THE MIDDLE EAST & INNER ASIA: PART 4A: ANCIENT CANAAN, ISRAEL, & PALESTINE 
TO 70 C.E.

A Segment of the Middle East & Inner Asia WWW Research Institute at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Director: William J. Gilmore-Lehne, Associate Professor of History, RSC

Tomb of Patriarchs-Hebron

Part Four pays close attention to Palestine from ancient times through 1917. We include all groups of historical inhabitants, and focus on the Hebrew peoples. The following division of major periods adapts the Hebrew University of Jerusalem outline, prepared by Dana Barnea, et. al. and used for their site, The Jerusalem Mosaic.

 
 

In constructing Periods 1-3 of this module, we relied on several scholarly works very heavily, especially those of John Bright, Gedaliah Alon, Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the many contributors of essays to Vols. 1 & 2 of The Cambridge History of Judaism edited by W.D. Davies and Louis Finkelstein; the essays in Jewish Civilization in the Hellenistic -Roman Period, edited by Shemaryahu Talmon; and the work of Bernard Lewis. We have also used many WWW sites, especially those of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Palestine-Net; Evansville University's World of Ancient Cultures Site; the University of Pennsylvania and Brandeis University Sites; and The University of Notre Dame's Glossary of the Bible.12

Outline: Ancient Jericho

   The stone tower of Ancient Jericho

JERICHO

Long before Sumeria and even before Çatal Hüyük, an ancient community was established at Jericho, nestled in the Jordan river valley. The earliest community, comprising several hundred villagers living for much of the year at this site, formed part of what is known as Natufian culture (roughly 10,500-8500 B.C.E.). As in Çatal Hüyük, they gathered and stored food, and may have planted cereals. Here is a brief overview:

Jericho: Brief {click down one screen}

We can locate Jericho on a map of the central portion of modern Israel :

Map with site of Jericho

And then deepen our sense of the ecological setting with a NASA overview map which shows Jericho near the mouth of the Jordan River, with the Dead Sea and the West Bank:

NASA MAP with Jericho and surroundings

In the succeeding era, Jericho flourished as a Neolithic mud-brick walled village. A twelve foot stone wall and ditch enclosed a 10 acre hamlet. Here is an archaeological image offering perspective on Jericho's perimeter:

Aerial View of Jericho

Ancient Jericho's famous stone tower (image leading off this period) reveals an entranceway at the top of the tower which, as in Çatal Hüyük, could be secured and closed off in case of attack. Inside the opening, a staircase wended its way to the floor. There the hamlet nestled, flourishing for a millennium.

Most residents lived in oval shaped domiciles typically consisted of one room with a thick plaster floor, frequently painted, and a hearth. Again, much as at Çatal Hüyük, an active ancestor cult buried dead relatives inside living space, beneath the house floors in this case. Skulls were removed, and they as well as remaining skeletons were employed in preservation rituals involving death mask models. These were molded around the skulls. In other cases, almost life-sized plaster figures of humans have been found.13 Here is a view of the walls:

Ancient Walls of Jericho 
For more details, see this cross-section of layers and materials
Jericho Wall Cross-Section
For far more detail on Jericho's location, see:
Jericho area on large map
 
 

To explore another fascinating community, much later in time, but equally central to its region: Petra, the Nabataean capital in the southern Arabian desert, click the departure symbol: 

Go to Petra
 
 
{If came to Jericho from Çatal Hüyük, click to return}

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Even before 3000 B.C.E., paralleling Early Sumeria, West Semitic tribal groups speaking variations of the Canaanite tongue inhabited much of what is now the modern Middle East. Many settled in the Syria-Canaan lands of Ancient Palestine. Early Mesopotamian documents refer to both nomadic shepherds and to traders. One such group, the Habiru {or Hapiru} migrated into Palestine perhaps as early as 2000 B.C.E. from northern Mesopotamia; later elements from among them formed the ancient Hebrews. As they entered Ancient Palestine, the Phoenicians in the north and the Philistines in the south occupied definite areas.

Abraham, a patriarchal chieftain and farmer raised at Ur in Mesopotamia, was one early Hebrew migrant who carried Mesopotamian culture with him. The story of the flood, legal traditions reminiscent of Hammurabi's code, and worship traditions concerning gods filtered into Canaan. But legacies were transformed and created anew in Palestine. Ziggurats were transformed into the Tower of Babel and the tradition of a garden paradise became Eden.

For orientation, here is a useful map of the Land of Canaan.

Map of Land of Canaan c. 1200 B.C.E.

By 1200 B.C.E., the Syria-Canaan area was divided into several parts. The three most prominent were:

  1. Phoenicia to the north.

    2. "Phoenicia" is the Greek translation of "Canaan,"--the land of purple merchants," referring perhaps to the dye they used to color cloth. Here is a view of the Phoenician Mediterranean port of Acco:
     

    Ancient Mediterranean Port of Acco
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  2. Philistia to the south.
  3. The vast middle and interior, which was sometimes termed "Aram" generally.

    4. This was due to the influx of Aramaean settlers. It included the land that would become Israel and Judah. 14
A sense of the terrain may be seen in this picture of Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley in southern Galilee. This was an active city-state as early as 1500 B.C.E. and it formed a major military transit point between Egypt and Syria. Megiddo fell within the Kingdom of Israel in the time of Solomon. In Biblical history it was the site of the Biblical Battle of Armageddon.

Megiddo

For background on Megiddo and a report on important archaeological research by the University of Chicago, see:

 Report on Megiddo

Several broad overviews of key events in the history of the Land of Canaan are available. Occasionally this geographical term was used to include all lands under Egyptian control; otherwise south Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and the Sinai before the Israelites. The first two sites offer varying chronologies encompassing the whole span of the History of Israel from the 17th century B.C.E though the present day. One is offered by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

Broad Chronology: History of Israel

The second is from the Focus Multimedia Corporations' series:

Focus: Chronology

For two other general overviews, see the history of Palestine:

Palestine-Net: Historical Overview

And, significant dates in Biblical history through 313 C.E.

Chronology of Biblical History 
The next site, the product of Abercrombie and located at
Brandeis, focuses first on material culture within the larger
Palestine area in the Middle Bronze period: 2200-1570 B.C.E.

Palestine: Middle Bronze Era
And then on the Late Bronze era: 1570-1200 B.C.E.
Palestine: Late Bronze Era
For a review of a book on Jordan Archaeology in the Early Iron Age, see:
Jordan Archaeology: Bienkowski, P. 1992
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In Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty, Hebrews were taken to Egypt as forced labor on building projects. During the reign of Ramesses II (1304-1237), Moses led twelve tribes--each believed to be descended from a great-grandson of Abraham--back to Palestine. This became a revered tradition--the Exodus--among the Israelites, Moses's chosen people. While wandering they forged a collective faith and identity, and received Mosaic Law on Mount Sinai.

Location of Mount Sinai

As the Israelite tradition emerged, it centered on a sacred covenant with God and was elaborated in the law of Moses. Evansville University's Anthology offers the text of Exodus.

Exodus
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Menorah
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