Carmel and colleagues came to these conclusions based on an analysis of 73 new ancient DNA samples representing mainly Middle-to-Late Bronze Age individuals from five archaeological sites across the Southern Levant. To these new data, the researchers added previously reported data from 20 individuals from four sites to generate a dataset of 93 individuals. The genomic analysis showed that the Canaanites do represent a clear group.
The researchers also studied the relationship of the Canaanites to modern-day populations. While the direct contribution of the Canaanites to modern populations cannot be accurately quantified, the data suggest that a broader Near Eastern component, including populations from the Caucasus and the Zagros Mountains, likely account for more than 50 percent of the ancestry of many Arabic-speaking and Jewish groups living in the region today.
Carmel reports that they are now working to extend their sampling, both geographically and over time. This work was an equal collaboration with the laboratory of David Reich at Harvard University.
Materials provided by Cell Press. A stele erected by a pharaoh named Merneptah reign ca. The Canaanites are mentioned often in the Hebrew Bible. The stories say that god promised to give the land of the Canaanites along with land belonging to several other groups over to the Israelites after they escaped from Egypt. In the stories, God tells Moses that "I have heard them [the Israelites] crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey — the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
The stories told in the Hebrew Bible say that after the Israelites escaped from Egypt they fought a series of wars against the Canaanites and other groups , which led to the Israelites taking over most of the Canaanites' land. The stories say that those Canaanites who survived had to do forced labor. The stories also say that this conquered land was incorporated into a powerful Israelite kingdom that eventually split in two.
The historical accuracy of the stories told in the Hebrew Bible is a point of dispute among scholars. Some scholars believe that there was no exodus from Egypt and that the Israelites lived in Canaan alongside various "Canaanite" groups during the second millennium B. Scholars who study ancient languages sometimes describe Hebrew, a language used by the Israelis, as a "Canaanite" language noting that it is similar in some respects to Phoenician.
On the other hand, some scholars argue that some of the Israelites could have left Egypt at some point during the second millennium B. Excavations and ancient texts show that various foreign groups lived in Egypt at different points in the civilization's history, says James Hoffmeier, an archaeologist and professor at Trinity International University, in a series of lectures and papers. They did, however, share sufficient similarities in language and culture to be described together as "Canaanites.
Israel refers to both a people within Canaan and later to the political entity formed by those people. To the authors of the Bible, Canaan is the land which the tribes of Israel conquered after an Exodus from Egypt and the Canaanites are the people they disposed from this land.
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