THE CANAANITES.
Between the basin of the Euphrates and Tigris and the Mediterranean rise
the mountains of Syria, an elevated plateau which ascends gradually from
the right bank of the Euphrates and descends steeply on the sea-coast. A
peculiar depression, known as Hollow Syria,[477] divides this region in
its entire length from north to south--from the Taurus to the N.E. point
of the Red Sea, and separates the plateau into an eastern and a western
half. The bed of the narrow valley reaches its greatest elevation in the
neighbourhood of the city of Baalbec (Heliopolis). From this point the
Orontes flows towards the north and irrigates the green gardens of Emesa
and Hamath, till it turns westward and finds a way toward the sea at
Antioch; the Leontes and the Jordan flow towards the south. Between
steep walls of rock the Jordan hurries down the gorge, and passes in a
rapid course through the lakes of Merom and Kinneroth (Gennesareth),
which are formed by the streams from the mountains on either side. The
deeper the bed of the valley the more valuable are the fruits growing in
the tropic atmosphere. The country round Jericho, the city of palms,
sheltered from the winds of the table-land and heated by the rays
refracted from the walls of rock, produces grapes and figs for ten
months in the year; its wealth in dates and balsam was rated high in
antiquity.[478] The course of the Jordan ends in the Dead Sea, the
surface of which is about 1,300 feet below the level of the
Mediterranean.
Out of Hollow Syria rises on the east like a wall of rock the plateau of
Aram,[479] in naked, wild, and broken ridges, which, in Antilibanus, the
highest point, reaches 9,000 feet. On the back of the mountains we find
at first green pastures overshadowed by forests of oak, but further
towards the east the heights become bald and desolate, until the land,
as it sinks towards the Euphrates, gradually assumes the character of
the deserts, which are broken only by the fruitful depressions of
Damascus, Hieropolis (Membidsh), and Tadmor (Palmyra).
On the west of the fissure the land is differently shaped. The coast is
a narrow strip of land, which only extends into small plains at the
mouths of the mountain streams; it is hot, moist, and unhealthy, but of
great fertility. Soon the white and yellow limestone rocks of the
mountains begin to rise. On these heights the air is purer and cooler,
and terraces planted with myrtles and oleanders, with pines, fig-trees,
and mulberries, alternate with vineyards. On the broad slopes of the
loftier mountain ridges rise splendid forests of tamarisks, planes,
cypresses and nut-trees, and above all magnificent cedars. Even now some
trees are found here forty feet in girth and ninety feet in height.[480]
Just in front of the highest ridges of rock lie green slopes, on which
feed numerous flocks of black goats, disturbed by jackals, bears, and
lions, dwelling in the desolate gorges. Between the mouth of the Orontes
and the promontory of Carmel, which runs out far into the sea, this
mountain wall, which stretches out to the sea, reaches its greatest
height in the peaks of Libanus (over 10,000 feet) of which Tacitus
remarks with astonishment that they retained the snow even in that hot
climate.[481] Rising above the green pastures and forests, the
cultivated and watered fields, this ridge with its white mantle of snow
gives the appearance of a winter landscape above perpetual spring.
Southward of Carmel the mountains become lower, and at the same time
less precipitous and picturesque. The coast is broader and more sandy,
flatter, and with fewer harbours. In the place of the steep ridges is a
grassy depression (Esdraelon, Galilee), overtopped by one or two peaks
only, like Tabor (1,700 feet). Then parallel ridges again form valleys,
broad and fruitful and overshadowed by forests (Samaria), until the land
between the Dead Sea and the coast assumes a severer and wilder
character. There the table-land is rough and bare, the valleys are
narrow and deep clefts, the soil is stony. From Libanus the eye looks
out on the most various groups of wooded promontories and a smiling
coast, but in Judaea the landscape exhibits none but severe and simple
outlines. On the wide expanses only a few bushes of pale olives arise,
or transparent groups of a few palm-trees. The grassy plains have made
way for steppes or downs, and even the bed of the valleys is covered
with fresh green only in the brief rainy season. The region round the
Dead Sea is wholly desolate. Springs of sulphur and beds of bitumen
point to a volcanic origin; the large proportion of salt contained in
the water makes it impossible for fish to live in the lake, and the
deposits of salt which cover the country round restrict the vegetation.
In contrast to the vast and uniform regions of the Tigris and Euphrates
and Arabia, the western mountains of Syria exhibit change and variety.
The narrowness of the coast forces the inhabitants upon the sea, the
luxuriant fertility of the deeper valleys invites to cultivation of the
land and the planting of vines and orchards, while the upland valleys
and mountain slopes permit nothing but pastoral life, combined with a
little agriculture. There is no central district from which these
numerous and for the most part secluded mountain cantons can be brought
into unity and governed. In the place of the uniform development of
large masses of people we have here to expect a variety of modes of
culture; in the place of one huge despotic kingdom, and the uniform
movement of wandering tribes a more independent and unfettered
development of small communities; sharp contrasts appear in the place of
a general civilisation. At the same time these Syrian coasts by the sea
and mountain air, by life on the ocean and among the hills, compensate
to a great degree the enervating influences of the Eastern sun, and thus
the elements are combined which are wont to keep fresh and vigorous the
life and power of the inhabitants. As the sea attracted the inhabitants
to distant regions, and trained upon its waves a mobile, enterprising,
active population, so on the other hand did the severe formation of the
hills and the seclusion of the valleys lead to a uniform unchanging mode
of life and a desire to retain what was customary and traditional. The
nearer these opposites approached each other the more energetic must
have been their mutual operation, the more lively the process of
intellectual life, and the more productive its results.
The mountain district extending on the west of the fissure from Mount
Hermon and the sources of the Orontes southward as far as the desert
which divides Syria from Egypt was by its inhabitants called Canaan. We
met with this name already in the inscriptions of Sethos I. It means
lower land, and has obviously been transferred from the coast to the
interior. Among the Greeks the southern strip of coast was named
Palaestina, after the Philistines (the Pelishtim) who possessed it; the
northern part, from Carmel to the Eleutherus (Nahr-el-Kebir) was
Phenicia; among the Egyptians the coast was known as Kaft; the tribes of
the interior, and more especially those of Northern Syria, were known as
Retennu.[482]
The oldest information about these districts which has come down to us
is contained in the statements about the campaigns which Kudur-Lagamer
and Kudur-Mabuk of Elam are said to have undertaken against Syria (p.
251). If we might regard the kings of Elam, who extended their power
over Babylonia, and then forced their way to Syria, as belonging to the
fourth dynasty of Berosus, the campaign of Kudur-Lagamer and Kudur-Mabuk
could be placed about the year 2000 B.C. When Babylonia under Sarrukin
and Hammurabi shook off the supremacy of Elam, Sarrukin is said to have
advanced towards Syria as far as the "Western Sea" (p. 260). Three
centuries later Syria was attacked from the western or opposite side. As
soon as the kings of Upper Egypt had succeeded in expelling the Hyksos
from the land, they carried their arms towards Syria, and in these
campaigns repeatedly touched the Euphrates. In the times of Tuthmosis I.
(1646-1625 B.C.) we are told that he traversed Syria towards the north,
advanced as far as the Euphrates, and set up a column there. Tuthmosis
III. (1591-1565 B.C.) marched seven times against Syria; in the fourth
campaign (1580 B.C.) he reached and crossed the Euphrates; then he
appears to have advanced through Mesopotamia as far as the Tigris, and
to have collected tribute there.[483] More than one hundred and fifty
years later Sethos I. (1439-1388 B.C.) fought against the Schasu, _i.e._
the Shepherds, "who extend as far as Canana," the Cheta (Hittites), and
the Retennu, _i.e._ the Syrians. Ramses II. (1388-1322 B.C.) invaded the
land of Kaft, and caused memorials of his victories to be engraved upon
the rocks at Nahr-el-Kelb, in the neighbourhood of Berytus, fought
against the Hittites and their allies from the Euphrates, the prince of
Karchemish, and then concluded peace and entered into friendship with
the prince of the Cheta (p. 150 ff). The campaigns of Ramses III.
(1269-1244 B.C.) were also directed against the Schasu, the Cheta, whose
prince he took alive, the Amari (the Amorites) and the Pulista (the
Philistines, p. 164).
The inscriptions of these Pharaohs prove that the tribes of Syria, even
as early as the sixteenth century B.C., had arrived not only at a
settled mode of life, but at a vigorous trade and a civilisation far
from contemptible. The princes of Syria met Tuthmosis III. with numerous
war-chariots, of which in the battle of Megiddo they lost 924 (p. 132).
If Tuthmosis can mention 107 cities from Hamath in the north to Gaza in
the south which he had subjugated, the population must have been already
more numerous and the land more thickly inhabited. The names quoted
prove that Gaza (Kazatu), Damascus (Tamesku), Hamath (Hamtu), Joppa
(Japu), Berothai (Berytus), Kades (Kadeshu), Ashtaroth Karnaim
(Astartu), and many cities frequently mentioned at a later date, were
already in existence: several of them are represented to us on the
monuments of the Pharaohs, as situated on heights and surrounded by
strong walls.
The tribute received by Tuthmosis III. from Syria is sufficient evidence
that the valleys of Canaan were well cultivated, that extensive trade
relations had already been formed, and that metals were in use to a
considerable amount. Syria contributed to Tuthmosis not wine only, honey
and dates, but also considerable quantities of spices. The Retennu
contributed at one time 1,718 minae of sweet wine. The Hittites
contributed 8 silver rings, weighing in all 301 Egyptian pounds, and 93
Egyptian pounds of gold; the Retennu paid 40 bars, and afterwards 80
bars (bricks) of iron; on one occasion they contributed 761 Egyptian
pounds, and in another year 1,495 pounds of silver and 55 pounds of
gold.[484] It was remarked above (p. 304) that these tributes also prove
that the measures and weights of Babylon were already in use in Syria at
that time.
The monuments of the Pharaohs also prove that the land was divided into
independent districts, governed by hereditary princes. The leading and
most powerful tribe at the time of the Ramessids was that of the
Hittites in the south of Canaan. In the fourteenth century B.C. this
tribe, with its confederates, could place 2,500 war chariots in the
field. We have already seen (p. 152) that the king of the Hittites, the
son of Maursar and grandson of Sepalulu, entered into an alliance and
compact with Rameses II., as one power with another. In the records of
the Egyptians the court and army of the Hittites are found well
arranged. Generals of the cavalry, masters of the horse, and scribes are
mentioned, and the sculptures of the Pharaohs exhibit the Hittites in
their chariots in magnificent clothing and armour. The inscriptions of
Rameses II. mention Baal and Astarte as gods of the Hittites--deities
which we have already found at Babylon under the names of Bel and Istar.
We have less information of the land of Kaft, of the Amari, and finally
of the Pulista, who are first mentioned under Rameses III., and of the
tribes of the Retennu to the north of the Cheta. As was remarked above,
the Pharaohs did not succeed in establishing a lasting supremacy over
Syria. Even Tuthmosis III., who achieved the greatest successes, did no
more than force the Syrian princes to pay him tribute for a short series
of years.
Thus the beginnings of settled life, of agriculture, of cities and trade
in Canaan cannot be placed later than the year 2,000 B.C., and this
result is confirmed by the tradition of the Hebrews. According to
Genesis, Ham, the second son of Noah, begat Canaan, and Canaan begat
Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, and Amori, and Hivi, and Arvadi, and
Hamathi, and afterwards the families of the Canaanites were spread
abroad.[485] Hence, with the Hebrews, the Sidonians passed for the
oldest Canaanites. The name means Fishcatcher, and a tribe limited to a
narrow strip of coast may soon have betaken themselves to the sea. The
primogeniture of the Sidonians was afterwards explained to mean that the
origin of their city, Sidon, belonged to the oldest period. That the
second city of this tribe, Sor (Tyre), "the daughter of Sidon,"[486] was
proud of her great antiquity, we learn from other sources. When
Herodotus was there, and inquired about the erection of the most sacred
temple in the city, the temple of Melkarth, he received the answer that
this shrine had been built, together with the city, about 2,300 years
before his time, i.e. about the year 2,750 B.C. Lucian also assures us
that the temples of Phenicia and the temple of Melkarth at Tyre were
founded not much later than the oldest Egyptian temples.[487]
Northward of Sidon, at the mouths of the Nahr Ibrahim and the
Nahr-el-Kelb (Adonis and Lycus), was settled the tribe of the Giblites,
_i.e._ the mountaineers, whose cities were Gebal (Byblus) and Berothai
(Berytus). Byblus claimed to be the oldest city in the land--older than
Sidon--and to have been built by El, the supreme deity. At any rate, as
we have already seen, it was in existence at the time of Tuthmosis III.,
whose inscriptions also mention the city of a third tribe, that of
Arvadi, _i.e._ the Arvadites, whom the Hebrews mention among the sons of
Canaan. This tribe was in possession of a considerable district to the
north of Byblus, on the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kebir (Eleutherus), and of
a rocky island off the coast, on which lay their city Arvad, the Aratu
of the Egyptians, the Aradus of the Greeks.
The tradition of the Hebrews derived the Hittites from Heth, the second
son of Canaan. The centre of their land, which stretched from the coast
to the Jordan, was formed by the bare and stony mountains round Hebron.
Here, according to Hebrew story, giants once dwelt--the Anakim--whose
father and chief was Arba; after this prince, Hebron was formerly called
Kirjath-Arba. To this city also the Hebrews ascribe a great antiquity;
it was built seven years earlier than Zoan (Tanis) in Egypt.[488] We do
not know the date of the building of Zoan, but the name occurs as early
as the inscriptions of Sesurtesen I., whose reign we must place about
the year 2,350 B.C.[489] With the Hittites of Hebron the Hebrew
Scriptures represent their own forefathers as living in peaceful and
friendly intercourse in the century 2100-2000 _B.C._ We have already
seen what a sustained resistance the disciplined forces of the princes
of the Hittites were able to make against the attacks of Egypt for two
centuries--from the middle of the fifteenth to the middle of the
thirteenth century B.C. War against the Cheta is a standing item in the
inscriptions of the Ramessids.
Northward of the Hittites lay the tribes which the tradition of the
Hebrews derives from Hivi and Amori, the younger sons of Canaan, the
Hivites and Amorites--the former in the beautiful mountain valleys round
Gibeon and Sichem, northwards as far as Mount Hermon; the latter, a
numerous and powerful tribe, outside the land of Canaan, north-east of
Jordan, from the Jabbok in the south to Hermon in the north.[490] The
Amorites, as we may venture to assume, were the Amari of Egyptian
inscriptions. Furthest to the north, in the valley of the Orontes, were
the Hamathites, whom the Hebrews also reckon among the sons of Canaan.
On the other hand, the Damascenes, the northern neighbours of the
Amorites, whose city is mentioned by the Egyptians with Hamath as early
as the sixteenth century, and who in the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.
were the centre of the most powerful community in the Syrian interior,
were not reckoned by the Hebrews among the sons of Canaan; and the
inscriptions of the Assyrians also place the Damascenes among the Arimi,
_i.e._ Aramaeens. Nor are the old inhabitants of the valley of the
Jordan included by Hebrew tradition among the Canaanites, which is here
associated with the principalities of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Adamah,
Zeboim, and Zoar, and the names of the princes who once fought against
Kedor Laomer in the valley of Siddim. But Jehovah caused fire and
brimstone to rain upon Sodom and Gomorrah owing to the sins of the
inhabitants, and destroyed these cities and the whole region. The
Philistines also, whom we find in possession of the coast from Gaza in
the south to Carmel in the north, were not counted by the Hebrews among
the sons of Canaan. It has been remarked that the name occurs for the
first time in Egyptian inscriptions in the first half of the thirteenth
century B.C. The Hebrews tell us that the Philistines marched from
Caphtor and overcame the Avites, who dwell "in villages as far as Gaza."
By Caphtor we should probably understand the eastern sea coast of Egypt,
the north-east of the Delta, where a Semitic population may have
established itself firmly from the time of the Hyksos, and may have been
able to maintain themselves after their expulsion. Yet there is nothing
to contradict the assumption that, at the time of their expulsion by
Amosis and the Tuthmosis, a part of the Hyksos turned towards Syria, and
that the Philistines were sprung from these. We may remember that
Manetho terms the Hyksos Phenicians, or kinsmen of the Phenicians, and
tells us that they retired in the direction of Syria, and Herodotus
represents the shepherd Philitis as pasturing his flocks at
Memphis.[491] In the eleventh century B.C. we find the Philistines under
the dominion of the princes of the cities of Gaza, Ascalon, Ashdod,
Gath, and Ekron. The princes had their palaces; the cities were
protected by walls and towers, and possessed extensive temples, in which
were images of wood and iron, and rich offerings. The five cities formed
a federation, their princes (Seranim) sat in a common council, led out
their armies in common, and in common offered thankofferings for the
victories won. They could bring into the field a splendid army of
chariots, horsemen, heavy-armed soldiers, and bowmen; the soldiers were
divided into troops of hundreds and thousands.[492]
Towards the middle of the thirteenth century a considerable alteration
took place in the interior of Canaan, between the coast of the
Philistines and the valley of the Jordan. The Amorites advanced towards
the south over the Jabbok, and subjugated the Moabites, who dwelt in
this district to the east of the Dead Sea, as far as the Arnon. They
spread westwards over the Jordan, and overthrew the ancient federation
of the Hittites. These were either subjugated or driven out; only in
some mountain cantons did the Hittites maintain themselves. In their
place the Amorites ruled between the coast and the Dead Sea, and this
district was now known as the "Mountain of the Amorites."[493]
Northwards also the Amorites pressed forward against the Hittites, and
took possession of their land as far as Lake Merom.[494] It was only in
Gibeon and the surrounding districts that the Hivites held their
own;[495] and all the Hittites and Hivites who refused subjugation and
slavery were compelled to retire to the coast. It must have been a heavy
blow that could shatter the power of the Hittites; while the collection
of a numerous population on the coast, which was caused by the new
supremacy of the Amorites, was in its turn of important consequence for
the cities of Phenicia. But the new masters of the southern land did not
form a consolidated power, like the Hittites before them; they were
broken up into separate tribes, so that among them, and the remnants of
the Hittites and Hivites, there were about thirty small principalities.
The ancient power of the Hittites must have been important enough to
leave behind a very lasting impression. The Book of Joshua uses the
expression "land of the Hittites," for the whole region from the sea to
the Euphrates, and the Assyrian inscriptions of the ninth, eighth, and
seventh centuries include beside the land of Arimi, _i.e._ of the
Aramaeans the whole of Canaan from Hamath to the sea and southwards as
far as Egypt, under the name of the "land of Chatti."[496]
FOOTNOTES:
[477] Strabo, p. 756. "It is true that the whole land from Seleucis to
Egypt and Arabia is also called Hollow Syria, but strictly speaking the
name is given only to the land between Libanus and Antilibanus."
[478] Strabo, p. 763.
[479] Genesis xxxi. 20-24; Strabo, pp. 627, 784.
[480] Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 396.
[481] Tacit. "Histor." 5, 6.
[482] Ebers, "AEgypten und die Buecher Mose's," s. 131 ff.
[483] De Rouge, "Annales de Toutmes;" cf. _supra_ p. 136.
[484] Brandis, "Muenzwesen," s. 80, 92.
[485] Genesis x. 15-19.
[486] Isaiah xxiii. 3; Justin, 18, 3.
[487] Herod. 2, 34; Lucian, "De dea Syria," 2, 3.
[488] Judges i. 10; Joshua xiv. 12, 15; xv. 13, 14; Numbers xiii. 23.
[489] Ebers, "AEgypten," s. 188.
[490] Genesis xv. 16; xxxiv. 2; Joshua iii. 10; xi. 3; Jud. iii. 3.
[491] Above, p. 127; Gen. x. 13, 14; Amos ix. 7; Deut. ii. 23;
Jeremiah xlvii. 4; Stark, "Gaza," s. 104 ff. Ebers explains Kaphtor
by _Kaft-ur_, _i.e._ Great Kaft, Great Phenicia. To Ai-Kaphtor the
Egyptian Aa-Kaft, _i.e._ island and coast land, curved coast land
would correspond.--"AEgypten," s. 131 ff.
[492] Stark, "Gaza," s. 132-136, 318 ff.
[493] Deut. i. 7, 20, 44; Joshua x. 5, 6; xi. 3. The Jebusites who
possessed the Jerusalem of later times were a tribe of the Amorites.
They and their king are expressly mentioned as Amorites.
[494] In the book of Joshua, as well as in the prophet Amos, it is the
Amorites whom the Hebrews have to contend against, mingled with scanty
remnants of the Hittites and Hivites. Besides this, the advance of the
Amorites against the Moabites is sufficiently proved (_vide_ Exodus,
Numbers, and Deuteronomy), and the migration of the Hittites by their
settlement in Cyprus.
[495] Joshua ix. 7, 10.
[496] Joshua i. 4; Schrader, "Keilsch. und Alt. Test," s. 30.