CANAAN AND ANCIENT ISRAEL INTRODUCTION
Penn Museum holds nearly 25,000 artifacts from excavations in the Levant, the area that encompasses modern Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon, and parts of Syria. Penn Museum has the largest collection of artifacts from this region in the Western Hemisphere.
The Museum’s began excavation in the Levant in the 1920s at Tell el-Husn, ancient Beisan or Beth Shean.
The title Canaan and Ancient Israel is drawn from ancient names of the region and its inhabitants. Canaan is the earliest attested name, found in texts dated to the 18th century BC from the site of Mari, on the Euphrates, near the border between Syria and Iraq. Canaan was not ethnically or politically unified, but its inhabitants shared similarities in language and culture and have been identified as Canaanites. Canaan was the land conquered by the tribes of Israel after the Exodus.
Israel refers to a group of people within Canaan, and was first mentioned on a stele from the late 13th century BC made for the Egyptian Pharaoh Merenptah.
Penn Museum holds nearly 25,000 artifacts from excavations in the Levant, the area that encompasses modern Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon, and parts of Syria. Penn Museum has the largest collection of artifacts from this region in the Western Hemisphere.
The Museum’s began excavation in the Levant in the 1920s at Tell el-Husn, ancient Beisan or Beth Shean.
The title Canaan and Ancient Israel is drawn from ancient names of the region and its inhabitants. Canaan is the earliest attested name, found in texts dated to the 18th century BC from the site of Mari, on the Euphrates, near the border between Syria and Iraq. Canaan was not ethnically or politically unified, but its inhabitants shared similarities in language and culture and have been identified as Canaanites. Canaan was the land conquered by the tribes of Israel after the Exodus.
Israel refers to a group of people within Canaan, and was first mentioned on a stele from the late 13th century BC made for the Egyptian Pharaoh Merenptah.
The Museum’s began excavation in the Levant in the 1920s at Tell el-Husn, ancient Beisan or Beth Shean.
The title Canaan and Ancient Israel is drawn from ancient names of the region and its inhabitants. Canaan is the earliest attested name, found in texts dated to the 18th century BC from the site of Mari, on the Euphrates, near the border between Syria and Iraq. Canaan was not ethnically or politically unified, but its inhabitants shared similarities in language and culture and have been identified as Canaanites. Canaan was the land conquered by the tribes of Israel after the Exodus.
Israel refers to a group of people within Canaan, and was first mentioned on a stele from the late 13th century BC made for the Egyptian Pharaoh Merenptah.
