Bronze Age DNA helps unravel true fate of Biblical Canaanites

                       There are recorded details of the conflict between the Hebrews and the Canaanites 

Whatever became of the Canaanites? Famously, they appeared on the

 losing side in one of the best known biblical conflicts – over the city

of Jericho.

They lived on further north, but because their territory was

 invaded many times in antiquity their ultimate fate has been a mystery –

Many archaeologists have been fascinated by the Canaanites.

They lived on the Mediterranean’s eastern coastal region several

 thousand years ago. They are credited with constructing the first alphabet.

But paradoxically, they left few texts behind, which means much

 of what we know about the Canaanites comes from descriptions of

them written by others – mostly their rivals including the Egyptians,

Greeks and Israelites.

Impartial account

The new account of the Canaanites comes from an impartial source:

 the ancient DNA from five skeletons unearthed from a Canaanite burial

 site in the Lebanese city of Sidon. The two males and three females

date from the Bronze Age, 3700 years ago.

Collectively, they yielded enough DNA for analysis even though

the remains have been exposed for so long to the region’s

forbidding temperatures, which normally destroy DNA.

“We had a large sample of bones and tried the teeth, but got no DNA

whatsoever,” says Chris Tyler-Smith of the Wellcome Trust Sanger

 Institute in Hinxton, UK. “The success was from the petrous bone

 in the skulls, near the ear, which contained well-preserved DNA.”

After comparing the Canaanite DNA with that from 99 living Lebanese

 volunteers, the team found that almost 90 per cent of present day

 Lebanese DNA is shared with the Canaanites, suggesting that biblical

 reports of their annihilation were greatly exaggerated.

“There’s evidence for substantial continuity in the region from the

 Bronze Age to today,” says Tyler-Smith.

Waves of migration

Much later, distant invaders from the Asian steppes swept into

 the area. But their DNA accounts for only about 10 per cent of the

 DNA in the modern inhabitants of Lebanon.

Tyler-Smith says this is surprising, given that the post-Bronze-Age

 history of the region records repeated conquests. “It seems they only

 had a small impact on the genetic composition of the

 people in the area,” he says.

For comparison, similar waves of ancient migration are thought

to have occurred in Europe, but they have generally left a much

 larger genetic imprint. Many modern day Europeans share only

about half their DNA with the region’s first farming communities.

Comparison of the ancient DNA with other ancient genetic sequences

 suggests that the Canaanites originated some 4000 to 6000 years ago,

before the Bronze Age. At that time, early farm settlers in the Levant

 and immigrants from further east in the Mesopotamian region

came together. This suggests the appearance of the Canaanites might

be linked with the collapse of the Akkadian Empire

in Mesopotamia, 4200 years ago.

The Canaanites then forged their own empire.

They built the temple at Palmyra in Syria, recently damaged

 by Islamic State. It also seems likely that the Canaanites became

known to the Greeks as the Phoenicians later in the Bronze Age.

Under that guise, they developed a formidable

maritime presence across the Mediterranean.

(New Scientist)