Scientists from Israel, Austria, the United States, Italy, Ireland, Spain and Croatia conducted a genetic study of the Canaanite people - the inhabitants of ancient Canaan, the biblical "Promised Land." As reported in Cell magazine, based on the results of the work, a partial Iranian-Caucasian origin of this ethnic group was established.

73 new samples of ancient DNA from the Middle and Late Bronze Age from five archaeological sites in South Levant were analyzed. Researchers combined the obtained data with information about the already studied remains of 20 ancient people from other archaeological sites. Genomic analysis of all 93 samples showed that the inhabitants of ancient Canaan were a single ethnic group.

“The population of the South Levant in the Bronze Age was not static,” says Liran Carmel, a study author at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “On the contrary, we are witnessing evidence that for long periods people moved from the northeast of the ancient Near East, including from the territory of modern Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, to the South Levant region.”

The information received speaks in favor of the fact that “the Canaanites came from a mixture of earlier local Neolithic groups with groups associated with the Chalcolithic Iran and / or the Bronze Age Caucasus. Over time, researchers have recorded a significant increase in the proportion of ancestors associated with the Caucasus / Iran, ”the article says.

The researchers found that the genomes of the inhabitants of ancient Canaan were generally identical, and the material culture was at about the same level, although the Canaanites lived in different city-states. 

Recall that during the Bronze Age (about 3500-1150 BC) ancient Canaan was located in the Middle East region of the South Levant, in the territory of modern Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. During the study period, the ancient Canaanites lived in various kingdoms and city-states, which often were at enmity with each other.

According to Lyran Carmel and his colleagues, the data obtained indicate that the Canaanites also came from the peoples who inhabited the territory of Iran and Transcaucasia. 

  • Excavations on Megiddo Hill in the Western Part of Jezreel Valley
  • © Megiddo Expedition

“The intensity of migration from the north-east of the Ancient Near East and the fact that it continued for many centuries can help explain why the rulers of the city-states of Canaan in the late Bronze Age bear non-Semitic, Hurrian names. Thanks to the movements of peoples between these regions, there were strong and active ties that help to identify common elements in their cultures, ”believes co-author and colleague Lyran Carmela Shai Carmi.