Image: The Map of Canaan According to the Bible
After finish my second book, The Enchanting Encounter with the East, I needed to take a break, approximately from mid-May to the end of June. That was the finish of the school year, so I had plenty of time on my hands. My idea was to pick up a momentous episode from the history of early Israel. This is the topic of my fourth book.
I found so much data that it would take months, if not years, to process it. However, I became aware of what this future volume would be about.
I support the idea that early Israel was part and parcel of Canaan, a narrow land bridge stretched between Western Asia and Egypt. Surrounded by stony deserts, it belonged to the occidental leg of the Fertile Crescent. Splashed by the great wine-dark sea, this land occupied a chunk of the eastern Mediterranean.
This spatial corridor, craved by quite a few great powers of the ancient world and giving easy access for invaders, was populated by an array of diverse ethnic groups that shared a similar culture, language, and religion. In the Late Bronze Age (c. 1500-1200 BCE), it was swallowed by the expanding Egyptian Empire.
My future article will focus on Canaan and Canaanites, emphasizing their common features as they are disclosed in the archeological digs committed to the periods of Middle Bronze (c. 2000-1500) and Late Bronze. Now, I am looking for any piece of information concerning the geography of the region. Later, I will check on other aspects of the topic: political development, languages & ethnography, agriculture, arts & crafts, foreign trade, social classes, law & order, warfare, and diplomacy.
At first glance, this path resembles that of my first book, Dawn and Sunset: A Tale of the Oldest Cities in the Near East. However, in this case, the whole topic is designated as an introduction to the history of ancient Israel. In my view, the origin of the 'people of the Bible' is rooted in the local soil.
Unfortunately, I will have to stop my quest in the near future on behalf of my new research about the Portuguese seafarers searching the maritime path to India. That is the topic of my third book. I have already written several articles about this theme but now I need to have a closer look.
I promise to keep you informed about further developments. I appreciate any comments which can help me create a good book.
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