Ancient Israelites and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide
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
to the north parts of modern Syria and Jordan and Israel and the Palestinian territories Ancient Canaan was a region not a country Its inhabitants included the Jebusites EB yoo sites Horvites Amorites and others We don't know the names of all these groups The Bible sometimes just calls them Canaanites ANATOLA MESOPOTAMA SARDINA GREE Aerprise They won ASSYRLA Eagle River BABYLONIA MALTA For PHOENICIA FRAURISRAEL Mediteranean Sea EGYPT Aileener ARABIA The Mediterranean Sea during the Iron Age places mentioned in this book
In modern Jerusalem an ancient tower catches the sun It's part of a structure called the Citadel first erected by King Herod about 2 000 years ago and rebuilt several times since Even the oldest parts of the Citadel were built long after the events in this book Courtesy of Scott Noegel A Note on Pronouncing Names You'll find tips on pronouncing tricky names the first time they appear Tips look like this Nebuchadnezzar neb oo khad NEZ zer Confused by the letters kh in the pro nunciation They stand for a sound that's not part of ordinary English but one you may use anyway Have you ever said yecch or blecch or the name of the German com poser Bach YEKH BLEKH BAKH That's the sound What Is This Book About This book is about how the Israelites Phoenicians and Philistines lived their daily lives in the land they shared Reading it you'll learn to do many things such as serve a meal ancient Israelite style
build a model Phoenician ship write messages in ancient alphabets fashion Israelite Phoenician and Philistine cos tumes and headdresses create a model Philistine lyre a stringed musical instrument shape a Phoenician style mask mold a Philistine bird shaped bowl make grape juice with your feet You'll learn about examples of ancient writing crumbling silver scrolls engraved with a blessing like one still used today and a mysterious inscription per haps written by a long dead Philistine You'll learn how the Israelites turned hillsides into farms grow ing grain and fruit trees and how bold Phoenician sailors risked their lives traveling to far off lands You'll also learn about less pleasant subjects such as captivity child sacrifice and war What Time Period Does This Book Cover This book covers events between the years 1200 B C E and 538 B C E with occasional side trips to periods before and after Have you ever seen the letters B C E after a date They stand for Before the Common Era a fancy way of saying before the year 1 See Telling Time page XV1 The first date 1200 B C E occurred 1 200
