Ana Vazquez Hoys

Taanach [TAY uh nak] (significado desconocido), es una antigua ciudad real de la antigua Canaán, cuyo rey fue vencido por el israelita Josué, que mantuvo a sus habitantes (Josh. 12:21; Judg. 1:27).

Tanaach fue ocupada por la tribu de Manasés y fue asignada a los levitas de la tribu de Kohath (Josh. 17:11-13; 21:25, Tanach, KJV).

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Canaán (en fenicio: , en hebreo: כְּנַעַן‎, en árabe کنعان, en griego Χανααν) es la denominación antigua de una región del Próximo Oriente, situada entre el mar Mediterráneo y el río Jordán y que abarcaba parte de la franja sirio-fenicia conocida también como el creciente fértil. En la actualidad se corresponde con el Estado de Israel, la Franja de Gaza y Cisjordania, junto con la zona occidental de Jordania y algunos puntos de Siria y Líbano. Sus límites estarían desde la antigua Gaza al Sur hasta la desembocadura del río Orontes al Norte, englobando todas las tierras no desérticas del interior, hasta una profundidad de unos 150 km desde la costa del Mediterráneo, algunos kilómetros más allá de la ribera oriental del río Jordán.

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Canaán es una zona con una larga historia, que remonta su ocupación hasta las fases neolíticas más tempranas, con importantes asentamientos a lo largo del tiempo, como Jericó, Ugarit, Jerusalén, Tiro, Sidón, Biblos, Damasco o Gaza. Fue habitado por pueblos muy diversos, como amorreos, jebuseos, hicsos, fenicios, arameos, hebreos (y sus descendientes los judíos).

The English name Canaan ultimately comes from the Hebrew כנען, via Greek Χαναάν Khanaan and Latin Canaan. The Hebrew name Canaan is of obscure origins, with one suggestion connecting it with the non-Semitic Hurrian term Kinahhu found at Nuzi (c. 1450 BC), and referring to the colour purple— also said to be the meaning of Phoenician (which itself is often used as synonym for Canaan).^[8]

Another etymology is straightforward. “Can” means low, as “Aram”^[9] means high. A straightforward meaning of Canaan is “lowland.” This was first applied to the lowland or classical Phoenicia, mainly Sidon, then by extension to the whole region.^[10]

A third possibility is that Canaan derives from the Semitic root *k-n-’ meaning “to be subdued”^[1], or “to be humbled”, possibly connected with the above meaning “low”.^[11]

The Bible attributes the name to Canaan, the son of Ham and the grandson of Noah, whose offspring correspond to the names of various ethnic groups in the land of Canaan, listed in the “Table of Nations” (Gen. 10), where Sidon is named as his firstborn son, to be subdued by the descendants of Shem.

Canaan in Mesopotamian inscriptions

Certain scholars of the Eblaite material (dated 2350 BC) from the archive of Tell Mardikh see the oldest reference to Canaanites in the ethnic name ga-na-na which provides a third millennium reference to the name Canaan.^[13]

Canaan is mentioned in a document from the 18th century BC found in the ruins of Mari, a former Sumerian outpost in Syria, located along the Middle Euphrates. Apparently Canaan at this time existed as a distinct political entity (probably a loose confederation of city-states). A letter from this time complains about certain “thieves and Canaanites (i.e. Kinahhu)” causing trouble in the town of Rahisum.^[1]

Tablets found in the Mesopotamian city of Nuzi use the term Kinahnu (”Canaan”) as a synonym for red or purple dye, laboriously produced by the Kassites from murex shells as early as 1600 BC and on the Mediterranean coast by the Phoenicians from a byproduct of glassmaking. Purple cloth became a renowned Canaanite export commodity which is mentioned in Exodus. The dyes may have been named after their place of origin. The name ‘Phoenicia’ is connected with the Greek word for “purple”, apparently referring to the same product, but it is difficult to state with certainty whether the Greek word came from the name, or vice versa. The purple cloth of Tyre in Phoenicia was well known far and wide and was associated by the Romans with nobility and royalty.

Anne Killebrew has shown how cities such as Jerusalem were large and important walled settlements in the Middle Bronze IIB and Iron Age IIC periods (ca. 1800–1550 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1800–1550 end_of_the_skype_highlighting and 720–586 BC), but that during the intervening Late Bronze (LB) and Iron Age I and IIA/B Ages sites like Jerusalem were small and relatively insignificant and unfortified towns.^[14]

References to Canaanites are also found throughout the Amarna letters of Pharaoh Akenaton circa 1350 BC, and a reference to the “land of Canaan” is found on the statue of Idrimi of Alalakh in modern Syria.

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El rey Idrimi de Alalakh.Museo Británico.

After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mother’s relatives to seek refuge in “the land of Canaan”, where he prepared for an eventual attack to recover his city. Texts from Ugarit also refer to an individual Canaanite (*kn’ny), suggesting that the people of Ugarit, contrary to much modern opinion, considered themselves to be non-Canaanite.^[15]

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Tablilla con el sello del rey Idrimi de Alalakh.Museo Británico.

Archaeological excavations of a number of sites, later identified as Canaanite, show that prosperity of the region reached its apogee during this Middle Bronze Age period, under leadership of the city of Hazor, at least nominally tributary to Egypt for much of the period. In the north, the cities of Yamkhad and Qatna were hegemons of important confederacies, and it would appear that Biblical Hazor was the chief city of another important coalition in the south. In the early Late Bronze Age, Canaanite confederacies were centered on Megiddo and Kadesh, before again being brought into the Egyptian Empire.