Editing Canaan (section)

=== Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BC) ===
In the early Late Bronze Age, Canaanite confederacies centered on [[Megiddo (place)|Megiddo]] and [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]], before being fully brought into the [[New Egyptian Kingdom|Egyptian Empire]] and Hittite Empire. Later still, the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] assimilated the region.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}

According to the Bible, the migrant [[ancient Semitic-speaking peoples]] who appear to have settled in the region included (among others) the [[Amorites]], who had earlier controlled Babylonia. The [[Hebrew Bible]] mentions the ''Amorites'' in the ''[[Table of Nations|Table of Peoples]]'' ([[Book of Genesis]] 10:16–18a). Evidently, the Amorites played a significant role in the early history of Canaan. In Book of Genesis 14:7 ''f''., [[Book of Joshua]] 10:5 ''f''., [[Book of Deuteronomy]] 1:19 ''f''., 27, 44, we find them located in the southern mountain country, while verses such as [[Book of Numbers]] 21:13, Book of Joshua 9:10, 24:8, 12, etc., tell of two great Amorite kings residing at [[Heshbon]] and [[Ashteroth Karnaim|Ashteroth]], east of the Jordan. Other passages, including Book of Genesis 15:16, 48:22, Book of Joshua 24:15, [[Book of Judges]] 1:34, regard the name ''Amorite'' as synonymous with "Canaanite". The name ''Amorite'' is, however, never used for the population on the coast.{{sfn|Cheyne|1911|p=141}}

[[File:Ancient_Near_East_1400BC.svg|thumb|350px|Map of the [[Ancient Near East]] around 1400 BC]]
In the centuries preceding the appearance of the biblical Hebrews, parts of Canaan and southwestern Syria became tributary to the Egyptian [[pharaoh]]s, although domination by the Egyptians remained sporadic, and not strong enough to prevent frequent local rebellions and inter-city struggles. Other areas such as northern Canaan and northern Syria came to be ruled by the Assyrians during this period.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}

Under [[Thutmose III]] (1479–1426&nbsp;BC) and [[Amenhotep II]] (1427–1400&nbsp;BC), the regular presence of the strong hand of the Egyptian ruler and his armies kept the Amorites and Canaanites sufficiently loyal. Nevertheless, Thutmose III reported a new and troubling element in the population. [[Habiru]] or (in Egyptian) 'Apiru, are reported for the first time. These seem to have been mercenaries, brigands, or outlaws, who may have at one time led a settled life, but with bad luck or due to the force of circumstances, contributed a rootless element to the population, prepared to hire themselves to whichever local mayor, king, or princeling would pay for their support.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}

Although Habiru {{transliteration|Xsux|SA-GAZ}} (a [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] [[ideogram]] [[Gloss (annotation)|gloss]]ed as "brigand" in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]), and sometimes {{transliteration|akk|[[Habiru|Habiri]]}} (an Akkadian word) had been reported in Mesopotamia from the reign of the [[Sumer]]ian king, [[Shulgi]] of [[Ur III]], their appearance in Canaan appears to have been due to the arrival of a new state based in Asia Minor to the north of Assyria and based upon a [[Maryannu]] aristocracy of horse-drawn [[chariot]]eers, associated with the [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]] rulers of the [[Hurrians]], known as [[Mitanni]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

[[File:Basalt_Lion,_Holy_of_Holies,_Orthostat_Temple,_Hazor,_15th-13th_C._BC_(43217868001).jpg|thumb|Basalt lions from the [[Orthostat]] Temple of [[Tel Hazor|Hazor]] (c. 1500–1300 BC)<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-10-07|title=Lion reliefs|url=https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/394173|access-date=2022-01-03|website=www.imj.org.il|language=en|archive-date=2022-01-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103155548/https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/394173|url-status=live}}</ref> Hazor was violently destroyed during the Bronze Age collapse.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Hazor Excavations Project|url=http://unixware.mscc.huji.ac.il/~hatsor/hazor.html|access-date=2022-01-03|website=unixware.mscc.huji.ac.il|archive-date=2019-05-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190507092552/http://unixware.mscc.huji.ac.il/~hatsor/hazor.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>]]

The Habiru seem to have been more a social class than an ethnic group.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} One analysis shows that the majority were Hurrian, although there were a number of Semites and even some [[Kassites|Kassite]] and [[Luwian]] adventurers amongst their number.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} The reign of [[Amenhotep III]], as a result, was not quite so tranquil for the Asiatic province, as Habiru/'Apiru contributed to greater political instability. It is believed{{By whom|date= February 2012}} that turbulent chiefs began to seek their opportunities, although as a rule they could not find them without the help of a neighbouring king. The boldest of the disaffected nobles was [[Aziru]], son of [[Abdi-Ashirta]], who endeavoured to extend his power into the plain of [[Damascus]]. [[Akizzi]], governor of Katna ([[Qatna]]?) (near [[Hama#Hama in the Bible|Hamath]]), reported this to Amenhotep III, who seems to have sought to frustrate Aziru's attempts.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} In the reign of the next pharaoh, [[Akhenaten]] (reigned {{circa}} 1352 to {{circa}} 1335 BC) both father and son caused infinite trouble to loyal servants of Egypt like [[Rib-Hadda]], governor of [[Byblos|Gubla]] (Gebal),{{sfn|Cheyne|1911|p=141}} by transferring their loyalty from the Egyptian crown to the Hittite Empire under [[Suppiluliuma I]] (reigned {{circa}} 1344–1322 BC).<ref>{{cite book |first=A. Leo |last=Oppenheim |title=Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2yxOCgAAQBAJ |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226177670 |year=2013 |access-date=9 October 2018 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429061904/https://books.google.com/books?id=2yxOCgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Egyptian power in Canaan thus suffered a major setback when the Hittites (or Hatti) advanced into Syria in the reign of Amenhotep III, and when they became even more threatening in that of his successor, displacing the Amorites and prompting a resumption of Semitic migration. Abdi-Ashirta and his son Aziru, at first afraid of the Hittites, afterwards made a treaty with their king, and joining with the Hittites, attacked and conquered the districts remaining loyal to Egypt. In vain did Rib-Hadda send touching appeals for aid to the distant Pharaoh, who was far too engaged in his religious innovations to attend to such messages.{{sfn|Cheyne|1911|p=141}}

The Amarna letters tell of the Habiri in northern Syria. [[Etakkama]] wrote thus to the Pharaoh:
{{blockquote|Behold, [[Biryawaza|Namyawaza]] has surrendered all the cities of the king, my lord to the {{transliteration|Xsux|SA-GAZ}} in the land of [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]] and in [[Upu|Ubi]]. But I will go, and if thy gods and thy sun go before me, I will bring back the cities to the king, my lord, from the Habiri, to show myself subject to him; and I will expel the {{transliteration|Xsux|SA-GAZ}}.}}

[[File:Sarcophagus of Canaanites.jpg|thumb|Canaanite sarcophagi discovered in [[Deir al-Balah]] and now displayed in the [[Israel Museum]]]]
Similarly, [[Zimredda (Sidon mayor)|Zimrida]], king of [[Sidon]] (named 'Siduna'), declared, "All my cities which the king has given into my hand, have come into the hand of the Habiri." The king of [[Jerusalem]], [[Abdi-Heba]], reported to the Pharaoh:
{{blockquote|If (Egyptian) troops come this year, lands and princes will remain to the king, my lord; but if troops come not, these lands and princes will not remain to the king, my lord.}}

Abdi-heba's principal trouble arose from persons called [[Iilkili]] and the sons of [[Labaya]], who are said to have entered into a treasonable league with the Habiri. Apparently this restless warrior found his death at the siege of [[Gina (Canaan)|Gina]]. All these princes, however, maligned each other in their letters to the Pharaoh, and protested their own innocence of traitorous intentions. Namyawaza, for instance, whom Etakkama (see above) accused of disloyalty, wrote thus to the Pharaoh,{{sfn|Cheyne|1911|p=141}}
{{blockquote|Behold, I and my warriors and my chariots, together with my brethren and my {{transliteration|Xsux|SA-GAZ}}, and my [[Sutean|Suti]] ?9 are at the disposal of the (royal) troops to go whithersoever the king, my lord, commands."<ref name="EA189">El Amarna letter, EA 189.</ref>}}

[[File:Merneptah Steli (cropped).jpg|thumb|Merneptah Stele (JE 31408) from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo]]
Around the beginning of the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] period, Egypt exerted rule over much of the Levant. Rule remained strong during the [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt|Eighteenth Dynasty]], but Egypt's rule became precarious during the [[Nineteenth Dynasty|Nineteenth]] and [[Twentieth Dynasty|Twentieth Dynasties]]. [[Ramses II]] was able to maintain control over it in the [[Battle of Kadesh|stalemated battle]] against the Hittites at [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]] in 1275 BC, but soon thereafter, the Hittites successfully took over the northern Levant (Syria and Amurru). Ramses II, obsessed with his own building projects while neglecting Asiatic contacts, allowed control over the region to continue dwindling. During the reign of his successor [[Merneptah]], the [[Merneptah Stele]] was issued which claimed to have destroyed various sites in the southern Levant, including a people known as "Israel". Egypt's withdrawal from the [[southern Levant]] was a protracted process lasting some one hundred years beginning in the late 13th century BC and ending close to the end of the 12th century BC. The reason for the Egypt's withdrawal was most likely political turmoil in Egypt proper rather than the invasion by the [[Sea Peoples]], as there is little evidence that the Sea Peoples caused much destruction ca. 1200 BC. Many Egyptian garrisons or sites with an "Egyptian governor's residence" in the southern Levant were abandoned without destruction including [[Deir al-Balah]], [[Ascalon]], Tel Mor, [[Tell el-Far'ah (South)]], [[Tel Gerisa]], [[Tell Jemmeh]], [[Tel Masos]], and Qubur el-Walaydah.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Millek |first=Jesse Michael |date=2018 |title=Destruction and the Fall of Egyptian Hegemony Over the Southern Levant |url=http://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jaei/article/id/1347/ |journal=Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections |volume=19 |issue=1 |issn=1944-2815 |access-date=2022-11-11 |archive-date=2022-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103165106/https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jaei/article/id/1347/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Not all Egyptian sites in the southern Levant were abandoned without destruction. The Egyptian garrison at [[Aphek (biblical)|Aphek]] was destroyed, likely in an act of warfare at the end of the 13th century.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Millek |first=Jesse |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1v2xvsn |title=Sea Peoples, Philistines, and the Destruction of Cities: A Critical Examination of Destruction Layers 'Caused' by the 'Sea Peoples'. In Fischer, P. And T.Burge (eds.), "Sea Peoples" Up-to-Date: New Research on Transformation in the Eastern Mediterranean in 13th–11th Centuries BC. 113–140. |date=2017 |publisher=Austrian Academy of Sciences Press |jstor=j.ctt1v2xvsn |isbn=978-3-7001-7963-4 |edition=1st |access-date=2022-11-11 |archive-date=2023-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213105036/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1v2xvsn |url-status=live}}</ref> The Egyptian gate complex uncovered at [[Jaffa]] was destroyed at the end of the 12th century between 1134–1115 based on C14 dates,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Burke |first=Aaron |date=2017 |title=Burke et al. Excavations of the New Kingdom Fortress in Jaffa, 2011–2014: Traces of Resistance to Egyptian Rule in Canaan |pages= 85–133 |url=https://www.ajaonline.org/field-report/3356 |access-date= |website=American Journal of Archaeology |language=en |archive-date=2022-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103125132/https://www.ajaonline.org/field-report/3356 |url-status=live}}</ref> while [[Beit She'an|Beth-Shean]] was partially though not completely destroyed, possibly by an earthquake, in the mid-12th century.<ref name=":0"/>

==== Amarna letters ====
[[File:BM 29785 EA 9 Reverse v2.jpg|thumbnail|Amarna tablet EA 9]]

References to Canaanites are also found throughout the Amarna letters of Pharaoh [[Akhenaten]] {{circa|1350}} BC. In these letters, some of which were sent by governors and princes of Canaan to their Egyptian overlord [[Akhenaten]] (Amenhotep IV) in the 14th century BC, are found, beside ''Amar'' and ''Amurru'' ([[Amorites]]), the two forms ''Kinahhi'' and ''Kinahni'', corresponding to ''Kena'' and ''Kena'an'' respectively, and including [[Syria (region)|Syria in its widest extent]], as [[Eduard Meyer]] has shown. The letters are written in the official and diplomatic [[East Semitic]] [[Akkadian language]] of [[Assyria]] and [[Babylonia]], though "Canaanitish" words and idioms are also in evidence.{{sfn|Cheyne|1911|p=140 fn. 3}} The known references are:{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}}
* EA 8: Letter from [[Burna-Buriash II]] to [[Akhenaten]], explaining that his merchants "were detained in Canaan for business matters", robbed and killed "in Hinnatuna of the land of Canaan" by the rulers of [[Acre, Israel|Acre]] and Shamhuna, and asks for compensation because "Canaan is your country"
* [[Amarna letter EA 9|EA 9]]: Letter from [[Burna-Buriash II]] to [[Tutankhamun]], "all the Canaanites wrote to [[Kurigalzu I|Kurigalzu]] saying 'come to the border of the country so we can revolt and be allied with you'"
* EA 30: Letter from [[Tushratta]]: "To the kings of Canaan... Provide [my messenger] with safe entry into Egypt"
* EA 109: Letter of [[Rib-Hadda]]: "Previously, on seeing a man from Egypt, the kings of Canaan fled before him, but now the sons of [[Abdi-Ashirta]] make men from Egypt prowl about like dogs"
* EA 110: Letter of [[Rib-Hadda]]: "No ship of the army is to leave Canaan"
* EA 131: Letter of [[Rib-Hadda]]: "If he does not send archers, they will take [Byblos] and all the other cities and the lands of Canaan will not belong to the king. May the king ask [[Yanhamu]] about these matters."
* EA 137: Letter of [[Rib-Hadda]]: "If the king neglects [[Byblos]], of all the cities of Canaan, not one will be his"
* [[Amarna letter EA 367|EA 367]]: "Hani son (of) Mairēya, "chief of the stable" of the king in Canaan"
* EA 162: Letter to [[Aziru]]: "You yourself know that the king does not want to go against all of Canaan when he rages"
* EA 148: Letter from [[Abimilku]] to the Pharaoh: "[The king] has taken over the land of the king for the 'Apiru. May the king ask his commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan"
* EA 151: Letter from [[Abimilku]] to the Pharaoh: "The king, my lord wrote to me: 'write to me what you have heard from Canaan'." Abimilku describes in response what has happened in eastern [[Cilicia]] ([[Danuna]]), the northern coast of Syria ([[Ugarit]]), in Syria ([[Kadesh (Syria)|Qadesh]], [[Amurru kingdom|Amurru]], and [[Damascus]]) as well as in [[Sidon]].

==== Other Late Bronze Age mentions ====
Text RS 20.182 from [[Ugarit]] is a copy of a letter of the king of Ugarit to [[Ramesses II]] concerning money paid by "the sons of the land of Ugarit" to the "foreman of the sons of the land of Canaan (''*kn'ny'')" According to Jonathan Tubb, this suggests that the people of Ugarit, contrary to much modern opinion, considered themselves to be non-Canaanite.<ref name="JonTubb" />{{rp|16}} The other Ugarit reference, KTU 4.96, shows a list of traders assigned to royal estates, one of the estates having three Ugaritans, an Ashdadite, an Egyptian and a Canaanite.{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}}

=====Ashur tablets=====
A Middle [[Ktav Ashuri|Assyrian]] letter during the reign of [[Shalmaneser I]] includes a reference to the "travel to Canaan" of an Assyrian official.{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}}

=====Hattusa letters=====
Four references are known from Hattusa:{{sfn|Na'aman|2005|pp=110–120}}
* An evocation to the Cedar Gods: Includes reference to Canaan alongside Sidon, Tyre and possibly Amurru
* KBo XXVIII 1: [[Ramesses II]] letter to [[Hattusili III]], in which Ramesses suggested he would meet "his brother" in Canaan and bring him to Egypt
* KUB III 57 (also KUB III 37 + KBo I 17): Broken text which may refer to Canaan as an Egyptian sub-district
* KBo I 15+19: [[Ramesses II]] letter to [[Hattusili III]], describing Ramesses' visit to the "land of Canaan on his way to Kinza and Harita