The Gift of the Land and the Fate of the Canaanites | editor = K. Berthelot, J. David and M. Hirshman | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2014 | url = https://www.academia.edu/6791773}}</ref>

The etymology is uncertain. An early explanation derives the term from the [[Semitic root]] {{transliteration|sem|knʿ}}, "to be low, humble, subjugated".<ref>[[Wilhelm Gesenius]], ''Hebrew Lexicon'', 1833</ref> Some scholars have suggested that this implies an original meaning of "lowlands", in contrast with [[Aram (biblical region)|Aram]], which would then mean "highlands",<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vYQaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA336 |title=Bible Places: Or, The Topography of the Holy Land |first=Henry Baker |last=Tristram |author-link=Henry Baker Tristram |year=1884 |page=336 |access-date=9 October 2018 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429061902/https://books.google.com/books?id=vYQaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA336#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 [[Gallia Narbonensis|Provincia Nostra]] (the first Roman colony north of the Alps, which became [[Provence]]).{{sfn|Drews|1998|pp=47–49|ps= :"From the Egyptian texts it appears that the whole of Egypt's province in the Levant was called 'Canaan', and it would perhaps not be incorrect to understand the term as the name of that province...It may be that the term began as a Northwest Semitic common noun, 'the subdued, the subjugated', and that it then evolved into the proper name of the Asiaticland that had fallen under Egypt's dominion (just as the first Roman province in Gaul eventually became Provence)"}}

An alternative suggestion, put forward by [[Ephraim Avigdor Speiser]] in 1936, derives the term from [[Hurrian]] {{lang|xhu|Kinaḫḫu}}, purportedly referring to the colour purple, so that "Canaan" and "[[Phoenicia#Etymology|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 {{lang|xhu|"Kinaḫnu"}} as a synonym for red or [[tyrian purple|purple dye]], laboriously produced by the [[Kassites|Kassite]] rulers of [[Babylon]] from [[murex]] molluscs as early as 1600&nbsp;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 [[Book of Exodus|Exodus]]. The dyes may have been named after their place of origin. The name 'Phoenicia' is connected with the Greek word for "purple", apparently referring to the same product, but it is difficult to state with certainty whether the Greek word came from the name, or vice versa. The purple cloth of [[Tyre (Lebanon)|Tyre]] in Phoenicia was well known far and wide and was associated by the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] with nobility and royalty. However, according to [[Robert Drews]], Speiser's proposal has generally been abandoned.{{sfn|Drews|1998|p=48|ps=: "Until E.A. Speiser proposed that the name 'Canaan' was derived from the (unattested) word kinahhu, which Speiser supposed must have been an Akkadian term for reddish-blue or purple, Semiticists regularly explained 'Canaan' (Hebrew këna'an; elsewhere in Northwest Semitic kn'n) as related to the Aramaic verb kn': 'to bend down, be low'. That etymology is perhaps correct after all. Speiser's alternative explanation has been generally abandoned, as has the proposal that 'Canaan' meant 'the land of merchants'."}}<ref>{{harvnb|Lemche|1991|pp=24–32}}</ref>

===Djahy===
[[Retjenu]] (Anglicised 'Retenu') was the usual ancient Egyptian name for Canaan and Syria, covering the region from [[Gaza City|Gaza]] in the south, to [[Tartous]] in the north. Its borders shifted with time, but it generally consisted of three regions.{{citation needed|date= February 2024}} The region between [[Ascalon]] and [[Mount Lebanon|the Lebanon]], stretching inland to the [[Sea of Galilee]], was named [[Djahy]],<ref name=When>[[Georg Steindorff|Steindorff, George]] and Seele, Keith C. (2014 revised edition; first edition 1942). ''When Egypt Ruled the East'', p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=65DeBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240217122111/https://books.google.com/books?id=65DeBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |date=17 February 2024 }}. University of Chicago Press. {{isbn |022622855X}}. Accessed 17 February 2024.</ref> which was approximately synonymous with Canaan.{{citation needed|date= February 2024}}

== History and archaeology ==
{{Further|Prehistory of the Levant|History of the ancient Levant}}
{{See also|Levantine archaeology}}

===Overview===
There are several periodization systems for Canaan.{{clarify|Using the term "Canaan" for the time before the appearance of the Canaanites may be problematic. Source? |date= March 2024}} One of them is the following.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}
* Prior to 4500&nbsp;BC (prehistory&nbsp;– [[Stone Age]]): hunter-gatherer societies slowly giving way to farming and herding societies
* 4500–3500&nbsp;BC ([[Chalcolithic]]): early metal-working and farming
* 3500–2000&nbsp;BC (Early Bronze): prior to written records in the area{{dubious|More recent dates, now preferred: c. 3,200–2,200. Left out: it's the first urban period. Essential development!|date=November 2021}}
* 2000–1550&nbsp;BC (Middle Bronze): [[city-state]]s<ref>{{Cite web |title=Canaanites |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0216.xml |access-date=1 December 2023 |website=obo |language=en |archive-date=3 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403082451/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0216.xml |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Glassman |first=Ronald M. |title=The Political Structure of the Canaanite City-States: Monarchy and Merchant Oligarchy |date=2017 |work=The Origins of Democracy in Tribes, City-States and Nation-States |pages=473–477 |editor-last=Glassman |editor-first=Ronald M. |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-51695-0_49 |isbn=978-3-319-51695-0 }}</ref>
* 1550–1200&nbsp;BC (Late Bronze): Egyptian hegemony
* 1200–various dates by region ([[Iron Age]])

After the [[Iron Age]] the periods are named after the various empires that ruled the region: [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Assyrian]], [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Babylonian]], [[Persian Empire|Persian]], [[Hellenistic]] (related to [[ancient Greece|Greece]]) and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]].<ref>{{harvnb|Noll|2001|p=26}}</ref>

Canaanite culture developed [[In situ conservation (archaeology)|''in situ'']] from multiple waves of migration merging with the earlier [[Nomadic pastoralism#Origin and history|Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex]], which in turn developed from a fusion of their ancestral [[Natufian culture|Natufian]] and [[Harifian culture]]s with [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (PPNB) farming cultures, practicing [[animal domestication]], during the [[8.2-kiloyear event|6200&nbsp;BC climatic crisis]] which led to the [[Neolithic Revolution|Neolithic Revolution/First Agricultural Revolution]] in the [[Levant]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Zarins|first=Juris|title=Pastoralism in the Levant|year=1992|editor1-last=Bar-Yosef|editor1-first=Ofer|chapter=Pastoral nomadism in Arabia: ethnoarchaeology and the archaeological record—a case study|publisher=Prehistory Press|isbn=978-0-9629110-8-8|access-date=9 October 2018|editor2-last=Khazanov|editor2-first=Anatoly|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZjoR7vCdQh4C|archive-date=29 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429061902/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZjoR7vCdQh4C|url-status=live}}</ref> The majority of Canaan is covered by the [[Eastern Mediterranean conifer–sclerophyllous–broadleaf forests]] ecoregion.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}

===Chalcolithic (4500–3500 BC)===
[[File:The Ghassulian star.jpg|thumb|The Ghassulian star]]
[[File:Dolmen kueijiyeh.jpg|thumb|Ghassulian dolmen, Kueijiyeh hill near [[Madaba]], Jordan]]

The first wave of migration, called [[Ghassulian]] culture, entered Canaan circa 4500 BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Steiglitz |first1=Robert |title=Migrations in the Ancient Near East |journal=Anthropological Science |date=1992 |volume=3 |issue=101 |page=263 |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ase1993/101/3/101_3_263/_pdf |access-date=12 June 2020 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326034549/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ase1993/101/3/101_3_263/_pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> This is the start of the [[Chalcolithic]] in Canaan. From their unknown homeland, they brought an already complete craft tradition of metalwork. They were expert coppersmiths and 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. Their main copper mine was at [[Wadi Feynan]]. The copper was mined from the Cambrian Burj Dolomite Shale Unit in the form of the mineral [[malachite]]. All of the copper was smelted at sites in [[Beersheba culture]].

Genetic analysis has shown that the Ghassulians belonged to the [[West Asian]] [[haplogroup T-M184]].<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-05649-9|title=Ancient DNA from Chalcolithic Israel reveals the role of population mixture in cultural transformation|year=2018|last1=Harney|first1=Éadaoin|last2=May|first2=Hila|last3=Shalem|first3=Dina|last4=Rohland|first4=Nadin|last5=Mallick|first5=Swapan|last6=Lazaridis|first6=Iosif|last7=Sarig|first7=Rachel|last8=Stewardson|first8=Kristin|last9=Nordenfelt|first9=Susanne|last10=Patterson|first10=Nick|last11=Hershkovitz|first11=Israel|last12=Reich|first12=David|journal=Nature Communications|volume=9|issue=1|page=3336|pmid=30127404|pmc=6102297|bibcode=2018NatCo...9.3336H}}</ref>

The end of the Chalcolithic period saw the rise of the urban settlement of [['En Esur]] on the southern Mediterranean coast.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Itai Elad and Yitzhak Paz|date=2018|title='En Esur (Asawir): Preliminary Report|journal=Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel|volume=130|page=2|jstor=26691671}}</ref>

=== Early Bronze Age (3500–2000 BC) ===
[[File:موقع تل السكن الأثري.jpg|thumb|[[Tell es-Sakan]] in Gaza was inhabited by the Canaanites from approximately 2600 BC to 2300 BC, reinhabiting an earlier Egyptian settlement.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=de Miroschedji |first1=Pierre |last2=Sadeq |first2=Moain |title=Sakan, Tell es- |encyclopedia=The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land |date=2008 |publisher=[[Israel Exploration Society]]/[[Biblical Archaeology Society]] (BAS) |volume=5: Supplementary Volume |via=BAS Library |url=https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/book/the-new-encyclopedia-of-archaeological-excavations-in-the-holy-land/sakan-tell-es/ |access-date=23 June 2024 |archive-date=23 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240623172348/https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/book/the-new-encyclopedia-of-archaeological-excavations-in-the-holy-land/sakan-tell-es/ |url-status=live }}</ref>|alt=A view downhill of a landscape consisting of yellow lithified sand dunes. There is a man in a light coloured shirt and a cap descending the slope, making his way been two projecting parts of the dune, and moving away from the camera.]]
By the [[Early Bronze Age]] other sites had developed, such as [[Ebla]] (where an [[East Semitic languages|East Semitic language]], [[Eblaite language|Eblaite]], was spoken), which by {{circa|2300}} BC was incorporated into the [[Mesopotamia]]-based [[Akkadian Empire]] of [[Sargon of Akkad|Sargon the Great]] and [[Naram-Sin of Akkad]] (biblical Accad). Sumerian references to the ''Mar.tu'' ("tent dwellers", later ''Amurru'', i.e. [[Amorites|Amorite]]) country west of the [[Euphrates]] River date from even earlier than Sargon, at least to the reign of the [[Sumer]]ian 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 was produced centuries later.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Amorites at [[Tel Hazor|Hazor]], [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]] (Qadesh-on-the-Orontes), and elsewhere in [[Amurru kingdom|Amurru]] (Syria) bordered Canaan in the north and northeast. (Ugarit may be included among these Amoritic entities.)<ref name="Woodard">{{cite book |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=Roger D. |title=The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia |chapter=Ugaritic |first=Dennis |last=Pardee |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vTrT-bZyuPcC&pg=PA5 |access-date=5 May 2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-46934-0 |page=5 |date=10 April 2008 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429061903/https://books.google.com/books?id=vTrT-bZyuPcC&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> The collapse of the Akkadian Empire in 2154&nbsp;BC saw the arrival of peoples using [[Khirbet Kerak]] ware (pottery),<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Richard |first1=Suzanne |year=1987 |title=Archaeological Sources for the History of Palestine: The Early Bronze Age: The Rise and Collapse of Urbanism |journal=The Biblical Archaeologist |volume=50 |issue=1 |jstor=3210081 |pages=22–43 |doi=10.2307/3210081 |s2cid=135293163 }}</ref> coming originally from the [[Zagros Mountains]] (in modern [[Iran]]) east of the [[Tigris]]. In addition, [[DNA]] analysis revealed that between 2500 and 1000 BC, populations from the Chalcolithic Zagros and Bronze Age [[Caucasus]] migrated to the Southern Levant.<ref>{{cite news<!--|authors=Lily Agranat-Tamir; Shamam Waldman; Mario A.S. Martin; David Gokhman; Nadav Mishol; Tzilla Eshel; Olivia Cheronet; Nadin Rohland; Swapan Mallick; Nicole Adamski; Ann Marie Lawson; Matthew Mah; Megan Michel; Jonas Oppenheimer; Kristin Stewardson; Francesca Candilio; Denise Keating; Beatriz Gamarra; Shay Tzur; Mario Novak; Rachel Kalisher; Shlomit Bechar; Vered Eshed; Douglas J. Kennett; Marina Faerman; Naama Yahalom-Mack; Janet M. Monge; Yehuda Govrin; Yigal Erel; Benjamin Yakir; Ron Pinhasi; Shai Carmi; Israel Finkelstein; Liran Carmel and David Reich-->|author=Lily Agranat-Tamir|display-authors=etal|title=The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant|publisher=Cell|year=2020|volume=181|issue=5|pages=1146–1157|doi=10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.024}}</ref>

The first cities in the southern Levant arose during this period. The major sites were [['En Esur]] and [[Tel Megiddo|Meggido]]. These "proto-Canaanites" were in regular contact with the other peoples to their south such as [[Prehistoric Egypt|Egypt]], and to the north [[Asia Minor]] ([[Hurrians]], [[Hattians]], [[Hittites]], [[Luwians]]) and [[Mesopotamia]] ([[Sumer]], [[Akkadian Empire|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, although specialised craft production continued and trade routes remained open.<ref name="Golden 2009 5">{{harvnb|Golden|2009|p=5}}</ref> Archaeologically, the Late Bronze Age state of [[Ugarit]] (at [[Ras Shamra]] in [[Syria]]) is considered quintessentially Canaanite,<ref name="JonTubb" /> even though its [[Ugaritic language]] does not belong to the [[Canaanite languages|Canaanite language group]] proper.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-511-48689-0|editor-last=Woodard|editor-first=Roger D.|doi=10.1017/CBO9780511486890}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Naveh|first=Joseph|url=https://archive.org/details/ancientisraelite00unse/page/101|title=Ancient Israelite Religion: Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross|publisher=Fortress Press|year=1987|isbn=978-0-8006-0831-6|editor1-last=Miller|editor1-first=Patrick D.|page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientisraelite00unse/page/101 101]|chapter=Proto-Canaanite, Archaic Greek, and the Script of the Aramaic Text on the Tell Fakhariyah Statue|access-date=9 October 2018|editor2-last=Hanson|editor2-first=Paul D.|display-editors=etal|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4lvbAAAAMAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Coulmas|first=Florian|title=The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems|publisher=Blackwell|year=1996|isbn=978-0-631-21481-6|location=Oxford}}</ref>

A disputed reference to a "Lord of ''ga-na-na''" in the Semitic [[Ebla tablets]] (dated 2350&nbsp;BC) from the archive of [[Tell Mardikh]] has been interpreted by some scholars to mention the deity [[Dagon]] by the title "Lord of Canaan"<ref>{{cite book |first=Gösta Werner |last=Ahlström |title=The History of Ancient Palestine |page=141 |isbn=978-0-8006-2770-6 |publisher=Fortress Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5cSAlLBZKaAC |access-date=9 October 2018|year=1993 }}</ref> If correct, this would suggest that Eblaites were conscious of Canaan as an entity by 2500 BC.<ref>{{cite book |first=Mitchell J. |last=Dahood |year=1978 |chapter=Ebla, Ugarit and the Old Testament |title=Congress Volume, International Organization for Study of the Old Testament |page=83 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-05835-4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=daVAAQAAIAAJ |access-date=9 October 2018 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429061955/https://books.google.com/books?id=daVAAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}.</ref> 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.<ref name="JonTubb">{{cite book |last=Tubb |first=Johnathan N. |year=1998 |title=Canaanites |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |series=British Museum People of the Past, vol. 2 |url=https://archive.org/details/canaanites00tubb |url-access=registration |access-date=9 October 2018|isbn=978-0-8061-3108-5 }}</ref>{{rp|15}} See [[Ebla-Biblical controversy]] for further details.

=== Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550 BC) ===
[[File:Middle East by Robert de Vaugondy.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Map of the Near East by [[Robert de Vaugondy]] (1762), indicating "Canaan" as limited to the [[Holy Land]], to the exclusion of Lebanon and Syria]]

Urbanism returned and the region was divided among small city-states, the most important of which seems to have been Hazor.<ref name="Golden 2009 5–6">{{harvnb|Golden|2009|pp=5–6}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Golden 2009 5–6" />

As early as [[Naram-Sin of Akkad]]'s reign ({{circa|2240}} BC), ''Amurru'' was called one of the "four quarters" surrounding [[Akkadian Empire|Akkad]], along with [[Subartu]]/[[Assyria]], [[Sumer]], and [[Elam]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} Amorite dynasties also came to dominate in much of Mesopotamia, including in [[Larsa]], [[Isin]] and founding the state of Babylon in 1894&nbsp;BC. Later on, ''Amurru'' became the Assyrian/Akkadian term for the interior of south as well as for northerly Canaan. At this time the Canaanite area seemed divided between two confederacies, one centred upon [[Tel Megiddo|Megiddo]] in the [[Jezreel Valley]], the second on the more northerly city of [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]] on the Orontes River.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} An Amorite chieftain named [[Sumu-abum]] founded Babylon as an independent city-state in 1894 BC. One Amorite king of Babylonia, [[Hammurabi]] (1792–1750&nbsp;BC), founded the [[First Babylonian Empire]], which lasted only as long as his lifetime. Upon his death the Amorites were driven from Assyria but remained masters of Babylonia until 1595&nbsp;BC, when they were ejected by the Hittites.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

The semi-fictional ''[[Story of Sinuhe]]'' describes an Egyptian officer, Sinuhe, conducting military activities in the area of "Upper [[Retjenu]]" and "[[Phoenicia|Fenekhu]]" during the reign of [[Senusret I]] ({{circa|1950}} BC). The earliest ''bona fide'' Egyptian report of a campaign to "Mentu", "Retjenu" and "Sekmem" ([[Shechem]]) is the [[Sebek-khu Stele]], dated to the reign of [[Senusret III]] ({{circa|1862}} BC).{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

A letter from [[Mut-bisir]] to [[Shamshi-Adad I]] ({{circa|1809–1776}} 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, Syria|Mari]], an [[Assyria]]n outpost at that time in [[Syria]].<ref name="JonTubb" /><ref>{{cite journal |jstor=4197896 |title=Une mention de Cananéens dans une lettre de Mari |journal=Syria |volume=50 |issue=3/4 |pages=277–282 |first=Georges |last=Dossin |publisher=Institut Francais du Proche-Orient |year=1973 |language=fr |doi=10.3406/syria.1973.6403 |url=https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/275963/4/b2a54ba1-ff44-4c8e-9001-3d4f49524ace.txt |access-date=9 November 2020 |archive-date=28 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428103025/https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/275963/4/b2a54ba1-ff44-4c8e-9001-3d4f49524ace.txt |url-status=live |hdl=2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/275963 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Additional unpublished references to Kinahnum in the Mari letters refer to the same episode.{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}} Whether the term Kinahnum refers to people from a specific region or rather people of "foreign origin" has been disputed,{{sfn|Lemche|1991|pp=27–28|ps=: "However, all but one of the references belong to the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, the one exception being the mention of some Canaanites in a document from Marl from the 18th century BC. In this document, we find a reference to LUhabbatum u LUKi-na-ah-num. The wording of this passage creates 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 language|Sumerian]] expression SA.GAZ, which is normally thought to be a logogram for habiru, 'Hebrews'. Thus there is some reason to question the identity of the 'Canaanites' who appear in this text from Marl We may ask whether these people were called 'Canaanites' because they were ethnically of another stock than the ordinary population of Mari, or whether it was because they came from a specific geographical area, the land of Canaan. However, because of the parallelism in this text between LUhabbatum and LUKi-na-ah-num, we cannot exclude the possibility that the expression 'Canaanites' was used here with a sociological meaning. It could be that the word 'Canaanites' was in this case understood as a sociological designation of some sort which shared at least some connotations with the sociological term habiru. Should this be the case, the Canaanites of Marl may well have been refugees or outlaws rather than ordinary foreigners from a certain country (from Canaan). Worth considering is also Manfred Weippert's interpretation of the passage LUhabbatum u LUKi-na-ah-num—literally 'Canaanites and brigands'—as 'Canaanite brigands', which may welt mean 'highwaymen of foreign origin', whether or not they were actually Canaanites coming from Phoenicia."}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Reallexikon der Assyriologie |chapter=Kanaan |first=Manfred |last=Weippert |year=1928 |volume=5 |page=352 |publisher=W. de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-007192-4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cEB1Z_c50qgC |access-date=9 October 2018 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429062000/https://books.google.com/books?id=cEB1Z_c50qgC |url-status=live }}</ref> such that Robert Drews states that the "first certain cuneiform reference" to Canaan is found on the Alalakh statue of King Idrimi (below).{{sfn|Drews|1998|p=46|ps=: "An eighteenth-century letter from Mari may refer to Canaan, but the first certain cuneiform reference appears on a statue base of [[Idrimi]], king of [[Alalakh]] {{circa|1500}} BC."}}

A reference to Ammiya being "in the land of Canaan" is found on the [[Statue of Idrimi]] (16th century BC) from [[Alalakh]] in modern Syria. After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mother's relatives to seek refuge in "the land of Canaan", where he prepared for an eventual attack to recover his city. The other references in the Alalakh texts are:{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}}{{multiple image
| perrow = 2
| total_width = 400
| caption_align = center
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| header = West Asian visitors to Egypt ({{circa|1900}} BC)
| image1 = Procession of the Aamu, Tomb of Khnumhotep II (composite).jpg
| image2 = Drawing of the procession of the Aamu group tomb of Khnumhotep II at Beni Hassan.jpg
| footer = A group of West Asian foreigners, possibly Canaanites, labelled as ''[[Aamu]]'' ({{lang|egy|ꜥꜣmw}}), with the leader labelled as a ''Hyksos'', visiting the Egyptian official [[Khnumhotep II]] {{circa|1900}} BC. Tomb of [[12th dynasty]] official Khnumhotep II, at [[Beni Hasan]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mieroop |first1=Marc Van De |title=A History of Ancient Egypt |date=2010 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4051-6070-4 |page=131 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JADDYAZ9GIIC&pg=PA131 |language=en |access-date=29 June 2020 |archive-date=17 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817063835/https://books.google.com/books?id=JADDYAZ9GIIC&pg=PA131 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bard |first1=Kathryn A. |author-link=Kathryn A. Bard |title=An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt |date=2015 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-89611-2 |page=188 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFscBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA188 |language=en |access-date=29 June 2020 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429061957/https://books.google.com/books?id=lFscBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA188#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kamrin |first1=Janice |title=The Aamu of Shu in the Tomb of Khnumhotep II at Beni Hassan |journal=Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections |date=2009 |volume= 1 |issue=3 |s2cid=199601200 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Curry |first1=Andrew |title=The Rulers of Foreign Lands – Archaeology Magazine |website=www.archaeology.org |date=2018 |url=https://www.archaeology.org/issues/309-1809/features/6855-egypt-hyksos-foreign-dynasty |access-date=29 June 2020 |archive-date=1 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201044702/https://www.archaeology.org/issues/309-1809/features/6855-egypt-hyksos-foreign-dynasty |url-status=live }}</ref>
}}
* 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.<ref>{{harvnb|Golden|2009|pp=6–7}}</ref> In Egyptian inscriptions, ''Amar'' and ''Amurru'' ([[Amorite]]s) are applied strictly to the more northerly mountain region east of Phoenicia, extending to the [[Orontes River|Orontes]].

[[File:Canaanite Scarab of the "Anra" Type MET 30.8.896 bottom.jpg|left|thumb|Canaanite [[Anra scarab]] showing Egyptian [[nswt-bjt]] and [[ankh]] symbols bordering a [[cartouche]] with an [[Undeciphered writing systems|undeciphered]] sequence of hieroglyphs, c. 1648–1540 BC]]
Archaeological excavations of a number of sites, later identified as Canaanite, show that prosperity of the region reached its apogee during this Middle [[Bronze Age]] period, under the leadership of the city of [[Tel Hazor|Hazor]], at least nominally [[Tributary state|tributary]] to Egypt for much of the period. In the north, the cities of [[Yamkhad]] and [[Qatna]] were [[hegemons]] of important [[Confederation|confederacies]], and it would appear that biblical Hazor was the chief city of another important [[coalition]] in the south.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

=== Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BC) ===
In the early Late Bronze Age, Canaanite confederacies centered on [[Megiddo (place)|Megiddo]] and [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]], before being fully brought into the [[New Egyptian Kingdom|Egyptian Empire]] and Hittite Empire. Later still, the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] assimilated the region.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}

According to the Bible, the migrant [[ancient Semitic-speaking peoples]] who appear to have settled in the region included (among others) the [[Amorites]], who had earlier controlled Babylonia. The [[Hebrew Bible]] mentions the ''Amorites'' in the ''[[Table of Nations|Table of Peoples]]'' ([[Book of Genesis]] 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]] 10:5 ''f''., [[Book of Deuteronomy]] 1:19 ''f''., 27, 44, we find them located in the southern mountain country, while verses such as [[Book of Numbers]] 21:13, Book of Joshua 9:10, 24:8, 12, etc., tell of two great Amorite kings residing at [[Heshbon]] and [[Ashteroth Karnaim|Ashteroth]], east of the Jordan. Other passages, including Book of Genesis 15:16, 48:22, Book of Joshua 24:15, [[Book of Judges]] 1:34, regard the name ''Amorite'' as synonymous with "Canaanite". The name ''Amorite'' is, however, never used for the population on the coast.{{sfn|Cheyne|1911|p=141}}

[[File:Ancient_Near_East_1400BC.svg|thumb|350px|Map of the [[Ancient Near East]] around 1400 BC]]
In the centuries preceding the appearance of the biblical Hebrews, parts of Canaan and southwestern Syria became tributary to the Egyptian [[pharaoh]]s, 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.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}

Under [[Thutmose III]] (1479–1426&nbsp;BC) and [[Amenhotep II]] (1427–1400&nbsp;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.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}

Although Habiru {{transliteration|Xsux|SA-GAZ}} (a [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] [[ideogram]] [[Gloss (annotation)|gloss]]ed as "brigand" in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]), and sometimes {{transliteration|akk|[[Habiru|Habiri]]}} (an Akkadian word) had been reported in Mesopotamia from the reign of the [[Sumer]]ian king, [[Shulgi]] 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]] aristocracy of horse-drawn [[chariot]]eers, associated with the [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]] rulers of the [[Hurrians]], known as [[Mitanni]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

[[File:Basalt_Lion,_Holy_of_Holies,_Orthostat_Temple,_Hazor,_15th-13th_C._BC_(43217868001).jpg|thumb|Basalt lions from the [[Orthostat]] Temple of [[Tel Hazor|Hazor]] (c. 1500–1300 BC)<ref>{{Cite web|date=7 October 2021|title=Lion reliefs|url=https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/394173|access-date=3 January 2022|website=www.imj.org.il|language=en|archive-date=3 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103155548/https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/394173|url-status=live}}</ref> Hazor was violently destroyed during the Bronze Age collapse.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Hazor Excavations Project|url=http://unixware.mscc.huji.ac.il/~hatsor/hazor.html|access-date=3 January 2022|website=unixware.mscc.huji.ac.il|archive-date=7 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190507092552/http://unixware.mscc.huji.ac.il/~hatsor/hazor.html}}</ref>]]

The Habiru seem to have been more a social class than an ethnic group.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} One analysis shows that the majority were Hurrian, although there were a number of Semites and even some [[Kassites|Kassite]] and [[Luwian]] adventurers amongst their number.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} The reign of [[Amenhotep III]], as a result, was not quite so tranquil for the Asiatic province, as Habiru/'Apiru contributed to greater political instability. It is believed{{By whom|date= February 2012}} 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]], son of [[Abdi-Ashirta]], who endeavoured to extend his power into the plain of [[Damascus]]. [[Akizzi]], governor of Katna ([[Qatna]]?) (near [[Hama#Hama in the Bible|Hamath]]), reported this to Amenhotep III, who seems to have sought to frustrate Aziru's attempts.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} In the reign of the next pharaoh, [[Akhenaten]] (reigned {{circa}} 1352 to {{circa}} 1335 BC) both father and son caused infinite trouble to loyal servants of Egypt like [[Rib-Hadda]], governor of [[Byblos|Gubla]] (Gebal),{{sfn|Cheyne|1911|p=141}} by transferring their loyalty from the Egyptian crown to the Hittite Empire under [[Suppiluliuma I]] (reigned {{circa}} 1344–1322 BC).<ref>{{cite book |first=A. Leo |last=Oppenheim |title=Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2yxOCgAAQBAJ |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-17767-0 |year=2013 |access-date=9 October 2018 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429061904/https://books.google.com/books?id=2yxOCgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Egyptian power in Canaan thus suffered a major setback when the Hittites (or Hatti) 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.{{sfn|Cheyne|1911|p=141}}

The Amarna letters tell of the Habiri in northern Syria. [[Etakkama]] wrote thus to the Pharaoh:
{{blockquote|Behold, [[Biryawaza|Namyawaza]] has surrendered all the cities of the king, my lord to the {{transliteration|Xsux|SA-GAZ}} in the land of [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]] and in [[Upu|Ubi]]. But I will go, and if thy gods and thy sun go before me, I will bring back the cities to the king, my lord, from the Habiri, to show myself subject to him; and I will expel the {{transliteration|Xsux|SA-GAZ}}.}}

[[File:Sarcophagus of Canaanites.jpg|thumb|Canaanite [[Deir el-Balah sarcophagi|sarcophagi discovered in Deir al-Balah]] in the Gaza Strip and now displayed in the [[Israel Museum]]]]
Similarly, [[Zimredda (Sidon mayor)|Zimrida]], king of [[Sidon]] (named 'Siduna'), declared, "All my cities which the king has given into my hand, have come into the hand of the Habiri." The king of [[Jerusalem]], [[Abdi-Heba]], reported to the Pharaoh:
{{blockquote|If (Egyptian) troops come this year, lands and princes will remain to the king, my lord; but if troops come not, these lands and princes will not remain to the king, my lord.}}

Abdi-heba's 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 (Canaan)|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,{{sfn|Cheyne|1911|p=141}}
{{blockquote|Behold, I and my warriors and my chariots, together with my brethren and my {{transliteration|Xsux|SA-GAZ}}, and my [[Sutean|Suti]] ?9 are at the disposal of the (royal) troops to go whithersoever the king, my lord, commands."<ref name="EA189">El Amarna letter, EA 189.</ref>}}

[[File:Merneptah Steli (cropped).jpg|thumb|Merneptah Stele (JE 31408) from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo]]
Around the beginning of the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] period, Egypt exerted rule over much of the Levant. Rule remained strong during the [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt|Eighteenth Dynasty]], but Egypt's rule became precarious during the [[Nineteenth Dynasty|Nineteenth]] and [[Twentieth Dynasty|Twentieth Dynasties]]. [[Ramses II]] was able to maintain control over it in the [[Battle of Kadesh|stalemated battle]] against the Hittites at [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]] 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". Egypt's withdrawal from the [[southern Levant]] was a protracted process lasting some one hundred years beginning in the late 13th century BC and ending close to the end of the 12th century BC. The reason for the Egypt's withdrawal was most likely political turmoil in Egypt proper rather than the invasion by the [[Sea Peoples]], as there is little evidence that the Sea Peoples caused much destruction ca. 1200 BC. Many Egyptian garrisons or sites with an "Egyptian governor's residence" in the southern Levant were abandoned without destruction including [[Deir al-Balah]], [[Ascalon]], Tel Mor, [[Tell el-Far'ah (South)]], [[Tel Gerisa]], [[Tell Jemmeh]], [[Tel Masos]], and Qubur el-Walaydah.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Millek |first=Jesse Michael |date=2018 |title=Destruction and the Fall of Egyptian Hegemony Over the Southern Levant |url=http://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jaei/article/id/1347/ |journal=Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections |volume=19 |issue=1 |issn=1944-2815 |access-date=11 November 2022 |archive-date=3 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103165106/https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jaei/article/id/1347/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Not all Egyptian sites in the southern Levant were abandoned without destruction. The Egyptian garrison at [[Aphek (biblical)|Aphek]] was destroyed, likely in an act of warfare at the end of the 13th century.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Millek |first=Jesse |title=Sea Peoples, Philistines, and the Destruction of Cities: A Critical Examination of Destruction Layers 'Caused' by the 'Sea Peoples'. In Fischer, P. And T.Burge (eds.), "Sea Peoples" Up-to-Date: New Research on Transformation in the Eastern Mediterranean in 13th–11th Centuries BC. 113–140. |date=2017 |publisher=Austrian Academy of Sciences Press |jstor=j.ctt1v2xvsn |isbn=978-3-7001-7963-4 |edition=1st }}</ref> The Egyptian gate complex uncovered at [[Jaffa]] was destroyed at the end of the 12th century between 1134–1115 based on C14 dates,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Burke |first=Aaron |date=2017 |title=Burke et al. Excavations of the New Kingdom Fortress in Jaffa, 2011–2014: Traces of Resistance to Egyptian Rule in Canaan |pages= 85–133 |url=https://www.ajaonline.org/field-report/3356 |website=American Journal of Archaeology |language=en |archive-date=3 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103125132/https://www.ajaonline.org/field-report/3356 |url-status=live}}</ref> while [[Beit She'an|Beth-Shean]] was partially though not completely destroyed, possibly by an earthquake, in the mid-12th century.<ref name=":0"/>

==== Amarna letters ====
[[File:BM 29785 EA 9 Reverse v2.jpg|thumbnail|Amarna tablet EA 9]]

References to Canaanites are also found throughout the Amarna letters of Pharaoh [[Akhenaten]] {{circa|1350}} BC. In these letters, some of which were sent by governors and princes of Canaan to their Egyptian 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, and including [[Syria (region)|Syria in its widest extent]], as [[Eduard Meyer]] has shown. The letters are written in the official and diplomatic [[East Semitic]] [[Akkadian language]] of [[Assyria]] and [[Babylonia]], though "Canaanitish" words and idioms are also in evidence.{{sfn|Cheyne|1911|p=140 fn. 3}} The known references are:{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}}
* EA 8: Letter from [[Burna-Buriash II]] to [[Akhenaten]], 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, Israel|Acre]] and Shamhuna, and asks for compensation because "Canaan is your country"
* [[Amarna letter EA 9|EA 9]]: Letter from [[Burna-Buriash II]] to [[Tutankhamun]], "all the Canaanites wrote to [[Kurigalzu I|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 into Egypt"
* EA 109: Letter of [[Rib-Hadda]]: "Previously, on seeing a man from Egypt, the kings of Canaan fled before 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 other cities and the lands of Canaan will not belong to the king. May the king ask [[Yanhamu]] about these matters."
* EA 137: Letter of [[Rib-Hadda]]: "If the king neglects [[Byblos]], of all the cities of Canaan, not one will be his"
* [[Amarna letter EA 367|EA 367]]: "Hani son (of) Mairēya, "chief of the stable" of the king in Canaan"
* EA 162: Letter to [[Aziru]]: "You yourself know that the king does not want to go against all of Canaan when he rages"
* EA 148: Letter from [[Abimilku]] to the Pharaoh: "[The king] 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]] 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 ([[Kadesh (Syria)|Qadesh]], [[Amurru kingdom|Amurru]], 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.<ref name="JonTubb" />{{rp|16}} The other Ugarit reference, KTU 4.96, shows a list of traders assigned to royal estates, one of the estates having three Ugaritians, an Ashdadite, an Egyptian and a Canaanite.{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}}

=====Ashur tablets=====
A Middle [[Ktav Ashuri|Assyrian]] letter during the reign of [[Shalmaneser I]] includes a reference to the "travel to Canaan" of an Assyrian official.{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}}

=====Hattusa letters=====
Four references are known from Hattusa:{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}}
* 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 ===
{{main|Late Bronze Age collapse}}
[[File:CarteCanaanAuBronzeRécent.jpg|thumb|Map of Canaan during the Late Bronze Age]]
Ann Killebrew has shown that cities such as [[Jerusalem]] were large and important walled settlements in the pre-Israelite
[[Bronze Age|Middle Bronze]] IIB and the Israelite Iron Age IIC period ({{circa|1800–1550}} and {{circa|720–586}} BC), but that during the intervening [[Bronze Age collapse|Late Bronze]] (LB) and [[Iron Age]] I and IIA/B Ages sites like [[Jerusalem]] were small and relatively insignificant and unfortified towns.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yYS4VEu08h4C |editor1-last=Killebrew |editor1-first=Ann E. |chapter=Biblical Jerusalem: An Archaeological Assessment |editor2-first=Andrew G. |editor2-last=Vaughn |first=Ann E. |last=Killebrew |title=Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-58983-066-0 |access-date=9 October 2018 |archive-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701140948/https://books.google.com/books?id=yYS4VEu08h4C |url-status=live }}</ref>

Just after the Amarna period, a new problem arose which was to trouble the Egyptian control of southern Canaan (the rest of the region then being under Assyrian control). Pharaoh Horemhab campaigned against [[Shasu]] (Egyptian = "wanderers"),{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} [[nomadic pastoralist]] tribes who had moved across the [[Jordan River]] to threaten Egyptian trade through [[Galilee]] and [[Jezreel (city)|Jezreel]]. [[Seti I]] ({{circa|1290}} BC) is said to have conquered these Shasu, Semitic-speaking nomads living just south and east of the [[Dead Sea]], from the fortress of Taru (Shtir?) to "''Ka-n-'-na''". After the near collapse of the [[Battle of Kadesh]], [[Rameses II]] had to campaign vigorously in Canaan to maintain Egyptian power. Egyptian forces penetrated into [[Moab]] and [[Ammon]], where a permanent fortress garrison (called simply "Rameses") was established.

Some believe the "[[Habiru]]" signified generally all the nomadic tribes known as "Hebrews", and particularly the early [[Israelites]] of the period of the "[[Biblical judges|judges]]", who sought to appropriate the fertile region for themselves.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wolfe |first=Robert |title=From Habiru to Hebrews: The Roots of the Jewish Tradition |work=New English Review |url=https://www.newenglishreview.org/Robert_Wolfe/From_Habiru_to_Hebrews%3A_The_Roots_of_the_Jewish_Tradition/ |access-date=9 October 2018 |archive-date=22 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522082405/https://www.newenglishreview.org/Robert_Wolfe/From_Habiru_to_Hebrews:_The_Roots_of_the_Jewish_Tradition/ }}</ref> 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]]ites, [[Ammon]]ites and [[Edom]]ites is uncertain.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boyer |first1=P. J. |title=The Book of Joshua |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-65095-4 |pages=xiv–xv |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V9dkAwAAQBAJ&pg=PR14 |language=en |access-date=24 February 2022 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429061904/https://books.google.com/books?id=V9dkAwAAQBAJ&pg=PR14#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

There is little evidence that any major city or settlement in the southern Levant was destroyed around 1200 BC.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Millek |first=Jesse |date=2018 |title=Millek, J.M. 2018. Just how much was destroyed? The end of the Late Bronze Age in the Southern Levant. Ugarit-Forschungen 49: 239–274. |url=https://www.academia.edu/42097042 |journal=Ugarit-Forschungen |access-date=11 November 2022 |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209154855/https://www.academia.edu/42097042 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Millek |first=Jesse |title=Sea Peoples, Philistines, and the Destruction of Cities: A Critical Examination of Destruction Layers 'Caused' by the 'Sea Peoples'. in Fischer, P. and T. Burge (eds.), "Sea Peoples" Up-to-Date: New Research on Transformation in the Eastern Mediterranean in 13th–11th Centuries BC. |date=2017 |publisher=Austrian Academy of Sciences Press |isbn=978-3-7001-7963-4 |edition=1 |pages=127–128 |jstor=j.ctt1v2xvsn }}</ref> For [[Megiddo, Israel|Megiddo]], 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.<ref name=":2" /> While the monumental structures at Hazor were indeed destroyed, this destruction was in the mid-13th century BC long before the end of the Late Bronze Age began.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ben-Tor |first1=Amnon |last2=Zuckerman |first2=Sharon |date=2008 |title=Hazor at the End of the Late Bronze Age: Back to Basics |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=350 |issue=350 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1086/BASOR25609263 |jstor=25609263 |s2cid=163208536 |issn=0003-097X }}</ref> However, many sites were not burned to the ground around 1200 BC including: [[Ascalon|Asqaluna]], [[Ashdod (ancient city)]], [[Tell es-Safi]], [[Timnah|Tel Batash]], [[Tel Burna]], [[Tel Dor]], [[Tel Gerisa]], [[Tell Jemmeh]], Khirbet Rabud, [[Tel Zeror]], and [[Tell Abu Hawam]] among others.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

Despite many theories which claim that trade relations broke down after 1200 BC 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Millek |first=Jesse |url=https://www.academia.edu/41867831 |title=Exchange, Destruction, and a Transitioning Society. Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron I. RessourcenKulturen 9. Tübingen: Tübingen University Press. |date=2019 |access-date=11 November 2022 |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209154855/https://www.academia.edu/41867831 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Millek |first=Jesse |date=2022 |title=The Impact of Destruction on Trade at the End of the Late Bronze Age in the Southern Levant. In: F. Hagemeyer (ed.), Jerusalem and the Coastal Plain in the Iron Age and Persian Periods. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 39–60. |url=https://www.academia.edu/74756865 |journal=Jerusalem and the Coastal Plain in the Iron Age and Persian Periods New Studies on Jerusalem's Relations with the Southern Coastal Plain of Israel/Palestine (C. 1200–300 BC) Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times IV |access-date=11 November 2022 |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209160557/https://www.academia.edu/74756865 |url-status=live }}</ref> Archaeologist Jesse Millek has shown that while the common assumption is that trade in Cypriot and Mycenaean pottery ended around 1200 BC, trade in [[Cypriot pottery]] actually largely came to an end at 1300, while for [[Mycenaean pottery]], this trade ended at 1250 BC, and destruction around 1200 BC could not have affected either pattern of international trade since it ended before the end of the Late Bronze Age.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Millek |first=Jesse |url=https://www.academia.edu/41867831 |title=Exchange, Destruction, and a Transitioning Society. Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron I. RessourcenKulturen 9. Tübingen: Tübingen University Press. |date=2019 |pages=180–212 |access-date=11 November 2022 |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209154855/https://www.academia.edu/41867831 |url-status=live }}</ref> He has also demonstrated that trade with [[Egypt]] continued after 1200 BC.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Millek |first=Jesse |url=https://www.academia.edu/41867831 |title=Exchange, Destruction, and a Transitioning Society. Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron I. RessourcenKulturen 9. Tübingen: Tübingen University Press. |date=2019 |pages=217–238 |access-date=11 November 2022 |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209154855/https://www.academia.edu/41867831 |url-status=live }}</ref> Archaeometallurgical studies performed by various teams have also shown that trade in [[tin]], a non-local metal necessary to make [[bronze]], did not stop or decrease after 1200 BC, even though the closest sources of the metal were modern Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, or perhaps even Cornwall, England.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yahalom-Mack |first=N. |date=2014 |title=N. Yahalom-Mack, E. Galili, E., I. Segal, A. Eliyahu-Behar, E. Boaretto, S. Shilstein and I. Finkelstein, New Insights to Levantine Copper Trade: Analysis of Ingots from the Bronze and Iron Ages in Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 45 (2014), pp. 159–177. |url=https://www.academia.edu/30800615 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |access-date=11 November 2022 |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209160554/https://www.academia.edu/30800615 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ashkenazi |first=D. |date=2016 |title=Ashkenazi, D., Bunimovitz, S. and Stern, A. 2016. Archaeometallurgical Investigation of Thirteenth-Twelfth Centuries BC Bronze Objects from Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 6: 170–181 |url=https://www.academia.edu/28132010 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |access-date=11 November 2022 |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209160552/https://www.academia.edu/28132010 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Lead]] from [[Sardinia]] was still being imported to the southern Levant after 1200 BC during the early Iron Age.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Yagel |first1=Omri |last2=Ben-Yosef |first2=Erez |title=Lead in the Levant during the Late Bronze and early Iron Ages |url=https://www.academia.edu/88829580 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |year=2022 |volume=46 |article-number=103649 |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103649 |bibcode=2022JArSR..46j3649Y |issn=2352-409X |access-date=11 November 2022 |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209160554/https://www.academia.edu/88829580 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Iron Age ===
[[File:Kingdoms of the Levant Map 830.png|thumb|Levant (c. 830 BC)]]

{{Main|History of ancient Israel and Judah}}
By the [[Iron Age|Early Iron Age]], the southern Levant came to be dominated by the [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|kingdoms of Israel and Judah]], besides the [[Philistines|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 [[Neo-Hittite states|Syro-Hittite states]] and the Phoenician city-states.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

The entire region (including all Phoenician/Canaanite and [[Arameans|Aramean]] states, together with [[Israel]], [[Philistia]], and [[Samaria]]) was conquered by the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] during the 10th and 9th centuries BC, and would remain so for three hundred years until the end of the 7th century BC.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} Emperor-kings such as [[Ashurnasirpal II|Ashurnasirpal]], [[Adad-nirari II]], [[Sargon II]], [[Tiglath-Pileser III]], [[Esarhaddon]], [[Sennacherib]] and [[Ashurbanipal]] came to dominate Canaanite affairs. During the [[Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt|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]].

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]], [[Medes]], and Persians<!-- Do not link to the disambiguation page, "Persians"; link to a specific iteration of this topic --> and the [[Scythians]]. The [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]] inherited the western part of the empire, including all the lands in Canaan and [[Syria]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} 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]]. It remained so until in 332 BC it was conquered by the [[Greeks]] under [[Alexander the Great]], later to fall to the [[Roman Empire]] in the late 2nd century BC, and then [[Byzantium]], until the [[Arab]] conquest in the 7th century AD.<ref name="roux">{{cite book |first=Georges |last=Roux |title=Ancient Iraq |isbn=978-0-14-193825-7 |year=1992 |publisher=Penguin Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klZX8B_RzzYC |access-date=9 October 2018}}</ref>

=== Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic (1500–1000 BC) ===
{{Further|Timeline of the name Palestine}}
[[File:KAnana.gif|thumb|right|150px|The name "Canaan" occurs in [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphs]] as {{transliteration|egy|k3nˁnˁ}} on the [[Merneptah Stele]] in the 13th century BC]]

During the 2nd millennium BC, [[Ancient Egypt]]ian 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 [[Hama#Hama in the Bible|Hamath]] in Syria, to the east by the [[Jordan Valley (Middle East)|Jordan Valley]], and to the south by a line extended from the [[Dead Sea]] to around [[Gaza City|Gaza]]. Nevertheless, the Egyptian and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] uses of the term are not identical: the Egyptian texts also identify the coastal city of [[Kadesh (Syria)|Qadesh]] in northwest Syria near Turkey as part of the "Land of Canaan", so that the Egyptian usage seems to refer to the entire [[Levant]]ine coast of the Mediterranean Sea, making it a synonym of another Egyptian term for this coastland, [[Retjenu]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Lebanon, in northern Canaan, bordered by the [[Litani River|Litani river]] to the watershed of the [[Orontes River]], was known by the Egyptians as upper [[Retjenu]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Breasted |first=J.H. |year=1906 |title=Ancient records of Egypt |publisher=University of Illinois Press}}</ref> In Egyptian campaign accounts, the term [[Djahi]] was used to refer to the watershed of the Jordan river. Many earlier Egyptian sources also mention numerous military campaigns conducted in ''Ka-na-na'', just inside Asia.<ref name="Redford">{{cite book |last=Redford |first=Donald B. |year=1993 |title=Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-00086-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gkN9QgAACAAJ |access-date=9 October 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Canaanites and Shasu Leader captives from Ramses III's tile collection; By Niv Lugassi.png|thumb|[[Ramesses III prisoner tiles]] depicting {{citation needed span|Canaanites and Shasu Leader captives|date=March 2019}}]]
Archaeological attestation of the name "Canaan" in [[Ancient Near East]]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]] ({{circa|1206–1150}} BC).{{sfn|Drews|1998|p=61|ps=: "The name 'Canaan', never very popular, went out of vogue with the collapse of the Egyptian empire."}} 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.<ref>For details of the disputes, see the works of Lemche and Na'aman, the main protagonists.</ref>

16 references are known in Egyptian sources, from the [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt]] onwards.{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}}
* [[Amenhotep II]] inscriptions: Canaanites are included in a list of prisoners of war
* Three topographical lists
* [[Papyrus Anastasi I]] 27,1" refers to the route from Sile to Gaza "the [foreign countries] of the end of the land of Canaan"
* [[Merneptah Stele]]
* [[Papyrus Anastasi IIIA]] 5–6 and [[Papyrus Anastasi IV]] 16,4 refer to "Canaanite slaves from Hurru"
* [[Papyrus Harris]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Higginbotham |first=Carolyn |title=Egyptianization and Elite Emulation in Ramesside Palestine: Governance and Accommodation on the Imperial Periphery |year=2000 |publisher=Brill Academic Pub. |isbn=978-90-04-11768-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iiTbEFrLSc8C&pg=PA57 |page=57 |access-date=9 October 2018}}</ref> After the collapse of the Levant under the so-called "[[Peoples of the Sea]]" [[Ramesses III]] ({{circa|1194}} BC) is said to have built a temple to the god [[Amun|Amen]] 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 southwest corner of the [[Near East]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hasel |first1=Michael G. |title=Pa-Canaan in the Egyptian New Kingdom: Canaan or Gaza? |journal=Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections |date=2009 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=8–17 |url=https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/jaei/article/view/5 |access-date=9 October 2018 |doi=10.2458/azu_jaei_v01i1_hasel |archive-date=2 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402103017/https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/jaei/article/view/5 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Greco-Roman historiography ===
{{Further|Syria Phoenicia (disambiguation){{!}}Syria Phoenicia|Palestine (region){{!}}Palestine}}
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]].<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/popularandcriti01willgoog/popularandcriti01willgoog_djvu.txt The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopaedia], The three occasions are {{Bibleverse|Acts|11:19}}, {{Bibleverse|Acts|15:3}} and {{Bibleverse|Acts|21:2}}</ref> In the 6th century BC, [[Hecataeus of Miletus]] affirms that Phoenicia was formerly called {{Lang|grc|χνα}}, a name that [[Philo of Byblos]] subsequently adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was afterwards called [[Phoenicians|Phoinix]]". Quoting fragments attributed to [[Sanchuniathon]], he relates that [[Byblos]], [[Berytus]] and [[Tyre (Lebanon)|Tyre]] were among the first cities ever built, under the rule of the mythical [[Cronus]], and credits the inhabitants with developing fishing, hunting, agriculture, shipbuilding and writing.

Coins of the city of [[Beirut]] / Laodicea bear the legend, "Of Laodicea, a metropolis in Canaan"; these coins are dated to the reign of [[Antiochus IV of Syria|Antiochus IV]] (175–164 BC) and his successors until 123 BC.<ref name="GetzelCohen" />

[[File:Laodikeia Canaan.png|thumb|Coin of [[Alexander II Zabinas]] with the inscription "Laodikeia, metropole of Canaan"<ref name="GetzelCohen">{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Getzel M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqdPcxuNthcC&pg=PA205|title=The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa|publisher=University of California Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-520-93102-2|page=205|quote=Berytos, being part of Phoenicia, was under Ptolemaic control until 200 BC. After the battle of Panion Phoenicia and southern Syria passed to the Seleucids. In the second century BC, Laodikeia issued both autonomous as well as quasi-autonomous coins. The autonomous bronze coins had a Tyche on the obverse. The reverse often had Poseidon or Astarte standing on the prow of a ship, the letters 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 under Antiochos IV Epiphanes (175–164 BC) and continuing with Alexander I Balas (150–145 BC), Demetrios II Nikator (146–138 BC), and Alexander II Zabinas (128–123 n.c.)—contained the king's head on the obverse, and on 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 {{circa|123}} BC, the Phoenician "Of Laodikcia which is in Canaan" / "Of Laodikcia Mother in Canaan" is no longer attested|access-date=9 October 2018|archive-date=29 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429062427/https://books.google.com/books?id=RqdPcxuNthcC&pg=PA205#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>]] [[Augustine of Hippo|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 Regius|Hippo]] in North Africa retained the [[Punic language|Punic]] self-designation ''Chanani''.<ref>''Epistulae ad Romanos expositio inchoate expositio,'' 13 (Migne, [[Patrologia Latina]], vol.35 p.2096):'Interrogati rustici nostri quid sint, punice respondents chanani.'</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Shaw|first=Brent D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F8ZRPTgcjrcC|title=Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-521-19605-5|page=431|access-date=9 October 2018|archive-date=29 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429062428/https://books.google.com/books?id=F8ZRPTgcjrcC|url-status=live}}</ref> Since 'punic' in Latin also meant 'non-Roman', some scholars, however, argue that the language referred to as Punic in Augustine may have been [[Berber languages|Libyan]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Ellingsen|first=Mark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZeU4uCL8DfUC&pg=PA9|title=The Richness of Augustine: His Contextual and Pastoral Theology|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-664-22618-3|page=9|access-date=9 October 2018}}</ref>

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 ''[[Timeline of the name Palestine|Palaistinê]]'', {{circa|480}} BC. From 110 BC, the [[Hasmoneans]] 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 also becoming known as [[Judaea]], a term that had previously only referred to the smaller region of the [[Judean Mountains]], the allotment of the [[Tribe of Judah]] and heartland of the former [[Kingdom of Judah]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-judaism/6024720B2B5CB2A950F205C5C04EBBEB|title=The Cambridge History of Judaism|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-1-139-05366-2|editor1-last=Horbury|editor1-first=William|volume=3|page=210|doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521243773|access-date=9 October 2018|editor2-last=Davies|editor2-first=W. D.|editor3-last=Sturdy|editor3-first=John|archive-date=10 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010121333/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-judaism/6024720B2B5CB2A950F205C5C04EBBEB|url-status=live}} "In both the Idumaean and the Ituraean alliances, and in the annexation of Samaria, the Judaeans had taken the leading role. They retained it. The whole political–military–religious league that now united the hill country of Palestine from Dan to Beersheba, whatever it called itself, was directed by, and soon came to be called by others, 'the Ioudaioi'"</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofjewishp00harv|title=A History of the Jewish People|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1976|isbn=978-0-674-39731-6|editor-last=Ben-Sasson|editor-first=Haim Hillel|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofjewishp00harv/page/226 226]|quote=The name Judea no longer referred only to....|access-date=9 October 2018|url-access=registration}}</ref> Between 73 and 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]] revolt, the province of Iudaea was joined with [[Galilee]] to form a new province of [[Syria Palaestina]]. There is [[circumstantial evidence]] linking [[Hadrian]] with the name change,<ref name="Feldman">{{cite journal|last1=Feldman|first1=Louis|year=1990|title=Some Observations on the Name of Palestine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pACJYw0bg3QC&pg=PA553|journal=Hebrew Union College Annual|volume=61|pages=1–23|isbn=978-90-04-10418-1|access-date=9 October 2018}}</ref> although the precise date is not certain,<ref name="Feldman" /> and the interpretation of some scholars that the name change may have been intended "to complete the dissociation with Judaea"<ref name="Lehmann">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.usd.edu/~clehmann/erp/Palestine/history.htm#135-337|title=Palestine: History|last=Lehmann|first=Clayton Miles|date=Summer 1998|publisher=University of South Dakota|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090811054625/http://www.usd.edu/~clehmann/erp/Palestine/history.htm|archive-date=11 August 2009|access-date=9 October 2018|encyclopedia=The On-line Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces}}</ref><ref name="Sharonp4n">[[Moshe Sharon|Sharon]], 1998, p. 4. According to [[Moshe Sharon]], "Eager to obliterate the name of the rebellious [[Iudaea Province|Judaea]]", the Roman authorities (General Hadrian) renamed it ''Palaestina'' or ''Syria Palaestina''.</ref> is disputed.<ref name="Jacobson">{{cite journal|last1=Jacobson|first1=David M.|year=1999|title=Palestine and Israel|journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research|volume=313|issue=313|pages=65–74|doi=10.2307/1357617|jstor=1357617|s2cid=163303829}}</ref>

=== Later sources ===
[[Padiiset's Statue]] 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.{{sfn|Drews|1998|p=49a|ps= :"In the Papyrus Harris, from the middle of the twelfth century, the late Ramesses III claims to have built for Amon a temple in 'the Canaan' of Djahi. More than three centuries later comes the next—and very last—Egyptian 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'."}}

During the period {{circa|900–330}} BC, the dominant [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Neo-Assyrian]] and [[Achaemenid Empire]] make no mention of Canaan.{{sfn|Drews|1998|p=49b|ps= :"Although New Assyrian inscriptions frequently refer to the Levant, they make no mention of 'Canaan'. Nor do Persian and Greek sources refer to it."}}

==Canaanites==
The Canaanites were the inhabitants of ancient Canaan, a region that roughly corresponds to present-day [[Israel]] and [[Palestine]], 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]].<ref>Bernard Lewis, ''The Arabs in History'', 6th ed., London 2002, p. 17</ref>

===History===
The [[Levant]] was inhabited by people who referred to the land as ''ka-na-na-um'' as early as the mid-third millennium BC.<ref>Maria E. Aubet, ''The Phoenicians and the West'', Cambridge 1987, p. 9</ref> The [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] 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 Greece|ancient Greeks]] later traded with the Canaanites, this meaning of the word seems to have predominated, as they referred to the Canaanites as ''Phoenikes'' (Φοίνικες; [[Phoenicia]]ns), which may derive from the [[Ancient Greek|Greek-language]] word "''phoenix''" (φοίνιξ; {{Translation|"crimson" or "purple"}}), and also described the cloth for which the Greeks traded. The word "''phoenix''" was [[Romanization of Greek|transcribed]] by the [[Roman people|Romans]] to "''poenus''"; the descendants of the Canaanite settlers in [[Carthage]] were likewise referred to as [[Punic people|''Punic'']].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Thus, while "Phoenician" and "Canaanite" refer to the same culture, archaeologists and historians commonly refer to the [[Bronze Age]] pre-1200 BC 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 [[Arameans|Aramean peoples]], that is, that were ruled by a separate and closely related ethnic group which included the [[Philistines]] and the [[Israelites|Israelite]] kingdoms of [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|Israel and Judah]].<ref>Jonathan Tubb, ''The Canaanites'', London 1998, pp. 13–16</ref>

=== Culture ===
{{Further|Canaanite languages|Canaanite religion}}
[[File:Enthroned deity MET DP137934.jpg|upright|thumb|Enthroned deity; 14–13th century BC; bronze and gold foil; height: 12.7 cm; [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] (New York City)]]
According to archaeologist Jonathan N. Tubb, "[[Ammon]]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 BC."<ref name="JonTubb" />{{rp|13–14}}

There is uncertainty about whether the name "Canaan" refers to a specific [[ancient Semitic-speaking peoples|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 (general concept)|climate change]]. During these periods, Canaanites profited from their intermediary position between the ancient civilizations of the Middle East—[[Ancient Egypt]], [[Mesopotamia]] ([[Sumer]], [[Akkadian Empire|Akkad]], [[Assyria]], [[Babylonia]]), the Hittites, and [[Minoan Crete]]—to become city-states of merchant princes along the coast, with small kingdoms specializing in agricultural products in the interior. This polarity, between coastal towns and agrarian hinterland, was illustrated in [[Canaanite mythology]] by the struggle between the storm god, variously called [[Teshub]] ([[Hurrian]]) or [[Baal|Ba'al Hadad]] ([[Semitic languages|Semitic]] [[Amorite]]/[[Aramean]]) and [[Yam (god)|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 [[horticulture|horticultural products]], along with commercial growing of [[olive]]s, [[grape]]s for wine, and [[pistachio]]s, surrounded by extensive [[grain]] cropping, predominantly [[wheat]] and [[barley]]. Harvest in early summer was a season when [[transhumance]] [[nomadism]] was practised—shepherds staying with their flocks during the wet season and returning to graze them on the harvested stubble, closer to water supplies in the summer. Evidence of this cycle of agriculture is found in the [[Gezer calendar]] and in the biblical cycle of the year.

Periods of rapid climate change generally saw a collapse of this mixed Mediterranean farming system; commercial production was replaced with [[subsistence agricultural]] foodstuffs; and transhumance [[pastoralism]] became a year-round nomadic pastoral activity, whilst tribal groups wandered in a circular pattern north to the Euphrates, or south to the Egyptian delta with their flocks. Occasionally, tribal chieftains would emerge, raiding enemy settlements and rewarding loyal followers from the spoils or by tariffs levied on merchants. Should the cities band together and retaliate, a neighbouring state intervenes 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Seters |first=John |year=1987 |title=Abraham in Myth and Tradition |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-1-62654-910-4}}</ref>

Since 3100 BC, most Canaanites, particularly those that lived on the land that is now Israel/Palestine, lived in walled settlements in the plains and coastal regions. These settlements were surrounded by mud-brick fortifications and agricultural hamlets, which the inhabitants relied on for food.{{sfn|Shahin|2005|p=4}}{{efn-lr|The independent Canaanite city-states of the early Bronze Age (3000–2200 BC) were situated mostly in plains or coastal regions, surrounded by defensive walls built of mud brick and guarded by watchtowers. Most of the cities were surrounded by agricultural hamlets, which supplied their food needs {{harv|Shahin|2005|p=4}}.}} In the 2nd millennium BC, urban Canaanite elites ruled over rural and pastoral areas. The material culture of the city-states was relatively uniform.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Agranat-Tamir |first1=Lily |last2=Waldman |first2=Shamam |last3=Martin |first3=Mario A.S. |last4=Gokham |first4=David |last5=Mishol |first5=Nadav |last6=Eshel |first6=Tzilla |last7=Cheronet |first7=Olivia |last8=Rohland |first8=Nadin |last9=Mallick |first9=Swapan |last10=Adamski |first10=Nicole |last11=Lawson |first11=Anne Marie |last12=Mah |first12=Matthew |last13=Michel |first13=Megan |last14=Oppenheimer |first14=Jonas |last15=Stewardson |first15=Kristin |date=2020 |title=The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant |journal=Cell |volume=181 |issue=5 |pages=1146–1157 |doi=10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.024 |pmid=32470400 |pmc=10212583 }}</ref> New burial customs were implicitly influenced by a belief in the afterlife.{{sfn|Shahin|2005|p=4}}{{sfn|Ember|Peregrine|2002|p=103}}

During the periods of the collapse of [[Akkadian Empire]] 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]], trade through the Canaanite area would dwindle, as Egypt, Babylonia, and to a lesser degree [[Assyria]], withdrew into their isolation. When the climates stabilized, trade would resume firstly along the coast in the area of the [[Philistines|Philistine]] and Phoenician cities. As markets redeveloped, new trade routes that would avoid the heavy tariffs of the coast would develop from [[Kadesh Barnea]], through [[Hebron]], [[Lachish]], [[Jerusalem]], [[Bethel]], [[Samaria (ancient city)|Samaria]], [[Shechem]], [[Shiloh (biblical city)|Shiloh]] through [[Galilee]] to [[Jezreel (city)|Jezreel]], [[Tel Hazor|Hazor]], and [[Tel Megiddo|Megiddo]]. Secondary Canaanite cities would develop in this region. Further economic development would see the creation of a third trade route from [[Eilath]], [[Timna]], [[Edom]] ([[Mount Seir|Seir]]), [[Moab]], [[Ammon]], and thence to the Aramean states of [[Damascus]] and [[Palmyra]]. Earlier states (for example the Philistines and [[Tyrians]] in the case of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]] and [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Samaria]], for the second route, and Judah and Israel for the third route) tried generally unsuccessfully to control the interior trade.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Thomas L. |year=2000 |title=Early History of the Israelite People: From the Written & Archaeological Sources |publisher=Brill Academic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RwrrUuHFb6UC |access-date=9 October 2018|isbn=978-90-04-11943-7 }}</ref>

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

[[Tel Kabri]] contains the remains of a Canaanite city from the Middle [[Bronze Age]] (2000–1550 BC). 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 civilization|Minoan]]; Minoan-style frescoes decorate the palace.<ref>{{cite web |title=Remains Of Minoan-Style Painting Discovered During Excavations Of Canaanite Palace |work=ScienceDaily |date=7 December 2009 |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091109121119.htm |access-date=9 October 2018 |archive-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204090444/http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/134292 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Significant figures===
{{Further|Kings of Ugarit|King of Tyre}}
Figures mentioned in [[historiography]] or known through archaeology

;Rulers of Ugarit
{{columns-list|
* [[Ammittamru I]] of Ugarit (Amarna letters)
* [[Niqmaddu II]] of Ugarit (Amarna letters) (1349–1315&nbsp;BC)
* [[Arhalba]] of Ugarit (1315–1313&nbsp;BC)
* [[Niqmepa]] of Ugarit (1313–1260&nbsp;BC)
* [[Ammittamru II]] of Ugarit (1260–1235&nbsp;BC)
* [[Ibiranu]] of Ugarit (1235–1220&nbsp;BC)
* [[Ammurapi]] of Ugarit (1215–1185&nbsp;BC)
}}

;Rulers of Tyre
{{columns-list|
* [[Abibaal]] 990–978&nbsp;BC
* [[Hiram I]] 978–944&nbsp;BC
* [[Baal-Eser I]] (Balbazer I) 944–927&nbsp;BC
* [[Abdastartus]] 927–918&nbsp;BC
* [[Astarymus]] 906–897&nbsp;BC
* [[Phelles]] 897–896&nbsp;BC
* [[Ithobaal I]] 896–863&nbsp;BC
* [[Baal-Eser II]] (Balbazer II) 863–829&nbsp;BC
* [[Mattan I]] 829–820&nbsp;BC
* [[Pygmalion of Tyre|Pygmalion]] 820–774&nbsp;BC
* [[Ithobaal II]] 750–739&nbsp;BC
* [[Hiram II]] 739–730&nbsp;BC
* [[Luli]] 729 694&nbsp;BC
* [[Baal I]] 680–660&nbsp;BC
* [[Abbar]] 563–562&nbsp;BC
* [[Abdemon]] {{circa|420–411}} BC
}}

;Others
* [[Aziru]], ruler of [[Amurru kingdom|Amurru]] (Amarna letters)
* [[Labaya]], lord of [[Shechem]] (Amarna letters)
* [[Abdi-Heba]], local chieftain of pre-Israelite Jerusalem ([[Jebusites|Jebus]]) (Amarna letters)
* [[Šuwardata]], king of the Canaanite city of Gath or 'mayor' of Qiltu (Amarna letters)
* [[Cronus|Cronos]] (Ilus), founder of [[Byblos]] according to [[Sanchuniathon]]

=== Genetic studies ===
{{See also|Genetic history of the Middle East|Phoenicia#Genetic studies|Israelites#Genetics}}
A 2017 study of five Canaanite samples found that approximately half of their genome originated from local Neolithic populations. The other half was from eastern migrants genetically related to Chalcolithic Iranians, which researchers estimate arrived in the Levant approximately 5,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Haber |first=Marc |last2=Doumet-Serhal |first2=Claude |last3=Scheib |first3=Christiana |last4=Xue |first4=Yali |last5=Danecek |first5=Petr |last6=Mezzavilla |first6=Massimo |last7=Youhanna |first7=Sonia |last8=Martiniano |first8=Rui |last9=Prado-Martinez |first9=Javier |last10=Szpak |first10=Michał |last11=Matisoo-Smith |first11=Elizabeth |last12=Schutkowski |first12=Holger |last13=Mikulski |first13=Richard |last14=Zalloua |first14=Pierre |last15=Kivisild |first15=Toomas |date=2017-08-03 |title=Continuity and Admixture in the Last Five Millennia of Levantine History from Ancient Canaanite and Present-Day Lebanese Genome Sequences |url=https://www.cell.com/ajhg/abstract/S0002-9297(17)30276-8 |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |language=English |volume=101 |issue=2 |pages=274–282 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.06.013 |issn=0002-9297 |pmid=28757201|pmc=5544389 }}</ref> 

Hajjej (2018) revealed that when using [[Human leukocyte antigen|HLA genes]], Levantine Arabs, such as [[Palestinians]], [[Syrians]], [[Lebanese people|Lebanese]] and [[Jordanians]], were closely related populations with common Canaanite ancestry. They shared a common geographic territory, which was later disrupted by 19th-century British and French colonization. Their Canaanite ancestors came from North Africa or the Arabian peninsula via Egypt in 3300 BC and settled in the Levant lowlands after the [[Ghassulian]] collapse in 3800-3350 BC. The Levantine Arabs were also related to [[Eastern Mediterranean|East Mediterranean]] populations, such as [[Turkish people|Turks]], [[Greeks]] and [[Crete|Cretans]], [[Egyptians]] and [[Persians|Iranians]], which can be explained by the high migratory flow between Levantine sub-regions. However, Levantine Arabs were genetically distant from Arabian Peninsula populations such as [[Saudis]], [[Kuwaitis]] and [[Yemenis|Yeminis]] before the 7th century [[Islamic conquests]].<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Abdelhafidh |last1=Hajjej |first2=Wassim Y. |last2=Almawi |first3=Antonio |last3=Arnaiz-Villena |first4=Lasmar |last4=Hattab |first5=Slama |last5=Hmida |date=9 March 2018 |title=The Genetic Heterogeneity of Arab Populations as Inferred from HLA Genes |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=13 |issue=3 |article-number=e0192269 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0192269 |pmid=29522542 |pmc=5844529 |bibcode=2018PLoSO..1392269H |doi-access=free}} Quote:"Using genetic distances, correspondence analysis and NJ trees, we showed earlier [61, 62] and in this study that Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese and Jordanians are closely related to each other."</ref>

Agranat-Tamir et al. (2020) stated that Canaanites from the Intermediate Bronze Age (c. 2500–2000 BC) to late Iron Age I (c. 1000 BC) were genetically similar to each other. They lived in modern Israel, Jordan and Lebanon and could be modeled as "a mixture of local earlier [[Neolithic]] populations and populations from the northeastern part of the Near East (i.e. [[Zagros Mountains#History|Zagros Mountains]], [[Ethnic groups in the Caucasus|Caucasians]]/[[Origin of the Armenians|Armenians]] and possibly, [[Hurrians]])". Exceptions include the 2nd millennium BC inhabitants of [[Sidon]], [[Abel-beth-maachah|Abel Beth Maacah]] and [[Ashkelon]], who were relatively heterogenous due to inflow from the eastern [[Mediterranean Basin|Mediterranean basin]]. The inhabitants of Ba'qah in Jordan also have probable admixture from "eastern desert groups". Following the Bronze Age, there was an addition of [[Europeans|European]]-related and [[East Africa]]n-related components, which were represented by [[Neolithic Europe#Genetics|Late Neolithic]] and [[Bronze Age Europe]]ans and [[Somalis]], from a north-south and south-north gradient respectively. The majority of modern Jewish and Levantine Arabic-speaking groups have 50% or more ancestry from peoples who were related to Bronze Age Levantines and Chalcolithic Zagros groups. This does not mean that any of these present-day groups bear direct ancestry from people who lived in the Middle to Late Bronze Age Levant or in Chalcolithic Zagros; rather, it indicates that they have ancestries from populations whose ancient proxy can be related to the Middle East.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Agranat-Tamir|first1=Lily|last2=Waldman|first2=Shamam|last3=Martin|first3=Mario A. S.|last4=Gokhman|first4=David|last5=Mishol|first5=Nadav|last6=Eshel|first6=Tzilla|last7=Cheronet|first7=Olivia|last8=Rohland|first8=Nadin|last9=Mallick|first9=Swapan|last10=Adamski|first10=Nicole|last11=Lawson|first11=Ann Marie|date=28 May 2020|title=The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant|journal=Cell|language=en|volume=181|issue=5|pages=1146–1157.e11|doi=10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.024|pmid=32470400|pmc=10212583 |s2cid=219105441|issn=0092-8674|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Almarri et al. (2021) stated that Levantines and Arabians diverged from each other before the Neolithic period, with Levantines adopting a sedentary agricultural lifestyle. In the Bronze Age, immigrants with ancient Iranian-related ancestry replaced about 50% of the local Levantine ancestry. They were believed to introduce haplogroup [[Haplogroup J (Y-DNA)|J1]], which was not found in earlier Levantines. After the Bronze Age, [[Eastern Hunter-Gatherer|Eastern Hunter Gatherer (EHG)]] ancestry was introduced, along with southeast European and [[Anatolian Neolithic|Anatolian]] ancestry. Anatolian ancestry is significantly higher in modern Levantines than Arabians.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Almarri |first1=Mohamed A. |last2=Haber |first2=Marc |last3=Lootah |first3=Reem A. |last4=Hallast |first4=Pille |display-authors=3 |date=2021 |title=The genomic history of the Middle East |journal=Cell |volume=184 |issue=18 |pages=4612–4625 |doi=10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.013 |pmid=34352227 |pmc=8445022 }}</ref>

Lazaridis et al. (2022) clarified that ancient Levantines and their descendants exhibit a decrease of ~8% local Neolithic ancestry, which is mostly [[Natufian culture|Natufian]], every millennium, starting from the [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic]] to the [[Medieval]] period. It was largely replaced by [[Caucasus hunter-gatherer|Caucasus]]-related and [[Anatolian hunter-gatherers|Anatolian]]-related ancestries, from the north and west respectively. However, despite the decline in the Natufian component, this key ancestry source made an important contribution to peoples of later periods, continuing until the present.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lazaridis |first1=Iosif |last2=Alpaslan-Roodenberg |first2=Songül |last3=Acar |first3=Ayşe |last4=Açıkkol |first4=Ayşen |display-authors=3 |date=2022 |title=Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia |journal=Science |volume=377 |issue=6609 |pages=982–987 |doi=10.1126/science.abq0762 |pmid=36007054 |pmc=9983685 |bibcode=2022Sci...377..982L }}</ref>
[[File:A map of Canaan (8343807206).jpg|thumb|A 1692 map of Canaan, by [[Philip Lea]]]]

== 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 [[Book of Joshua|Joshua]] and [[Book of Judges|Judges]].<ref name="Killebrew 2005 96">{{harvnb|Killebrew|2005|p=96}}</ref>

They descended from [[Canaan (son of Ham)|Canaan]], who was the son of [[Ham (son of Noah)|Ham]] and the grandson of [[Noah]]. Canaan was [[Curse of Ham|cursed with perpetual slavery]] because his father Ham 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 of castrating or raping his father or maternal incest.{{sfn|Goldenberg|2005|p=258}}<ref name="Stiebert2016">{{cite book |author=Johanna Stiebert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cUDqDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 |title=First-Degree Incest and the Hebrew Bible: Sex in the Family |date=20 October 2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-567-26631-6 |pages=106–108 |access-date=5 November 2018 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429062510/https://books.google.com/books?id=cUDqDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA106#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> However, some believe that ''Canaan'' was the perpetrator of the crime, based on the surrounding verses.<ref name="Kugel_1998_223">{{Cite book |last=Kugel |first=James L. |title=Traditions of the Bible |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QUkaVq_GlJUC&pg=PA222 |isbn=978-0-674-79151-0 |page=223}}</ref>

According to the [[Table of Nations]], Canaan was also the ancestor of other nations, which were collectively considered to be Canaanite:
{{blockquote|Canaan is the father of [[Sidon#Biblical Sidon|Sidon]], his firstborn; and of the [[Biblical Hittites|Hittites]], [[Jebusite]]s, [[Amorite]]s, [[List of minor biblical tribes#Girgashites|Girgashites]], [[Hivite]]s, [[Arqa|Arkites]], [[List of minor biblical tribes#Sinites|Sinites]], [[List of minor biblical tribes#Arvadites|Arvadites]], [[List of minor biblical tribes#Zemarites|Zemarites]], and [[List of minor biblical tribes#Hamathites|Hamathites]]. Later the Canaanite clans scattered, and the borders of Canaan reached [across the Mediterranean coast] from [[Sidon]] toward [[Gerar]] as far as [[Gaza City|Gaza]], and then [inland around the [[Jordan Valley (Middle East)|Jordan Valley]] ] toward [[Sodom and Gomorrah|Sodom, Gomorrah]], [[Admah]] and [[Zeboim (Hebrew Bible)|Zeboiim]], as far as [[Lasha]].|{{bibleverse|Genesis|10:15–19|NIV}}}}

Other passages in the Bible offer different lists of the exact names of the Canaanite tribes. For example, {{bibleverse|Genesis|15:19-21|}} lists the [[Kenites]], [[Kenizzites]], [[Kadmonites]], [[Biblical Hittites|Hittites]], [[Perizzites]], [[Rephaim]], [[Amorites]], Canaanites, [[Girgashites]], and [[Jebusites]]. In contrast, {{bibleverse|Exodus|3:8|}} only lists the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. How those other Biblical lists of Canaanite tribes agree with the genealogical listing of [[Canaan (son of Ham)|Canaan]]'s sons has been subject to much discussion. It has further been argued that the Biblical term Canaanite is actually [[synecdoche]], referring to both the broader Canaanite nation and to a specific Canaanite tribe within that nation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Klein |first=Reuven Chaim (Rudolph) |date= |title=Nations and Super-Nations of Canaan |url=https://tobias-lib.ub.uni-tuebingen.de/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10900/148214/jbq_462_kleincanaan.pdf |journal=Jewish Bible Quarterly | issn=0792-3910 |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=73–85}}</ref>

[[Ann E. Killebrew]] states that the biblical ethnogenesis of Canaan is problematic, because there is archaeological and linguistic evidence that suggests that the ancient Israelites were largely Canaanites themselves.<ref name="Killebrew 2005 96" /> In particular, they were a subset of Canaanite culture.<ref name="JonTubb" /><ref name="MarkSmith" /> Alternatively, other scholars have suggested that the Israelites originated from the [[Shasu]] and other seminomadic peoples from the desert regions south of the [[Levant]], only later settling in the highlands of Canaan.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Hebrew Bible: New Insights and Scholarship |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=inRKaf_To5sC&pg=PA11 |last=Rendsburg |first=Gary |year=2008 |chapter=Israel without the Bible |editor-first=Frederick E. |editor-last=Greenspahn |publisher=NYU Press |pages=11–12 |isbn=978-0-8147-3187-1 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title="An Excellent Fortress for His Armies, a Refuge for the People": Egyptological, Archaeological, and Biblical Studies in Honor of James K. Hoffmeier |last=Rendsburg |first=Gary A. |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-57506-994-4 |pages=327–339 |editor-last=Averbeck |editor-first=Richard E. |chapter=Israelite Origins |editor-last2=Younger (Jr.) |editor-first2=K. Lawson |chapter-url=https://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/docman/rendsburg/845-israelite-origins-hoffmeier-fs-1 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Oxford History of the Holy Land |last=Faust |first=Avraham |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-0-19-288686-6 |editor-last=Hoyland |editor-first=Robert G. |pages=22–25 |chapter=The Birth of Israel |editor-last2=Williamson |editor-first2=H. G. M. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yxi2EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA22}}</ref> It has been also suggested that the Hamitic origin myth could be a reference to Canaan's colonization by the Egyptians in the Late Bronze Age, who were Hamites according to the Hebrew Bible.<ref name="Redford" />{{rp|45}}

Volkmar Fritz argues that there are also dissimilarities in the material culture of the early Israelites and Canaanites, suggesting that the [[Israelite highland settlement|new settlers]] were unrelated to the former inhabitants of the Canaanite cities. While Fritz agrees that there are some similarities between the two cultures, he argues that this resulted from close contact between them over a long period. In his view, cultural similarities developed when nomadic Israelites entered the land and gradually formed close economic relationships with Canaanites. The Israelites eventually became self-sufficient in the highlands but retained aspects of the shared Canaanite material culture.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fritz |first=Volkmar |title=The Emergence of Israel in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries B.C.E. |date=2011 |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |isbn=978-1-58983-262-6 |pages=135–38}}</ref>

Biblical scholar David Frankel argues that a narrative in the [[Books of Chronicles]] tenuously indicates the historical reality of Israel's ethnogenesis. In his view, the text makes reference to an established Israelite presence in Canaan before Joshua's conquest, which primarily consisted of [[Ephraimites]].<ref name="Frankel">{{Cite web |last=Frankel |first=David |date=8 April 2015 |title=The Book of Chronicles and the Ephraimites that Never Went to Egypt |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-book-of-chronicles-and-the-ephraimites-that-never-went-to-egypt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207090032/https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-book-of-chronicles-and-the-ephraimites-that-never-went-to-egypt |archive-date=7 February 2024 |website=TheTorah.com}}</ref>

According to the Hebrew Bible, Canaan was located to the west of the [[Jordan River]]. The Canaanites were described as living "by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan" ([[Book of Numbers]] 13:29)<ref>{{bibleverse|Numbers|13:29|HE}}</ref> and "around Jordan" ([[Book of Joshua]] 22:9).<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|22:9|HE}}</ref> More specifically, they inhabited the Mediterranean coastlands ({{bibleverse|Joshua|5:1|NIV}}), including [[Lebanon]] corresponding to Phoenicia ({{bibleverse|Isaiah|23:11|NIV}}) and the [[Gaza Strip]] corresponding to [[Philistia]] ({{bibleverse|Zephaniah|2:5|NIV}}) and the [[Jordan Valley (Middle East)|Jordan Valley]] ({{bibleverse|Joshua|11:3|NIV}}, {{bibleverse|Numbers|13:29|NIV}}, {{bibleverse|Genesis|13:12|NIV}}). Numbers 34:3–12 provide even more [[Promised Land|specific boundaries]], which covered territory that was considered to be "small" by ancient standards.<ref>{{cite book |last=Munk |first=Salomon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02EOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA2 |title=Palestine: Description géographique, historique et archéologique |publisher=F. Didot |year=1845 |pages=2–3 |language=fr |quote=Sous le nom de ''Palestine'', nous comprenons le petit pays habité autrefois par les Israélites, et qui aujourd'hui fait partie des pachalics d'Acre et de Damas. Il s'étendait entre le 31 et 33° degré latitude N. et entre le 32 et 35° degré longitude E., sur une superficie d'environ 1300 lieues carrées. Quelques écrivains jaloux de donner au pays des Hébreux une certaine importance politique, ont exagéré l'étendue de la Palestine; mais nous avons pour nous une autorité que l'on ne saurait récuser. Saint Jérôme, qui avait longtemps voyagé dans cette contrée, dit dans sa lettre à Dardanus (ep. 129) que de la limite du nord jusqu'à celle du midi il n'y avait qu'une distance de 160 milles romains, ce qui fait environ 55 lieues. Il rend cet hommage à la vérité bien qu'il craigne, comme il le dit lui-même de livrer par la ''terre promise'' aux sarcasmes païens. (Pudet dicere latitudinem terrae repromissionis, ne ethnicis occasionem blasphemandi dedisse uideamur) |author-link=Salomon Munk}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Munk |first1=Salomon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbRUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP1 |title=Palästina: geographische, historische und archäologische Beschreibung dieses Landes und kurze Geschichte seiner hebräischen und jüdischen Bewohner |last2=Levy |first2=Moritz A. |publisher=Leiner |year=1871 |page=1 |language=de |author-link1=Salomon Munk |author-link2=Moritz Abraham Levy}}</ref>

[[John N. Oswalt]] observes that "Canaan consists of the land west of the [[Jordan River|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".<ref>{{cite book |first=John N. |last=Oswalt |chapter=<big>כנען</big> |editor1-first=R. Laird |editor1-last=Harris |editor2-first=Gleason L. |editor2-last=Archer |editor3-first=Bruce K. |editor3-last=Waltke |title=Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/theologicalwordb01harr |chapter-url-access=registration |location=Chicago |publisher=Moody |year=1980 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/theologicalwordb01harr/page/445 445–446]|isbn=978-0-8024-8631-8 }}</ref>

Whilst the inhabitants of Canaan are called Canaanites, they are also called [[Amorites]], similar to the citizens of the multi-ethnic Soviet Union being called Russian, and [[Biblical Hittites|Hethites/Hittites]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Levin |first=Yigal |date=8 October 2013 |title=Who Was Living in the Land When Abraham Arrived? |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/who-was-living-in-the-land-when-abraham-arrived |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240128041317/https://www.thetorah.com/article/who-was-living-in-the-land-when-abraham-arrived |archive-date=28 January 2024 |website=TheTorah.com}}</ref> [[Abraham]], the ancestor of the Israelites, was most likely an Amorite-Aramean, according to some early theories.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Paton |first=Lewis Bayles |date=1915 |title=Archaeology and the Book of Genesis |journal=The Biblical World |volume=45 |issue=6 |pages=353–361 |doi=10.1086/475296 |jstor=3142695 }}</ref>

====Conquest of Canaan====
{{Further|Deuteronomist#Deuteronomistic history|Seven Nations (Bible)}}

[[Yahweh]] promises the land of Canaan to [[Abraham]] in the [[Book of Genesis]] and eventually delivers it to [[Abraham's family tree|descendants of Abraham]], the [[Israelites]]. The Hebrew Bible describes the Israelite [[Book of Joshua#Entry into the land and conquest .28chapters 2.E2.80.9312.29|conquest of Canaan]] in the "[[Nevi'im#Former Prophets|Former Prophets]]" ({{transliteration|hbo|Nevi'im Rishonim}}, {{Script/Hebrew|נביאים ראשונים}}), viz. the books of [[Book of Joshua|Joshua]], [[Book of Judges|Judges]], [[Books of Samuel|Samuel]], and [[Books of Kings|Kings]]. These books give the narrative of the Israelites after the death of [[Moses]] and their entry into Canaan under the leadership of [[Joshua]].<ref>The Making of the Old Testament Canon. by Lou H. Silberman, The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible. Abingdon Press&nbsp;– Nashville 1971–1991, p1209</ref> The renaming of the [[Land of Canaan]] as the [[Land of Israel]] marks the [[Israelites|Israelite]] [[Book of Joshua#Entry into the land and conquest .28chapters 2.E2.80.9312.29|conquest]] of the [[Promised Land]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Land of Israel: National Home Or Land of Destiny |first=Eliezer |last=Schweid |translator-first=Deborah |translator-last=Greniman |year=1985 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |isbn=978-0-8386-3234-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/landofisraelnati00schw/page/16 16–17] |quote=... let us begin by examining the kinds of assertions about the land of Israel that we encounter in {{as written|pe|rsuing [sic]}} the books of the Bible. ... A third kind of assertion deals with the history of the Land of Israel. Before its settlement by the Israelite tribes, it is called The Land of Canaan |url=https://archive.org/details/landofisraelnati00schw/page/16 }}</ref>

The Canaanites ({{Hebrew Name|כנענים|Kna'anim|Kənaʻănîm}}) are said to have been one of seven "nations" driven out by the [[Israelites]] following [[the Exodus]]. The other nations were the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the [[Perizzites]], the [[Hivites]], and the [[Jebusites]] ({{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|7:1|NIV}}). One of the [[613 commandments]] prescribes that no inhabitants of the cities of six Canaanite nations, the same as mentioned in 7:1, minus the [[List of minor biblical tribes#G|Girgashites]], were to be left alive. ({{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|20:16|NIV}}).

==== Kingdom of Israel and Judah ====
After the Israelite conquest of Canaan, Canaan existed as a [[kritarchy]] and later, a monarchy.<ref>{{cite encyclopaedia |last1=Zettler |first1=Howard G. |encyclopaedia=-Ologies and -isms: a thematic dictionary |article=kritarchy |publisher=[[Gale Research Company]] |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-8103-1014-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ologiesismsthema0000unse |language=en |page=84}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Hellweg |first1=Paul |encyclopedia=The Wordsworth Book of Intriguing Words |article=kritarchy |series=Wordsworth reference |publisher=Wordsworth |year=1993 |isbn=978-1-85326-312-5 |language=en |page=71}}</ref> Under the Israelite monarchy, the Israelite tribes were united as [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|one kingdom]]. However, it split into the [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Kingdom of Israel]] and the [[Kingdom of Judah]].<ref>{{cite web |title=1 Kings 12 NIV |via= Bible Gateway |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%2012&version=NIV |access-date=8 February 2024 |archive-date=8 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208091814/https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%2012&version=NIV |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 738 BC, the [[Neo-Assyrian empire]] conquered the Kingdom of Israel. In 586&nbsp;BC, the Kingdom of Judah was annexed into the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]]. The city of [[Jerusalem]] fell after [[Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC)|a siege]] which lasted either eighteen or thirty months.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Malamat |first1=Abraham |title=The Last Kings of Judah and the Fall of Jerusalem: An Historical—Chronological Study |journal=Israel Exploration Journal |year=1968 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=137–156 |jstor=27925138 |quote=The discrepancy between the length of the siege according to the regnal years of Zedekiah (years 9-11), on the one hand, and its length according to Jehoiachin's exile (years 9–12), on the other, can be cancelled out only by supposing the former to have been reckoned on a Tishri basis, and the latter on a Nisan basis. The difference of one year between the two is accounted for by the fact that the termination of the siege fell in the summer, between Nisan and Tishri, already in the 12th year according to the reckoning in Ezekiel, but still in Zedekiah's 11th year which was to end only in Tishri.}}</ref> By 586 BC, much of Judah was devastated, and the former kingdom suffered a steep decline of both economy and population.<ref name="Grabbe2004">{{cite book |last=Grabbe |first=Lester L. |author-link=Lester L. Grabbe |title=A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period |publisher=T&T Clark International |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VK2fEzruIn0C |volume=1 |isbn=978-0-567-08998-4 |page=28 |access-date=9 October 2018 |archive-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701141234/https://books.google.com/books?id=VK2fEzruIn0C |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Significant figures ====
;Characters in the Hebrew Bible
{{columns-list|
* [[Canaan, son of Ham]] (Gen. 10:6)
* [[Sidon]], firstborn son of Canaan (Gen. 10:15)
* [[Heth]], son of Canaan (Gen. 10:15)
* [[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, Canaan|Eglon]] (Josh. 10:3)
* [[Jabin]], name of two kings of [[Tel Hazor|Hazor]] (Josh. 11:1; Judges 5:6)
}}

=== New Testament ===
"Canaan" ({{langx|grc|Χανάαν|Khanáan}})<ref name="GreekName" /> is used only twice in the New Testament: both times in [[Acts of the Apostles]] when paraphrasing [[Old Testament]] stories.<ref>{{Bibleverse|Acts|7:11}} and {{Bibleverse|Acts|13:19}}</ref> Additionally, the derivative {{transliteration|grc|"Khananaia"}} ({{lang|grc|Χαναναία}}, "Canaanite woman") is used in [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew's]] version of the [[exorcism of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter]], while the [[Gospel of Mark]] uses the term {{transliteration|grc|"Syrophoenician"}} ({{lang|grc|Συροφοινίκισσα}}). It is implied that the New Testament authors considered all non-Jewish inhabitants in the northern coastlines of Canaan to be Canaanite.<ref>{{cite book |last=Doak |first=Brian R. |title=Ancient Israel's Neighbors |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-069063-2 |page=46}}</ref>

In the King James Version of the Bible one of the disciples is known as Simon the Canaanite.<ref>{{Bibleverse|Matthew|10:4}} and {{Bibleverse|Mark|3:18}}</ref>

===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]] 40:30, or [[Book of Proverbs]] 31:24.<ref>[[Wilhelm Gesenius]], ''Hebrew Dictionary'' [http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H3669&t=KJV "Strong's H3669 – kᵊnaʿănî"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028202638/http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H3669&t=KJV |date=28 October 2010 }}</ref>

The name "Canaanites" is attested as the [[Exonym and endonym|endonym]] of the people later known to the [[Ancient Greeks]] from {{circa|500}} BC as Phoenicians,<ref name="Drews4849" /> and following the emigration of Canaanite-speakers to [[Carthage]] (founded in the 9th century BC), was also used as a self-designation by the [[Punics]] (''chanani'') of North Africa during [[Late Antiquity]].

The [[Septuagint]] (3rd and 2nd century BC) mostly renders Canaan as Χαναάν (Khanaan), but on two occasions as "Phoenicia" ([[Book of Exodus|Exod]] 16:35 and [[Book of Joshua|Josh]] 5:12).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/C/canaan-canaanites.html|title=Canaan; Canaanites in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.|website=International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online|access-date=15 September 2022|archive-date=15 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220915231138/https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/C/canaan-canaanites.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
"Canaan" is used as a synonym of the [[Promised Land]]; for instance, it is used in this sense in the hymn "Canaan's Happy Shore", with the [[Line (poetry)|line]]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]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stauffer |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bIRQpD3HNSAC&pg=PA23 |title=The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song That Marches On |last2=Soskis |first2=Benjamin |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-933958-7 |access-date=7 February 2024 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429062445/https://books.google.com/books?id=bIRQpD3HNSAC&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 1930s and 1940s, some [[Revisionist Zionism|Revisionist Zionist]] intellectuals in [[Mandatory Palestine]] founded the ideology of [[Canaanism]], which sought to create a unique Hebrew identity, rooted in ancient Canaanite culture, rather than a Jewish one.<ref name="Kuzar 12">Kuzar 12</ref>

Israeli Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]] observed the contradictions between the secular and biblical records of Jewish indigeneity to Canaan, which was nonetheless affirmed in the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]]. Whilst he used secular arguments to justify Jewish indigeneity, he argued that the biblical narrative of Abraham migrating to Canaan was a "reunion with indigenous Hebrews who shared his theological belief". He also argued that not all Hebrews joined [[Jacob]]'s family when they migrated to Egypt and later, birthed the generation of the Hebrews that endured the [[The Exodus|Exodus]].<ref name="Wazana">{{Cite web |last=Wazana |first=Nili |date=15 April 2018 |title=Israel's Declaration of Independence and the Biblical Right to the Land |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/israels-declaration-of-independence-and-the-biblical-right-to-the-land |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207091222/https://www.thetorah.com/article/israels-declaration-of-independence-and-the-biblical-right-to-the-land |archive-date=7 February 2024 |website=TheTorah.com}}</ref> Some professors find this view tenable, based on {{Bibleverse|1 Chronicles|7:20-24}}, which preserved heterodox traditions of Jewish indigeneity.<ref name="Frankel"/><ref name="Wazana"/>

== See also ==
* [[Amarna letters–localities and their rulers]]
* [[Archaeology of Israel]]
* [[Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions]]
* [[Canaanite gate of ancient Tell]]
* [[Canaanite shift]]
* [[Curse of Ham#Curse of Canaan|Curse of Canaan]]
* [[Names of the Levant]]
* [[Proto-Canaanite alphabet]]
* [[Knanaya]]
* [[Ugarit]]
* [[Southern Levant]]
* [[Yahwism]]

==Notes==
{{notelist-lr}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Canaan, Canaanites|volume=5|pages=140–142|first=Thomas Kelly|last=Cheyne|author-link=Thomas Kelly Cheyne}}
* {{cite journal|last=Drews|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Drews|title=Canaanites and Philistines|journal= Journal for the Study of the Old Testament|volume= 23|year=1998|issue=81|pages=39–61|doi=10.1177/030908929802308104|s2cid=144074940}}
* {{cite encyclopedia| title = Encyclopedia of Prehistory: Volume 8: South and Southwest Asia
 | edition =
 | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Prehistory
 | editor1-last = Ember | editor1-first = Melvin | editor1-link = Melvin Ember
 | editor2-last = Peregrine | editor2-first = Peter Neal | editor2-link = Peter N. Peregrine
 | year = 2002
 | publisher = New York; London: Kluwer Academic/Plenum
 | volume = 8: South and Southwest Asia | page = 103
 | isbn = 0-306-46262-1
}}
* {{cite book
| last1       = Golden
| first1      = Jonathan M.
| title       = Ancient Canaan and Israel: An Introduction
| year       = 2009
| publisher  = Oxford University Press
| isbn       =978-0-19-537985-3
| url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=o1-PHIGNcyQC&q=Ancient+Canaan+and+Israel
}}
* {{cite book |last=Goldenberg |first=David M. |editor1-last=Stemberger |editor1-first=Günter |editor2-last=Perani |editor2-first=Mauro |title=The Words of a Wise Man's Mouth Are Gracious |chapter=What did Ham do to Noah? |year=2005 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn= 978-3-11-018849-3|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4cr-mix9kMgC}}
* {{cite book
| last1       = Killebrew
| first1      = Ann E.
| title       = Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity
| year       = 2005
| publisher  = SBL
| isbn       =978-1-58983-097-4
| url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=VtAmmwapfVAC&q=Biblical+peoples+and+ethnicity:+an+archaeological
}}
* {{cite book
| last1       = Lemche
| first1      = Niels-Peter
| title       = The Canaanites and their Land: The Tradition of the Canaanites
| year       = 1991
| publisher  = Continuum
| isbn       =978-0-567-45111-8
| url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=cVuNKseq23oC&q=The+Canaanites+and+Their+Land
}}
* {{cite book
| last1       = Na'aman
| first1      = Nadav
| title       = Canaan in the 2nd Millennium BC
| year       = 2005
| publisher  = Eisenbrauns
| isbn       =978-1-57506-113-9
| url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=HmTOoQmf23AC&q=Canaan+in+the+2nd+millennium+B.C.E.
}}
* {{cite book
| last1       = Noll
| first1      = K.L.
| title       = Canaan and Israel in Antiquity: An Introduction
| year       = 2001
| publisher  = Continuum
| isbn       =978-1-84127-318-1
| url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=2rnyjxLHy-QC&q=The+Canaanites+and+Their+Land&pg=PA21
}}
* {{cite book
 | title = Palestine: A Guide
 | last = Shahin
 | first = Mariam
 | year = 2005
 | publisher = Interlink Books
 | url = https://archive.org/details/palestine00mari
 | via = [[Internet Archive]]
 | isbn = 1-56656-557-X
 }}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book
| last1       = Bishop Moore
| first1      = Megan
| last2       = Kelle
| first2      = Brad E.
| title       = Biblical History and Israel's Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History
| year       = 2011
| publisher  = Eerdmans
| isbn       =978-0-8028-6260-0
| url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=Qjkz_8EMoaUC&q=Biblical+history+and+Israel%27s+past
}}
* {{cite book |last1=Buck |first1=Mary Ellen |title=The Canaanites: Their History and Culture from Texts and Artifacts |date=2019 |publisher=Cascade Books |isbn=978-1-5326-1804-8 |pages=114}}
* {{cite book
| last1       = Coogan
| first1      = Michael D.
| title       = Stories from Ancient Canaan
| year       = 1978
| publisher  = Westminster Press
| isbn       = 978-0-8061-3108-5
| url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=1q2TzqnFWqQC&q=Stories+from+Ancient+Canaan
}}
* {{cite book
| last1       = Day
| first1      = John
| title       = Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan
| year       = 2002
| publisher  = Continuum
| isbn       =978-0-8264-6830-7
| url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=y-gfwlltlRwC&q=Canaan
}}
* {{cite book
| last1       = Finkelstein
| first1      = Israel
| author-link  = Israel Finkelstein
| title       = The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-First Century
| chapter     = Towards a New Periodization and Nomenclature of the Archaeology of the Southern Levant
| editor1-last       = Cooper
| editor1-first      = Jerrold S.
| editor2-last       = Schwartz
| editor2-first      = Glenn M.
| year       = 1996
| publisher  = Eisenbrauns
| isbn       =978-0-931464-96-6
| chapter-url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=3hc1Yp0VcjoC&q=Towards+a+new+periodization+and+nomenclature+of+the+archaeology+of+the+southern+levant&pg=PA103
}}
* {{cite book
| last1       = Smith
| first1      = Mark S.
| title       = The Early History of God
| year       = 2002
| publisher  = Eerdmans
| isbn       =978-90-04-11943-7
| url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=RwrrUuHFb6UC&q=Early+History+of+the+Israelite+People
}}
* {{cite book
| last1       = Tubb
| first1      = Jonathan N.
| title       = Canaanites
| year       = 1998
| publisher  = University of Oklahoma Press
| isbn       = 978-0-8061-3108-5
| url        = https://archive.org/details/canaanites00tubb
| url-access  = registration
| page       = [https://archive.org/details/canaanites00tubb/page/40 40]
| quote       = The Canaanites and Their Land.
}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links}}
* [http://www.penn.museum/sites/Canaan/index.html 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.
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03569b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia].
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2848/2848-h/2848-h.htm Antiquities of the Jews] by Flavius Josephus.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110519195012/http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/canaanites-and-philistines.asp When Canaanites and Philistines Ruled Ashkelon] – Biblical Archaeology Society (archived 19 May 2011)

{{Ancient states and regions of the Levant |state=collapsed}}
{{Characters and names in the Quran}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Coord|33|0|N|35|30|E|source:wikidata_region:IL_dim:200000|display=title}}
[[Category:Canaan| ]]
[[Category:Amarna letters locations]]
[[Category:Ancient history of Jordan]]
[[Category:Land of Israel]]
[[Category:Hebrew Bible places]]
[[Category:Ancient Jewish settlements]]