What groups of people settled in the area known as Canaan?

Answer 1

A:The area is known as Canaan because Canaanites, a West Semitic people, settled there perhaps as early as 3000 BCE. Throughout most of their history, they were concentrated along the Levantine coast and in the fertile valleys, with sparse settlements in the mountainous hinterland. At time, they did build large cities such as Jericho and Ai in the hinterland, but these cities were abandoned when the main centres were sufficiently prosperous.

Around 1250 BCE, the Philistines supplanted the Canaanites along the coastal strip and foothills between Egypt and (approximately) present-day Tel Aviv.

Around the same time as the Philistines, or slightly later, village settlements began to appear in the Canaanite hinterland. These are associated with the Hebrews or Israelites, who were first mentioned by the Egyptians in 1205 BCE. Archaeologists and scholars say they were not new arrivals but Canaanites who had migrated peacefully from the region of the coastal cities to settle in the hitherto sparsely populated interior. New technologies, such as the iron plough and terracing, now made the hinterland viable for higher density settlement.

According to the biblical account, the Israelites fled from slavery in Egypt in 1440 BCE, to settle some forty years later in Canaan. It is clear from the Egyptian records that the Exodus could not have taken place in the fifteenth century, but some place this event around 1250 BCE, shortly before the Israelites began to appear in Canaan, while others seek to prove a date around 1313 BCE. Nevertheless, scholars say there was no Exodus from Egypt as described in The Bible, and the consensus is that there was no military conquest of Canaan. Archaeologists support this view, because there is no evidence of a sustained destruction of Canaanite cities and because the new settlements show continuity from the Canaanite culture.

Answer 2

AnswerWest Semitic people, known in the Bible as Canaanites, settled in the Levant prior to 2000 BCE.

Hebrews, who were also a West Semitic people and may actually have been dissident Canaanites, appear to have settled in the mountainous hinterland around 1250 BCE. However a minority view among scholars is that the Hebrew culture did not arrive until around 1000 BCE.

Sea People, later known as Philistines, settled in the southern coast and foothills from the Egyptian border north to approximately where Tel Aviv is today, around 1250 BCE. The entire region west of the Jordan River between Egypt and Syria became known to the Greeks as Palestine.

Some centuries later, the Nabatean Arabs developed a system of cisterns to collect and store rainwater, making it possible to live in quite arid regions. From their capital in Petrea, they expanded westward across the Sinai desert.