CHANAAN
571
CHANAAN
woman of Mark, vii, 26, is a Chanaanitish woman in
Matth.. xv. 22. It is not likely that all the various
pre-Israelitisb tribes remained sharply distinguished
from one another. "There are good reasons for believ-
ing that at a very early period the population of Pal-
estine already presented a mixture of races, and that
through intermarriage the dividing lines between
these raees became fainter in the course of time, until
all sharp distinctions were obliterated. The problem
of distinguishing between these various groups whom
the Hebrews encountered upon set ding in Palestine
is at present incapable of solution." (Morris Jastrow
Jr., Encyclop. Bibl., 1,642.) Still it does not seem
too great a venture to distinguish (with Hughes Vin-
"Canaan", p. 455) two principal groups of
tribes: the Amorrhites in the mountains and the
Chanaanites along the sea-coast and in the valley of
the Jordan, and perhaps in the plain of Esdrelon
(Jos., xvii, 12-18). On the other hand, when the
Israelites under Josue penetrated into Chanaan they
found this mixed " Chanaanitish" or "Amorrhitish"
population, not bound together politically under one
government, but divided into more than thirty petty
kingdoms (Jos., xii, 7-14), a state of things which
must have made the conquest considerably easier for
them. This same system Of cutting up the country
into small parts obtained two or three centuries ear-
lier, in the time of the Tell el-Amarna letters, which
were for the- greater part written by. or to a number
of these city-kings -and apparently even earlier still in
the days of Abraham (Gen., xiv. 2. S, 18. xx. 2). In
this respect these letters contain a striking corrobo-
ration of the Biblical story. Alter the campaigns of
Tothmes III in the sixteenth century B. c. all these
small states acknowledged the supremacy of the
Egyptian Pharaos and paid them tribute. After a
time, however, this sovereignty must have gradually
become more and more nominal, and in spite of the
later campaigns of Seti I and Ramses II against the
Hethites. it left no traces after the conquest by Josue.
The further particulars given by the Bible about
the Chanaanites are rather scanty. We read occa-
sionally of their cities " great and walled up to the sky"
(Dent., i. 2S; cf. Num., xiii, 29); of their "charioti of
iron (Jos., xvii. 16); and repeatedly of their gods
Baal and Moloch and their goddesses Astarte and
Ashera; of their altars and their stone pillars I
bMh) and wooden posts {ash&i '■>•• : in connexion with
these altars, .if their sacrifices of children and mani-
fold forms of noral perversity; the abominations on
account of winch "the land itself vomiteth out her
inhabitant-' VW.Lev., xviii. 25), and which, in
prohibition of the Law and the
admonitions of the Prophets, found but too much
imitation in Israel itself. Most ol these particulars
have of late received a splendid corroboration and
explanation in archaeological discoveries, principally
in consequence of the systematic excavations con-
ducted in Palestine by W. II. Flinders Petrie and
I .1. Bliss at Tell el-Hesy; by Bliss and M. It. A.
Stewart Macalister at Tell Zakartya, Tell es-Safy, and
TellJedeide; by Macalister at Tell Jezer; by E. Sellin
at Thenac; by G. Schumacher at Tell el-Mutesallim —
to all of which Sellin added in 1907 his labours at old Jericho.
Even before the tribes who are introduced to us as Chanaanites in the Bible penetrate, 1 int.. Palestine (between 3000 and 2500 n. c.) there must have lived for many centuries an older population, dwelling there partly in civ.-, but also possessing their primi- tive "towns" Burrounded by earthen wall-. period is characterized especially by stone instru- ments and v.ry primitivi earthenware. The Cha- naanitish lril.es who gradually took their place came from the north and were for a long time, if not under the supremacy, without a doubt under the manifold
influence of Babylon. In the fifteenth century b. c,
when the country was already politically subject to
Egypt, the kings of the Chanaanitish towns used in
their correspondence, not only with the Pharaos but
also between themselves, the Babylonian cuneiform
characters, anil — with the addition of a number of
Chanaanitish words — the language of Babylon as
well. Macalister (Pal. Expl. Fund Quart Stat. 1905,
323 sq.) and, quite lately, Sellin (Mitth. und Xach.
des Deutschen Palastinavereins, 1907, 70) found
some scanty evidence that the Old Hebrew or Phoe-
nician characters were also known in those days.
Civilization, meanwhile, had made immense progress,
as is evident from the use of bronze and other metals
— soon, too, of iron: from the building of dwelling-
places, city walls, towers, and strongholds; from the
increasing number and value of objects of domestic
and religious use; from the designs and fitting up of
sanctuaries and burial caves; and from the richer
variety of form, ornamentation, and painting in the
products of the potter's art -though art does not
appear to have enjoyed a continuous and even develop-
ment.
When the Israelites (Num., xiii, 29; Deut., i, 28) speak in awe of " great cities", the hyperbole is nearly as great as in the expression "walled up to the sky: those explored have covered, at most, seven or eight hectares (about 19 acres), but the fortifications have been excellent. The wall of Jericho, built of burnt bricks, had a width of from three to twelve metres, i. e. from about 9 to 39 feet (Sellin, op. cit., p. 69). If the ancient inhabitants offered their sacrifices in dish- like cups cut in the surface of the rocky ground, the Chanaanites had their open-air temples, or B&mdth (high places), with altar, sacrificial pit, and stone pillars from about seven to nine feet high. At Gazer eight pillars were found, still standing, the smallest of which (about 5J feet high) seems to be the oldest, and is perhaps the real emblem of the deity. Of the OShi rim. or wooden posts, only the stone bases seem to be left. 'I wo large grottos situated under the sanctuary must also have played a part in this worship. But the most disgusting traces of this idolatry are the skeletons of infants — mostly new- born babes — sacrificed to the deity,which at Gazer were found buried in jars beneath the floor of the sanctuary, and elsewhere, especially at Mageddo, in its immediate neighbourhood. Several times there- mains of these human victims, among which have been adults, were found beneath or in the foun- dations of houses and other buildings; a striking illustration of the words of Jos., vi, 2li: "Cursed be the man before the Lord that shall raise up and build the city of Jericho. In [or with] his firstborn maybe lay the foundation thereof, and in [or with] the last of his children set up its gat. The naturalistic character of this religion becomes especially evident in the numerous Astarte pi or statuettes, of divergi nt types, and likewise in the often occurring phallic emblems. Among these latter some class part of the baetylic stone pillars, and find in a f.w bulls' beads representations of Baal
..r Moloch. Some representations of Babylonian deities als -et it-, and. still more frequently, images
from Egyptian mythology. The Astarte pis
likewise show Egyptian inspiration. In short, the initish civilization illy to have
hit the influence of both these nations. In pot- tery, moreover, Sgean-Phcenician art produced
milked results from the beginning of the four- teenth cent u ry it. r. On the other hand, the in. nt of the Israelites in Chanaan. judging from the explorations made, opened no new period in so far as archseology is concerned, so that the "Chanaan- itish" period (i. e. the va i - c" periods of
Macalister, Pal i '..ration Fund Quarterly
Statements, ran; ,,. 203 hae been extended to about
the ninth or eighth century n. c.
