Canaanites

The Canaanites were a group of ancient Semitic-speaking communities who inhabited the region known as Canaan in the Levant during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Rather than a single ethnicity, the term refers to a network of culturally related city-states and groups living in areas corresponding to parts of modern Israel, the Palestinian territories, western Jordan, southern Syria, and Lebanon. They flourished from roughly the 3rd to the 1st millennium BCE.

Language and culture: They spoke Northwest Semitic languages; individual communities included the Phoenicians along the coast and inland groups such as the Amorites and others. The term 'Canaanite' is used in archaeology and philology to group these related linguistic communities, and Hebrew, Moabite, and Phoenician are considered Canaanite languages.

Urban life and religion: The Canaanites built fortified cities such as Jericho, Megiddo, and Hazor, and, along the coast, powerful maritime city-states like Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos. Their religion was polytheistic, featuring deities such as El, Baal, Anat, and Asherah; evidence comes from inscriptions, temple remains, and mythologies such as the Ugaritic texts from Ras Shamra.

History and interactions: The Canaanites interacted with Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Hittite powers, and their city-states sometimes came under foreign domination while maintaining local autonomy. In later periods, the region saw Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Hellenistic influence, with Canaanite-speaking communities contributing to the broader cultural and linguistic landscape of the eastern Mediterranean.

Legacy: The Canaanite linguistic and cultural traditions shaped the development of the Phoenician alphabet, which influenced the Greek and ultimately many modern scripts. Archaeology and inscriptions continue to reveal the diversity of Canaanite religion, urban planning, and daily life across city-states and regions.