“The land of Canaan” is one of those phrases that are often found in the Holy Scriptures. It says that God Yahweh promised her "for inheritance" to the sons of Israel. It is also known as the "Promised Land." About where it is the land of Canaan, about its history and the peoples inhabiting it will be described in the article.
In the West of the Fertile Crescent
This is where the sacred land is located. A fertile crescent moon is conventionally called a region located in the Middle East, where a large amount of rainfall occurs in winter. The name of the area was given because of its shape, which resembles a crescent on the map, and also because of the presence of rich soil here.
The territory includes Mesopotamia and the Levant. The latter includes historical Palestine and Syria. Now here are Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Iraq, parts of Turkey, Iran, Jordan.
Cradle of civilization
This place is very significant for the development of civilization. The fertile crescent is one of the first centers of the origin of agriculture and animal husbandry that appeared in the Stone Age. Also here the oldest urban cultures of the world arose. In 4-1 millennia BC e. almost a tenth of the population of the whole Earth lived here. Along with the Nile Valley, where Ancient Egypt was located, the Crescent Moon is seen as the cradle of human civilization.
The word "Canaan," presumably means "the land of purple." So in ancient times they called Phenicia. And in Bible time, this name meant a country located west of the Euphrates (its north-western bend) and the Jordan River and stretching to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Today this territory is divided between several states, including Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan.
Ancient history
In ancient times, Canaan was inhabited by different peoples of West Semitic origin. We are talking about the Canaanites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. The Hittites of the Indo-Europeans also lived here. On this territory there were many city-states and kingdoms that were constantly at enmity with each other.
Located between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the land of Canaan, on the one hand, was located in the very center of ancient Eastern civilization, on the other, it was constantly subjected to external invasions.
For the first time in the ancient world, its inhabitants began to extract purple from mollusks, which dyed fabrics. The Phoenicians, who came from this land, were the founders of the many colonies located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. These included Carthage.
Canaan is also known for the fact that it is he who is the birthplace of the alphabet, which came from the Protosinai script and subsequently became the basis of Greek and Latin scripts.
Conquest of territory
His in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Canaan was conquered by Jewish, or rather, Semitic-Hamitic tribes. Troops led by Joshua entered many of the cities. Among them are such as Bethel, Jericho, Ay. According to the Bible, some of the tribes that lived on the conquered lands were completely destroyed, some, resigned to defeat, continued to live among the conquerors.
The appearance of the Canaanite Philistines, who were the sea people, contributed to the emergence of a new name for this area - Palestine. The largest state entity present in this territory was the unification of Israel and Judea. It existed here around 1029–928. BC e., when Saul, David and Solomon reigned.
Economic activity
The main occupation of people living on the coast is trade. It was such an important component of the life of the Canaanites that the word "Canaanites" became a household word and in Hebrew meant "merchant".
The main ports of Canaan were previously located on the coast of present Lebanon. We are talking about Tire, Sidon, Beirut and the Bible. Goods were brought from here to Greece, Crete, and Egypt. These were mainly cedar wood, wine, olive oil, luxury goods, Egyptian papyrus, Greek metal and pottery. One of the important articles in the Canaanite household was the slave trade.
City life
Cities in Canaan were surrounded by walls made of stones and clay. They were protection from wild animals and robber attacks.
Houses in the city were sculpted one to another. Plots of ordinary people were small, they mastered various crafts. Some were wage earners from the king, from wealthy landowners, or from merchants. Between the cities there were villages where shepherds and farmers lived.
The rulers of city formations were often at war with each other. Often, robber gangs hiding in the forests attacked the cities.
This was the state of affairs in the land of Canaan around 1360 BC. e. Evidence of this is the documents that were found during excavations in Egypt, near the city of El Amarna. And such biblical books as Joshua and the Judges allow us to consider that even after 100-200 years the circumstances were the same. The internal wars of the Canaanites greatly facilitated the conquest of the country by the Israelis. If Canaan was one, it would be much more difficult to possess.
In conclusion, it is worth mentioning the description of the land of Canaan by Asimov. A prominent American science fiction writer of Russian origin, a popularizer of science, touched on this topic in his work. This is a book by Isaac Asimov, “The land of Canaan. Homeland of Judaism and Christianity. " Based on documentary sources, archaeological research and analysis of ancient sources, the author recreated an objective and detailed picture of the emergence and disappearance of empires, described many wars and the birth of two Abrahamic religions.