General Non-Fiction posted February 1, 2022 Chapters:  ...15 16 -17- 18... 


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The geopolitical importance of Canaan

A chapter in the book Sea Of Galilee

Sea Of Galilee #17

by Brett Matthew West


Canaan was a Semitic-speaking civilization of the Ancient Near East (now most of the Modern Middle East) during the later portion of the years 2000BC to 1001BC.

Canaan held significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna Period (Egyptian history) of the 14th Century BC.

This was where the Hittites of Anatolia, Assyrian, Mitanni (Northern Syria and southwest Anatolia), and Egyptian empires overlapped or converged.

Most of the Modern Day knowledge of Canaan comes from archaeological excavations in sites such as:

En Esur - (Northern Sharon Plain, the coastal plain of Israel). Song of Songs 2:1 mentions the "Rose of Sharon." Isaiah 33:9, 35:2, 65:10, and 1 Chronicles 5:16 and 27:29 all mention the Plain of Sharon.

Tel Miggido - in Northern Israel that guarded an important trade route on the Via Maris.

Tel Hazar - north of the Sea of Galilee. Joshua 11:10 depicts Tel Hazar as "The Head of all those kingoms." Tel Hazar is the largest archaeological site in Northern israel.

Gezer - in the foothills of the Judean Mountains, midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, on the ancient coastal trade routes.

In the Bible, Canaan refers mainly to the Land of Israel, Phoenicia (eastern Mediterranean), and Philistia (the home of the Philistines from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt to Tel Aviv, Israel).

Canaanites were a mixture of settled and nomadic-pastoral indigenous populations, and the most frequently used ethnic term in the Bible. The Book of Joshua listed the Canaanites as a nation the Israelites were to exterminate.

Some biblical scholars state, "The Israelite cultural largely overlapped with, and derived from, Canaanite culture."

The name Canaanites was known to the Ancient Greeks as the geographical people known as the Phoenicians. During Late Antiquity, the North African Punics in the Western Mediterranean self-designated as Phoenicians, particularly in Ancient Carthage of the 9th Century BC.

The name Canaan derived from the Hebrew, Koine Greek (Biblical Greek), and Latin. One interpretation of the name means "lowlands." Another is "subjugated."

Ephraim Avigdor Speiser, a Jewish-Polish American Assyriologist, discovered the Ancient site of Tepe Gawra in 1927. This find was located fifteen miles NNE of Mosul in northwest Iraq, about a mile from Nineveh on the eastern bank of the Tigris River.

Speiser claimed "Canaan" meant the color purple (which made Phoenicia and Canaan the same; the "Land of Purple," mostly because of the dyes and textiles Canaan was famous for.)

Canaan experienced:

-Prehistory - Stone Age of hunter-gatherers from 4500BC to 3500BC

-Chalcalithic Age of metal workers and farmers from 3500BC to 2000BC

-Middle Bronze Age of city-states from 2000BC to 1550BC

-Late Bronze Age of Egyptian dominence from 1550BC to 1200BC

After the Bronze Age, Canaan was ruled by Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. These different ages of Canaanite culture led to the First Agricultural Revolution in the eastern Mediterranean region.

Next Time - Sea Of Galilee #18: Canaan's Calcolithic Ghassulian Culture






An Egyptian Sun King, by Brendaartwork18, selected to complement my posting.

So, thanks Brendaartwork18, for the use of your picture. It goes so nicely with my posting.
Pays one point and 2 member cents.

Artwork by Brendaartwork18 at FanArtReview.com

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