Editing Canaan (section)

=== Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic (1500–1000 BC) ===
{{Further|Timeline of the name Palestine}}
[[File:KAnana.gif|thumb|right|150px|The name "Canaan" occurs in [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphs]] as {{transliteration|egy|k3nˁnˁ}} on the [[Merneptah Stele]] in the 13th century BC]]

During the 2nd millennium BC, [[Ancient Egypt]]ian texts use the term "Canaan" to refer to an Egyptian-ruled colony, whose boundaries generally corroborate the definition of Canaan found in the [[Hebrew Bible]], bounded to the west by the Mediterranean Sea, to the north in the vicinity of [[Hama#Hama in the Bible|Hamath]] in Syria, to the east by the [[Jordan Valley (Middle East)|Jordan Valley]], and to the south by a line extended from the [[Dead Sea]] to around [[Gaza City|Gaza]]. Nevertheless, the Egyptian and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] uses of the term are not identical: the Egyptian texts also identify the coastal city of [[Kadesh (Syria)|Qadesh]] in northwest Syria near Turkey as part of the "Land of Canaan", so that the Egyptian usage seems to refer to the entire [[Levant]]ine coast of the Mediterranean Sea, making it a synonym of another Egyptian term for this coastland, [[Retjenu]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Lebanon, in northern Canaan, bordered by the [[Litani River|Litani river]] to the watershed of the [[Orontes River]], was known by the Egyptians as upper [[Retjenu]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Breasted |first=J.H. |year=1906 |title=Ancient records of Egypt |publisher=University of Illinois Press}}</ref> In Egyptian campaign accounts, the term [[Djahi]] was used to refer to the watershed of the Jordan river. Many earlier Egyptian sources also mention numerous military campaigns conducted in ''Ka-na-na'', just inside Asia.<ref name="Redford">{{cite book |last=Redford |first=Donald B. |year=1993 |title=Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691000862 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gkN9QgAACAAJ |access-date=9 October 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Canaanites and Shasu Leader captives from Ramses III's tile collection; By Niv Lugassi.png|thumb|[[Ramesses III prisoner tiles]] depicting {{citation needed span|Canaanites and Shasu Leader captives|date=March 2019}}]]
Archaeological attestation of the name "Canaan" in [[Ancient Near East]]ern sources relates almost exclusively to the period in which the region operated as a colony of the [[New Kingdom of Egypt]] (16th–11th centuries BC), with usage of the name almost disappearing following the [[Late Bronze Age collapse]] ({{circa|1206–1150}} BC).{{sfn|Drews|1998|p=61|ps=: "The name 'Canaan', never very popular, went out of vogue with the collapse of the Egyptian empire."}} The references suggest that during this period the term was familiar to the region's neighbors on all sides, although scholars have disputed to what extent such references provide a coherent description of its location and boundaries, and regarding whether the inhabitants used the term to describe themselves.<ref>For details of the disputes, see the works of Lemche and Na'aman, the main protagonists.</ref>

16 references are known in Egyptian sources, from the [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt]] onwards.{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}}
* [[Amenhotep II]] inscriptions: Canaanites are included in a list of prisoners of war
* Three topographical lists
* [[Papyrus Anastasi I]] 27,1" refers to the route from Sile to Gaza "the [foreign countries] of the end of the land of Canaan"
* [[Merneptah Stele]]
* [[Papyrus Anastasi IIIA]] 5–6 and [[Papyrus Anastasi IV]] 16,4 refer to "Canaanite slaves from Hurru"
* [[Papyrus Harris]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Higginbotham |first=Carolyn |title=Egyptianization and Elite Emulation in Ramesside Palestine: Governance and Accommodation on the Imperial Periphery |year=2000 |publisher=Brill Academic Pub. |isbn=978-90-04-11768-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iiTbEFrLSc8C&pg=PA57 |page=57 |access-date=9 October 2018}}</ref> After the collapse of the Levant under the so-called "[[Peoples of the Sea]]" [[Ramesses III]] ({{circa|1194}} BC) is said to have built a temple to the god [[Amun|Amen]] to receive tribute from the southern Levant. This was described as being built in ''Pa-Canaan'', a geographical reference whose meaning is disputed, with suggestions that it may refer to the city of Gaza or to the entire Egyptian-occupied territory in the southwest corner of the [[Near East]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hasel |first1=Michael G. |title=Pa-Canaan in the Egyptian New Kingdom: Canaan or Gaza? |journal=Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections |date=2009 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=8–17 |url=https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/jaei/article/view/5 |access-date=9 October 2018 |doi=10.2458/azu_jaei_v01i1_hasel |archive-date=2 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402103017/https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/jaei/article/view/5 |url-status=live }}</ref>