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 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.