Mary Ellen Buck - The Canaanites: Their History and Culture from Texts and Artifacts

T his volume traces the history of the Canaanites back some five millennia to the Early Bronze Age in the Levant. Since textual sources are unavailable for much of this history, the archaeological periodization of the southern Levant has been used as a way to frame the chronological development of the Canaanites.

AF Altorientalische Forschungen

AFOArchiv fr Orientforschung

ANESAncient Near Eastern Studies

BASORBulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research

EAelAmarna

EB/EBAEarly Bronze Age

GNgeographic name

IB/IBAIntermediate Bronze Age

JAOSJournal of the American Oriental Society

JNESJournal of Near Eastern Studies

JSJournal of Semitics

JSSJournal of Semitic Studies

KTUDie keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani und anderen Orten

LB/LBALate Bronze Age

MB/MBAMiddle Bronze Age

OBOld Babylonian

Phoen.Phoenician

RSRas Shamra

RSORas ShamraOugarit

UFUgaritForschungen

We are the descendants of the Canaanites that lived in the land of Palestine , years ago and continuously remained there to this day. Palestinian Authority Leader Mahmoud Abbas to the United Nations (February 2018 )

And after this, Avraham buried Sara his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah... in the land of Canaan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoting Genesis : at the start of a cabinet meeting (July 2017 )

1.1 Introduction

M odern politicians of the Middle East leverage the terms Canaan and Canaanite as part of their political discourse, indicating the immense impact that ancient history can have on the formation and expression of culture. The term Canaanite will be familiar to anyone who has even the most casual familiarity with the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. The Canaanites feature prominently in the historical narratives of the Hebrew Bible, primarily in the texts of the Pentateuch and Joshua and Judges. Outside of the terminology for Israel itself, the term Canaanite is the most common ethnic descriptor found in the Hebrew Bible, occurring over times, as well as three times in the New Testament, indicating its pervasive importance for the biblical narratives. The land of Canaan is regularly seen as the promised allotment of Abraham and his descendants, beginning when Abraham is called to journey from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land of Canaan in Genesis : and :. Thus, the Canaanites are regularly positioned as the foil of the nation of Israel, until the partial displacement of the Canaanites from the land of Canaan under Joshua (Josh :).

With such prominent positioning in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible as well as the political narratives of the modern Middle East, it is important to gain a more complete and historically accurate perspective of the Canaanites, their land, history, and rich cultural heritage.

So, who were the Canaanites? Where did they live? What did they believe? What do we know about their culture and history? And why do they feature so prominently in the biblical narrative?

Before delving into these questions, let us begin our investigation by examining the meaning of the terms Canaan and Canaanite.

1.2 Who Were the Canaanites?

There is some debate regarding the meaning of the terms Canaan and Canaanite. Michael Astour has claimed that the term Canaan goes back to a Northwest Semitic root (the Northwest Semitic language family includes languages such as Hebrew and Aramaic) kn meaning to be low, referring perhaps to the lowlands or the land of the lowering sun on the western horizon of the Levant.

Regardless of which interpretation should be accepted, it is clear that the term Canaan referred to the land along the coast of the Southern Levant, an area occupied today by Syria, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. The term Canaanite therefore was used to refer to any individual or population residing in this region, beginning as early as the start of the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1800 BCE) until the final appearance of this term in the Roman period (ca. CE). This means that as populations migrated into the region, though they may have retained their unique ethnic identities and cultures, they were often recognized by outside populations as Canaanites or residents of the land of Canaan. The benefit of applying this loose definition to the term Canaanite is the flexibility that this term allows as we trace their history back several thousand years in a single region. While the Canaanites from the third millennium were undoubtedly quite different from those in the first millennium, they shared one thing in commontheir homeland.