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Canaanites

Were the inhabitants of ancient Levant, area encompassing today Israel, West Bank, parts of Syria and Lebanon. The human habitation of coastal Canaan can be traced to to Paleolithic and Mesolithic times, excavations have revealed that a settled community and an agricultural way of life existed at the site of Jericho by 8,000 bc. The first historical record of Canaanites dates from the large numbers of clay tablets found in the area of Mari on Euphrates, dated to 18th century BCE. Starting from 2000 BCE, Canaanites began to infiltrate the Egyptian Delta, and their  caravans were depicted on many Egyptian tombs. By 1700 BC they established a dynasty known as the Hyksos or “Shepherd Kings”. With the development of a rich and imaginative artistic style. During this period the Canaanites developed the first alphabetic writing system that was passed later on to the Phoenicians.

Religion and history
Canaanites were polytheistic people, El is the name by which the supreme Canaanite deity is known, although El is a generic name for "god" in Northwest Semitic (Hebrew and Ugaritic).In Canaanite paganism the el, par excelence, was the head of the pantheon. Baal was the son of El, and the reigning king of the gods, dominating the Canaanite pantheon. Canaanites worshiped also Asherah, Mot, Reshep and other acient Semitic deities. The Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–c. 1200 bc) was mainly one of Egyptian dominance in Canaan. Canaan also suffered further invasion at the hands of the Philistines, who appear to have come from Crete. Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians By Ann E. Killebrew

Language and wrritings
Canaanite languages belonged to the group of Northern Central or Northwestern Semitic languages.An early form of Canaanite is attested in the Tell el-Amarna letters (c. 1400 bc). The language of the Canaanites may perhaps be best described as an archaic form of Hebrew and Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language.. Caanite languages were written in many writing systems, in most cases in cuneiform letters (Ebla System). This system was gradually replaced by alphabetic, starting from the second millennium. It was the alphabetic writing system which was passed through Phonecians to ancient Greeks and hence passed to all nations of Western hemisphere.