The inhabitants of the land of Canaan, who shared a common language, religion, material and culture; to some extent, they also experienced a common fate arising from their geographical position (See CANAAN, LAND OF). They never combined to form a political unity and were at all times fragmented into small political kingdoms, with changing frontiers as each sought to conquer land from the surrounding unit.
These internal struggles were enacted against a background of competition of the larger powers in the region, such as the conflict between the Babylonians and the Mitanni in the 15th-14th centuries and between Egypt and the Hittites in the 14th – 13th centuries. Throughout Canaanite history, which spans the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C., southern Canaan was strongly influenced by Egypt, while northern Canaan inclined more towards the influence of its northern neighbors, Mesopotamia in the first 1,500 years, the Hittite Empire from Anatolia in the latter three centuries. From early times, the Canaanite were a separate people – or rather, group of peoples – speaking a northwestern Semitic language. The strong Semitic character of their language emerges clearly in Egyptian texts from the 3rd Dynasty onwards, and in the rich collection of texts from Ebla in northern Syria.
The Canaanites included various Semitic peoples, such as the Phoenicians and the Amorites, as well as peoples of other origin, such as the Horites (Hurrians). They created a unique and mixed culture, manifested in both its spiritual and material aspects. They borrowed from their more powerful neighbors, but never succumbed to them, even when becoming part of their empires.
The whole region of the Canaanites was eventually shaken by political changes with the penetration of various Semitic tribes including the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines and Israelites (the last around 1200 B.C.). the Philistine and Israelite settlement effectively marks the conclusion of the Canaanite period although Canaanite culture remained in certain of the northern coastal cities such as Sidon and Tyre. The name Canaan came to be used only for the coastal strip of land, later called Phoenicia. Kings David and Solomon defeated the Canaanites, who soon lost their ethnic identity.
The early period of Israelite settlement was characterized by a tendency towards syncretism with the Canaanite religion to which the Israelites were attracted (e.g., Judg 2:2). The Bible frequently has to issue warnings against Canaanite worship and customs (Ex 23:23-24) and forbid relations with them (Deut 7:1ff). Their religion was characterized by numerous gods, loosely arranged in pairs.
The chief god El and his consort Asherah, parents of the gods, were replaced by the vigorous young god Baal who had no clearly specified wife. His sister Anath, although often referred to as a virgin, was also his wife. Baal was the god of storm and weather, and as such also cast his protection over vegetation and fertility. In practice the Canaanite religion was predominantly preoccupied with fertility, and its main myth centres around the kingship of Baal, initially wrested from the chaotic primeval water, and defended a new each year against drought and sterility. This myth, like others mentioning additional gods, has come to light mainly from the rich library discovered in the north Canaanite city of Ugarit (in Syria). This library also included other classes of text, such as legal and commercial documents, and heroic tales.
Knowledge of the Canaanites' material culture is largely confined to urban life. Their towns and cities were surrounded by defensive systems, at times free-standing walls built of stones or bricks, at other-in the first half of the 2nd millennium B.C. – massive earth ramparts which created an insurmountable slope around the settlement. The gates leading into the towns were particularly well protected with towers and guard rooms. These settlements lacked orderly planning and the inhabitants lived in poorly constructed houses. A few larger and better built houses have been found; presumably these were palaces of the local rulers. A necessary feature in every towns seems to have been one or more temples; like the residences, they were rather crude in plan and mostly of poor construction.
The repertoire of household goods consisted to a large extent of typical pottery food vessels which served for storage, preparation, cooking and serving. The metal used by the Canaanites was initially copper, replaced later by bronze. Of the wooden furniture, the little that has survived indicates expertise in manufacture of low tables, stools and beds from wood and reeds. Glass came into use towards the end of the Canaanite period, and was considered a luxury material. Small glass objects were found mainly in temples and tombs.
The clothing adopted by the Canaanites is known mainly from Egyptian artistic representations. While the more nomadic classes, both men and women, wore multicolored wool dresses, the upper classes, mainly the merchants, enveloped themselves with a sari-like white cloth, often with colored fringes. Jewelry consisted of rings, earrings and bracelets, usually of bronze, but caches of very sophisticated gold jewelry with granulation and inlay have also been discovered.
Weapons too were forged of copper initially, and later, of bronze. Arrow heads, spear and Javelin heads, daggers and swords of different shapes were most common. In the second half of the 2nd millennium the war chariot drawn by a pair of horses came into general use.
During some periods of their history, mainly in the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C., the Canaanites were actively involved in international trading with numerous parts of the eastern Mediterranean basin. They seem to have exported quantities of purple-dyed textiles, as their name indicates (See CANAAN); they also sold agricultural products such as cattle and oil. They imported metal and luxury goods, including numerous pottery vessels from Cyprus and Mycenae which presumably contained some sought-after merchandise.
The Canaanites buried their dead communally in caves outside their settlements, supplying them with pottery vessels containing food and drink, and with other necessities such as furniture, weapons and jewelry. No attempt was made to preserve the body: on the contrary, the bones were scattered about the cave or heaped around the walls. In the first half of the 2nd millennium B.C. it became common to bury babies and young children in jars under floors of houses, a custom which reached its zenith in the 17th century B.C. before gradually declining. Individual burial of adults in pits outside settlements became general practice in the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C.
The Canaanites' greatest gift to the world is in the intellectual sphere – their invention of an alphabetic system of writing. The innovation occurred some time in the first half of the 2nd millennium B.C.; experiments in formalizing the shape of the characters went on for hundreds of years. Ugarit characters were based on the Mesopotamian cuneiform; in southern Canaan, letter shapes derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs. This south Canaanite script, succeeded by its immediate descendants – Hebrew, Phoenician and Aramaic – gave rise to all the alphabetic scripts used in the world today.
In prophetic and Wisdom literature, the world "Canaanite'' is used to denote a merchant (e.g., Zephaniah 1:11 where the Hebrew "people of Canaan" is translated as "traders" in RSV) or as referring to Phoenicia (Is 8:10).
Concordance
Gen 10:18, 19; 12:6; 13:7; 15:21; 24:3,37; 34:30; 38:2; 46:10; 50:11. Ex 3:8,17; 6:15; 13:5,11; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11. Num 13:29; 14:25, 43, 45; 21:1, 3; 33:40. Deut 1:7; 7:1; 11:30; 20:17. Josh 3:10; 5:1; 7:9; 9:1; 11:3; 12:8; 13:3-4; 16:10; 17:12-13, 16, 18; 24:11. Judg 1:1; 3-5, 9-10,17, 27-30, 32-33; 3:3, 5. II Sam 24:7. I Kgs 9:16. I Chr 2:3. Ezra 9:1. Neh 9:8, 24. Hos 12:7. Obad v. 20. Zech 14:21. Matt 10:4. Mark 3:18
