Canaanite

ByBible Blender

Jun 11, 2017

The name “Canaanites” is attested, many centuries later, as the endonym of the people later known to the Ancient Greeks from c.500 BC as Phoenicians.  They occupied a region in the Ancient Near East, which as described in the Bible roughly corresponds to the Levant, i.e., present-day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, western Jordan, and southwestern Syria.  In biblical usage, the name was confined to the country west of the Jordan, the Canaanites being described as dwelling “by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan”.  Much archaeological evidence exists which provides information on their culture, laws, and trade activity. In 2017, using DNA collected from skeletons in Sidon, researchers found that present-day Lebanese derive much of their ancestry from a Canaanite-related population.

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