Near East Kingdoms

Canaan (Iron Age / Independent City States)

Ancient Canaan (Intro) Canaanite States & Groups Israelites & Israel Mesopotamian States & Groups Rome Syrian States & Groups

The ancient regions of Syria and Canaan both went through city-building phases in the third and second millennia BC respectively. The second millennium BC across the Semitic-speaking Levant was a period of progress, intensive trade - especially with Egypt which maintained a level of dominance in the region - and minor internecine squabbles.

The rise of a Near Eastern empire in the 'Bronze Age' known as Mitanni and then the similar rise of the Hittites complicated the political situation, with smaller states having to chose sides while these great powers jostled for superiority between themselves and Egypt.

Disaster struck in the form of a broad social 'Bronze Age Collapse' at the end of the thirteenth century BC. Climate-induced drought and famine triggered general instability and large-scale population movements across the Near East.

The Sea Peoples, which included the Philistines and many other small groups, invaded areas of the Canaanite and Syrian coasts to take over many cities, with the Aramaeans doing the same in the north, and the early Israelites apparently carrying out the same process farther inland, albeit on a less historically-sound basis.

Out of a period of about three centuries of increasing chaos and then a short dark age, the Israelites had formed a kingdom of their own - Israel - while many other cities emerged under new or altered Iron Age ownership. The Phoenicians of the Levantine coast were the Canaanites of the first millennium BC, while the other regional states were largely blended forms of culturally-dominant incomers and less visible Canaanite natives.

The name Canaan itself began to fall out of common use, especially once the great empires began to conquer and control the entire Near East, starting with Assyria, but continuing with Babylonia, Persia, and the Greeks. Finally, domination by Rome saw the region transition from ancient period to early medieval period.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Unger's Bible Dictionary, Merrill F Unger (1957), from Easton's Bible Dictionary, Matthew George Easton (1897), from Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, Donald Redford (Princeton University Press, 1992), from Early Israel and the Surrounding Nations, A H Sayce, from the Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible, Geoffrey Wigoder (Gen Ed, 1986), from The Cambridge Ancient History, John Boardman, N G L Hammond, D M Lewis, & M Ostwald (Eds), from A Test of Time, David Rohl (Arrow, 2001), from A History of Israel: From the Bronze Age through the Jewish Wars, Walter C Kaiser Jr (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), from A Royal Dedicatory Inscription from Ekron, S Gitin, T Dothan, & J Naveh (Israel Exploration Journal 47, 1997), from The History of Esarhaddon (Son of Sennacherib) King of Assyria, BC 681-688, Ernest A Budge, from Jewish War & Jewish Antiquities, Flavius Josephus, and from External Link: Encyclopaedia Britannica.)

c.1035 BC

The kingdom of Israel is founded while the Phoenicians are creating trading posts along the North African coast, such as Carthage and Utica, in southern Italy, in the Mediterranean, such as Kition on Cyprus and on Corsica, and in southern Iberia, such as Gadir and Tarshish.

The surviving ruins of the Phoenician city of Gadir are few in number although some signs of them can be found, but did these pillars provide a name for the nearby 'Pillars of Heracles' (the modern Straits of Gibraltar) thanks to Hercules himself supposedly completing one of his labours here?

Merchants are also known to trade with the occupants of the Land's End region of Britain, the ancestors of the Dumnonii tribe, and general opinion is that these traders are Phoenicians, although there is no surviving proof.

975 BC

The Jebusite king, Araunah, is mentioned in the Old Testament in relation to Shalem during the formation of the Israelite kingdom, so he is probably the city's ruler. The Jebusites have been resisting Israelite attempts to re-take the city for some time, resorting to mocking their assailants for their failures.

Now King David manages to conquer the city once and for all, taking it as his new capital and renaming it hebiru-Shalem, or Jerusalem. From this point onwards, the city serves as Israel's spiritual centre, as well as its administrative capital. When Israel divides into Samaria and Judah in 928 BC, Jerusalem serves as Judah's capital.

c.970? BC

The Old Testament recounts that 'when David destroyed Zobah's army, Rezon gathered a band of men around him and became their leader; they went to Aram Damascus where they settled and took control'.

This colour photochrome print shows a wall in Damascus' defences which is rumoured to be the one over which St Paul escaped in the first century AD

This Rezon is a young officer of Zobah, the son of Eliada, who escapes the city's fall and establishes himself in Damas, where he 'founds' Aram Damascus - in other words he takes control of it with his band of men - and severely threatens Israel and its northern successor, Samaria. The changes mean that Damas also replaces the eclipsed Zobah as the main centre of Aramaean power in the Levant.

928 - 840 BC

The break-up of Israel in 928 BC allows Damas to rapidly grow in power and at times even threaten the existence of its southern neighbour. It also gains the important caravan routes westwards to the Phoenician ports, bringing immense wealth into the city.

In the ninth century, the Assyrians invade and subjugate Syrian states, including Bit Adini, Bit Agusi, Carchemish, and Pattin, by which time many small and semi-obscure cities have arisen, such as Gamgum and Gan Dunias, along with the kingdom of Kedar in eastern Syria.

However, the Assyrians do not have it all their own way. In 853 BC they are defeated by a coalition of Syrian and Canaanite states which seems to be led by Damas (see feature link), and around 840 BC it is Damas which is the dominant city state in the region, not the Assyrians.

When the Neo-Assyrian empire threatened the various city states of southern Syria and Canaan around 853 BC, they united to protect their joint territory - successfully it seems, at least for a time (click or tap on map to view full sized)

738 - 676 BC

The end of the region known as Philistia (Palestine), as well as the remaining cultural Philistines, now comes when the Assyrians sack the remaining towns and cities and sells the inhabitants into slavery. The city of Ashkelon may be the last to fall, in 701 BC.

Subsequent kings appear in Ekron (at least), but they write their inscriptions in a Canaanite dialect which is very close to Phoenicia. All of the Phoenician states also become vassals of Assyria, but local arrangements for governance are left in place.

However, the conquest is not total. In 679 BC Esarhaddon of Assyria conducts a campaign against the Cimmerians. He defeats them and their leader, Teuspa, in the region of Hubusna (probably Hupisna-Cybistra), but the area is not pacified.

In the same year Esarhaddon's troops also fight a war in Hilakku (Khilakku), and a few years later they punish the Anatolian prince of Kundu (Cyinda) and Sissu (Sisium, modern Sis), who has allied himself with Phoenician rebels against Assyrian rule. The regions to the north of the Cilician plain repeatedly cause trouble for Assyria.

This image shows Cimmerians battling early Greeks - prior to the advent of accepted 'Classical' Greece - with the mounted Cimmerians warriors apparently being accompanied by their dogs

676 - 612 BC

Assyria finally conquers all of Phoenicia. However, despite being under the nominal control of the Assyrians, the Phoenicians continue their highly profitable trading enterprises in the western Mediterranean.

They begin to move farther inland on Sardinia in their hunt for important natural resources such as lead and silver mines. They also establish a fort on Monte Sirai, the oldest-known Phoenician military building in the west, presumably to protect their acquisitions from an increasingly hostile native Sardi people.

612 - 573 BC

The Phoenician cities appear to regain their freedom following the destruction of the Assyrian empire. Illusions of freedom are insubstantial, however.

A resurgent Egypt battles against Babylonia towards the end of the seventh century BC, with the former conquering and then losing control of Syria, and then barely being able to hold onto Phoenicia. Megiddo in northern Canaan is conquered and held by Egypt during this push and afterwards too.

573 - 539 BC

Having already secured Syria and having been instrumental in destroying the Assyrian empire, Babylonia now conquers Phoenicia. As a result, many Phoenicians emigrate to the colonies, especially Carthage, which quickly rises to become a major power.

This first century AD stone carving reflects Phoenician ship design from an earlier age, although by the time it was created the Phoenicians had long since been subsumed within later states

As a region, the use of 'Canaan' falls out of use if it has not already. When Rome comes to dominate in the first century BC, the core of Canaan is formed into the province of Judea, while an elongated Syria also includes northern Canaanite areas.