Editing Canaan (section)

===History===
The [[Levant]] was inhabited by people who referred to the land as ''ka-na-na-um'' as early as the mid-third millennium BC.<ref>Maria E. Aubet, ''The Phoenicians and the West'', Cambridge 1987, p. 9</ref> The [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] word "''kinahhu''" referred to the purple-coloured wool, dyed from the [[Murex]] molluscs of the coast—which was a key export of the region. When the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greeks]] later traded with the Canaanites, this meaning of the word seems to have predominated, as they referred to the Canaanites as ''Phoenikes'' (Φοίνικες; [[Phoenicia]]ns), which may derive from the [[Ancient Greek|Greek-language]] word "''phoenix''" (φοίνιξ; {{Translation|"crimson" or "purple"}}), and also described the cloth for which the Greeks traded. The word "''phoenix''" was [[Romanization of Greek|transcribed]] by the [[Roman people|Romans]] to "''poenus''"; the descendants of the Canaanite settlers in [[Carthage]] were likewise referred to as [[Punic people|''Punic'']].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Thus, while "Phoenician" and "Canaanite" refer to the same culture, archaeologists and historians commonly refer to the [[Bronze Age]] pre-1200 BC Levantine peoples as Canaanites, while their [[Iron Age]] descendants, particularly those living on the coast, are referred to as Phoenicians. More recently, the term "Canaanite" has been used for the secondary Iron Age states of the Levantine interior that were not ruled by [[Arameans|Aramean peoples]], that is, that were ruled by a separate and closely related ethnic group which included the [[Philistines]] and the [[Israelites|Israelite]] kingdoms of [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|Israel and Judah]].<ref>Jonathan Tubb, ''The Canaanites'', London 1998, pp. 13–16</ref>