Ancient Israelites and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide

Ancient Israelites and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide — page 5
Introduction bout 3 200 years ago huge changes occurred in lands around the eastern Mediterranean Sea Mighty empires buckled as shiploads of invaders attacked their coasts New people entered ancient lands among them the land of Canaan KAY nan or Ke NA an in western Asia Philistines FILL iss teens settled on Canaan's southern coast while Israelites IZ ray e lites built small villages on its sparsely settled hills Canaanites called the Phoeni cians fo NEE shuns took advantage of the weaken ing empires and began to create their own These three ancient groups the Israelites Phoenicians and Philistines shared the land once called Canaan during a time known as the Iron Age Their cultures are described in this book Where Was the Land of Canaan From synagogue or church you may think of Canaan as the home of the ancient Israelite people a coun try perhaps the size of modern Israel and the Pales tinian territories combined But ancient writings on stone or clay give a different meaning to the name Canaan In these inscriptions ancient Canaan was much bigger than modern Israel It included Lebanon