The Early Bronze Age in Canaan lasted from approximately 3500BC to about 2000BC. During this time, sites such as Ebla developed. Recorded as the first world power, the ancient Sumarian city of Ebla was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria.

Located south of Aleppo, Ebla shows the Levant was a center of ancient, centralized, civilization equal to Egypt and Mesopotamia. Ebla held power over most of northern and eastern Syria. Upon the destruction of the second rebuild of Ebla, the Amorites settled the area and built the third Ebla.

Ebla was incorporated into the Akkadian Empire of Mesopotaia somewhere around 2300BC. This was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia. Their empire stretched as far south as Dilmun on the Persian Gulf in Saudi Arabia and Magan in Oman. They also settled in what became Bahrain and Qatar. When the Akkadian Empire fell, its people coalesced into Assyria and Babylonia.

Genesis 10:10-12 mentions Accad (Akkadia) as part of Nimrod's kingdom. Nimrod may have been Gilgamesh (the king of Uruk, who became a legend in the Third Dynasty of Ur), or Sargan of Akkad (the first ruler of an empire).

Sumerian references to the "tent dwellers" (Canaanites west of the Euphrates River), dates earlier than Sargan's rule (about 2334BC to 2279BC), and Enshakushanna (the king of Uruk in 2350BC).

Some sources state the earliest king of Canaanite territory was Lugal-Anne-Mundu (perhaps the first empire in recorded history, and the most important king of Adab in Sumer (in the west province of Modern Day Iraq).

Upon the fall of the Akkadian Empire, people from Khirbut Kerch, on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, moved into the area. They were known for their Syro-Palestinian pottery (a plain, less ornate, ceramic). Originally, they arrived from the Zagros Mountains in Modern Day Iran, and the Caucasus region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

The first cities in the southern Levant arose during the Early Bronze Age. These included En Esur and Meggido. They regularly contacted people in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia, including the Assyrians, the Luwians of Modern Day Turkey, the Hittites of Anatolia, the Hurrians of the Near East, and the Hattians of Central Anatolia.

Abandonment of their cities, a return to farming villages, and semi-nomadic herding, marked the end of the Early Bronze Age in Canaan. Their trade routes remained opened, as did their crafts production of pottery, gold, silver, ivory, statues, vessels, alters, and stelae (stone slabs used as gravestones).

Next Time: Sea Of Galilee #20: Canaan's Middle Bronze Age

SOURCES:

Bible
worldhistory.org
biblicalarchaeology.org
metmuseum.org
britannica.com