"Land of Canaan" is one of those phrases that are often found in the Holy Scriptures. It says that the God Yahweh promised her "as an 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 who inhabited it will be described in the article.
West of the Fertile Crescent
This is where the sacred ground is located. The Fertile Crescent is conventionally called a region located in the Middle East, where a large amount of precipitation falls in winter. The name of the area was given because of its shape, which on the map resembles a crescent moon, and also because of the presence of rich soil.
The territory includes Mesopotamia and the Levant. The latter includes historical Palestine and Syria. Now there 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 for the emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding, which appeared instone age. The oldest urban cultures of the world also arose here. In 4-1 millennia BC. e. almost a tenth of the world's population lived here. Along with the Nile Valley, where Ancient Egypt was located, the Crescent is regarded as the cradle of human civilization.
The word "Canaan" supposedly means "land of purple". So in ancient times they called Phoenicia. And in Biblical times, this name meant a country located west of the Euphrates (its northwestern 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 various peoples of West Semitic origin. We are talking about the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Jebusites. The Hittites, belonging to the Indo-Europeans, also lived here. There were many city-states and kingdoms in this territory, which were constantly at enmity with each other.
Located between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the land of Canaan, on the one hand, was in the very center of the ancient Eastern civilization, on the other, was constantly subjected to external invasions.
Its inhabitants for the first time in the ancient world began to extract purple from shellfish, which was used to dye fabrics. The Phoenicians, who were natives of this land, were the founders of multiple colonies located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Carthage was among them.
Canaan is also famous for being the birthplace of the alphabet, which originated fromProto-Sinaitic writing and subsequently became the basis of Greek and Latin writing.
Conquest of territory
It is in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Canaan was conquered by the Jewish, or rather, Semitic-Hamitic tribes. Troops led by Joshua entered many of the cities. Among them are Bethel, Jericho, Ai. As the Bible says, some of the tribes that lived in the conquered lands were completely destroyed, some, resigned to defeat, continued to live among the conquerors.
The appearance of the Philistines on the land of Canaan, who were a sea people, contributed to the emergence of a new name for this area - Palestine. The largest state formation that was present in this territory was the unification of Israel and Judea. It existed here approximately in 1029-928. BC when Saul, David and Solomon reigned.
Business activities
The main occupation of the people who lived on the coast is trade. She was such an important part of the life of the Canaanites that the very word "Canaanite" became a household word and in Hebrew meant "merchant".
On the coast of what is now Lebanon, the main ports of Canaan were previously located. These are Tire, Sidon, Beirut and Byblos. From here goods were transported to Greece, to Crete, to Egypt. These were mainly cedar wood, wine, olive oil, luxury items, Egyptian papyrus, Greek metalwork and pottery. One of the important articles in the economyof the Canaanites 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 attacks by robbers.
Houses in the city clung to each other. The plots of ordinary people were small, they mastered various crafts on them. Some were employees of the king, we althy landowners or merchants. Between the cities there were villages where shepherds and farmers lived.
The rulers of urban entities were often at war with each other. Cities were often attacked by gangs of robbers hiding in the forests.
This was the state of affairs in the land of Canaan around 1360 BC. e. Evidence of this are the documents that were found during excavations in Egypt, near the city of El-Amarna. And such biblical books as Joshua and Judges allow us to believe that after 100-200 years the circumstances were the same. The internecine wars of the Canaanites greatly facilitated the conquest of the country by the Israelites. If Canaan were united, it would be much more difficult to take possession of it.
In conclusion, it is worth mentioning the description of the land of Canaan by Asimov. A prominent American science fiction writer of Russian origin, popularizer of science, touched on this topic in his work. Isaac Asimov's book The Land of Canaan. Motherland of Judaism and Christianity. Based on documentary sources, data from archaeological research and analysis of ancient sources, the author has recreated an objective and detailed picture of the emergence andthe disappearance of empires, described many wars and the birth of two Abrahamic religions.
