1. The son of Ham (Genesis 9-10), whose descendants occupied Canaan and took their name from that country (Gen 9:18, Gen 9:22; Gen 10:6).
2. Canaan was one of the ancient names for Palestine (the land of the Canaanites whom the Israelites evicted). Egyptian inscriptions from 1800 B.C. JC use it for the coastal strip between Egypt and Asia Minor. In the Amarna letters of 1400 B.C. JC, the name is applied to the Phoenician coast. According to Scripture, the Canaanites lived throughout the land (Jdg 1:9-10) and included the entire pre-Israelite population, even east of the Jordan (Gen 12:6; Gen 24:3, Gen 24:37; Josh 3:10). The language of Canaan (Isa 19:18) refers to the West Semitic group of languages of which Hebrew, Phoenician, and Moabite were dialects. The continued presence of the Canaanites with their pagan practices created serious religious problems for the Israelites.
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
Canaan was the name given in early biblical writings to the land that stretched from the Taurus mountains to the southern region of Gaza and from the Mediterranean to the valleys of the Jordan and Orontes rivers. The *Amarna Letters (14th century BC), mention Canaan by name. In later use, northern Canaan, east of the mountains of Lebanon, was called Phenicia, and the southern coastal mountains, occupied by the Philistines, were called Palestine. The entire northern section of Canaan was called Syria by the Greeks, who derived the word from Assyria. For the fourth or fifth centuries AD. BC, all of southern Canaan was called Palestine, a term that continues to be used to describe the combined Israel-Jordanian territory west of the Jordan River.
Located in the eastern Mediterranean, at the western end of the area known as the Fertile Crescent, Canaan was on the main routes of trade and conquest during the earliest periods of human history. The trade routes between Mesopotamia and Egypt—the two centers of man’s earliest cultural achievements—passed through Canaan, as did the roads from Asia Minor to Egypt. Although southern Canaan had few good ports, cities such as *Ugarit, *Byblos, *Tyre, and *Sidon provided the first contacts with the maritime peoples of the eastern Mediterranean. Cultural loans and adaptation can be traced archaeologically to a very remote date.
Although located on the main thoroughfares of the Near East, Canaan also had mountainous terrain and isolated areas that were relatively untouched by the events around them. The mountainous countryside of Judah and Ephraim (later Samaria) contained cities that could be bypassed by ancient merchants and conquerors.
I. Historical Beginnings. Some of the earliest remnants of man have been discovered in caves near Mount Carmel. A people known as *Natufians (from the Wadi en-Natuf where their artifacts were discovered), lived mostly by hunting and fishing, but the discovery of sickles among their crew suggests that they had begun to cultivate grain. The skeleton of a dog in one of its caves is our first evidence of animal domestication. Although no definite dates can be given, similar discoveries have been made at Jericho; and charcoal from a burned building has been subjected to the carbon-14 test which gives a date of 7800 BC. JC, with an approximation of 210 years. In one of the caves on Mount Carmel, a carved bone head of an ox was discovered, indicating artistic ability as well as practical arts in this early period.
During the period between 5000 and 3000 a. of JC, a cultural development is noted. People tended to settle in towns and cities, and pottery was used consistently. There are still some metals in use—copper and gold. The permanent houses of Jericho have the walls painted red.
II. The Middle Bronze Age (2100–1500 BC). The biblical patriarchs entered Canaan during the Middle Bronze Age. Archeology has provided knowledge concerning the peoples in existence at that time, such as *Megiddo, *Beth-shan, *Jericho, *Ai, *Taanak, *Gezer, and *Bethel. These cities had a culture that predates the biblical patriarchs by many centuries.
A variety of peoples inhabited the Canaan of patriarchal times. The Canaanite (Gen. 12:6) spoke a Semitic language and was known to the Greeks from the time of Homer by the name of Phoenician. Another name used for Canaan was “the land of the *amorites”, according to Egyptian records ca. 1300 BC BC The term was used by the early Babylonians to describe the nomadic Western Semites, who invaded the Tigris and Euphrates valley. At *Mari (Tell Hariri) the Amorites established an empire centered on the middle Euphrates area. Their last king, ZimriLim, was conquered by another Amorite, the famous *Hamurabi of Babylon (ca. 1695 BC). The Amorites settled south of Canaan during patriarchal times (see Gen. 14:7, 13). Sometimes the term Amorite is used to refer to all the inhabitants of the area (Gen. 15:16).
The Hittites were an Indo-European people whose center was along the Halys River in Asia Minor, at Hatusas (modern Boghazkoy). Isolated groups of Hittites were in Canaan during the time of the patriarchs (Gen. 23:3–20; 25:9; 10; 26:34; 27:46; 36:2; 49:29; 50:13). The Biblical or Hurrian Horites (Gen. 14:6) are known as a non-Semitic people who migrated to Mesopotamia from the north of their homeland to the south of the Caucasus. *Horean names are common in records in Mesopotamia from ca. 2000 to ca. from 1500 BC BC Horite scribes wrote thousands of clay tablets at *Nuzi (modern Yorgan Tepe, southwest of Kirkuk). The Nuzi Tablets contain interesting parallels to the adoption, marriage, and social customs of the biblical patriarchs. The Horites occupied Mount Seir, the region taken over by Esau’s descendants and called Edom (Gen. 36:8).
Very little is known concerning the other peoples of Canaan during patriarchal times. The Kenites (Gen. 15:19) later appear as blacksmiths in the Wadi Arabah, the area southeast of Hebron (Judges 1:16; 4:11). The Kenites are mentioned only in Gn. 15:19 and nothing is known about them. The Kadmoneans (Gen. 15:19) may be a variant of Bene-Kedem (“sons of the east”, Judg. 6:33). They were probably tribes that inhabited the eastern desert and southeastern areas of Canaan.
The Perizzites (Gen. 15:20) inhabited the area later given to Judah (Judges 1:4, 5). The Rephaites appear in Gen. 14:5 as inhabitants of Ashtaroth Karnaim. A valley south of Jerusalem bears his name (Josh. 15:8, “Valley of the Giants”). The name also appears in Ugaritic epics and seems to describe the aboriginal people who inhabited Canaan. They are also known as Zuzites and Zom-Zomeos (Gen. 14:5; Deut. 2:20). The Girgashites were in Canaan until the time of the Israelite conquest (Deut. 7:1; Josh. 3:10; 24:11). The Jebusites were a Canaanite tribe that occupied *Jerusalem (Jebus) until the time of David (2 Sam. 5:8).
Contacts between Canaan and Egypt were frequent during the Middle Bronze Age. A tomb painting from *Beni Hasan, Egypt, depicts a group of Semites entering Egypt for the purpose of trade. Egyptian history *Sinuhé tells of the travels of an Egyptian to Canaan, who describes it as a land rich in fruits and abundant in cattle. Around 1720 BC AD , the *Hyksos people, a mixed race with Semitic and Horite elements, entered Egypt and eventually established a dynasty there. When, ca. 1550 BC BC, the Egyptians expelled the Hyksos, Egypt entered its imperial period and sought to control Canaan.
III. The Late Bronze Age (1500–1200 BC). It was during this last bronze age that Israel left Egypt under Moses and 40 years later conquered southern Canaan. The exact date has been the subject of considerable speculation, as the Bible does not identify the pharaoh under whom this happened. The Amarna Letters (15th and 14th centuries BC) indicate that Egyptian control of Canaan was weak and that the kings of the city-states had considerable autonomy. With the establishment of the Hittite empire (14th century BC), Canaan acted as a small neutral state between Egypt and the Hittites. After a battle between Ramesses II and the Hittites, the Dog River, north of Byblos, was agreed upon as the dividing line separating the two nations’ spheres of interest (ca. 1287 BC). The Hittite empire fell ca. the year 1200 a. by JC
IV. The First Iron Age (1200–900 BC). In the early Iron Age, Israel had settled in the central mountains of Canaan; but the heavily walled cities like Jerusalem, Beth-san, and Megiddo were still in the hands of the Canaanite peoples. The Philistines disputed control of the coastal plains. They had attempted to invade Egypt from Crete but were defeated by Ramesses III (ca. 1195–1164 BC) and settled instead in southern Palestine. The Canaanites who had been displaced by both the Philistines and the Israelites established strong sea states at Tire and Sidon from which they colonized the Mediterranean and North African islands. Hiram of Tire cooperated with both David and Solomon in his building operations. With David’s victory over the Philistines (2 Sam. 5:17-25), southern Canaan comes to shine fully in history. Its subsequent history is that of Israel.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: WF Albright, The Archeology of Palestine, Baltimore, Penguin Books, 1960; From the Stone Age to Christianity, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1946. Denis Baly, The Geography of the Bible, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1957. AG Barrois, Manual D†™Archeologie Biblique, I and II, Paris, Editions , Auguste Picard, 1939 and 1953. Kathleen Kenyon, Archeology in the Holy Land, London: Ernest Benn, 1960. Chester C. McCown, The Ladder of Progress in Palestine, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1943. Sabatino Moscati, Ancient Semitic Civilizations, London, Elek Books, 1957. George Adam Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1910.
Source: Archaeological Biblical Dictionary
The Bible does not give an exact description of the boundaries of the land of Canaan, but we read that “it was the territory of the Canaanites from ‘Sidon, in the direction of ‘Gerar, to ‘Gaza; and in the direction of †¢Sodom, †¢Gomorrah, †¢Adma and Zeboim, as far as Lhasa† (Gen 10:19). In Num 34:2-12 limits are given that place at the N end a line from the Great Sea (Mediterranean) to †¢Hamat; in the S it is set as a limit “the torrent of Egypt”; to the E the line went down from Hamath, included the area of †¢Damascus and continued to the coast of the Sea of Cineret (†¢Sea of Galilee) and the Jordan; and to the O the sea…