Canaan

Ancient region between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, called in the Bible the ‘Promised Land’ of the Israelites. It was occupied as early as the 3rd millennium BC by the Canaanites, a Semitic-speaking people who were known to the Greeks of the 1st millennium BC as Phoenicians. The capital was Ebla (now Tell Mardikh, Syria).

The Canaanite Empire included Syria, Palestine, and part of Mesopotamia. It was conquered by the Israelites during the 13th to 10th centuries BC. Ebla was excavated 1976-77, revealing an archive of inscribed tablets dating from the 3rd millennium BC, which includes place names such as Gaza and Jerusalem (no excavations at the latter had suggested occupation at so early a date).

Canaan

Town in Litchfield County, extreme northwestern Connecticut, USA, on the Housatonic and Hollenbeck rivers, 27 km/17 mi northwest of Torrington; population (1990) 1,100. It includes the towns of South Canaan, Huntsville, Lower City, and Falls Village.

The town of Canaan, in the adjoining town of North Canaan (population (1990) 3,300), is a trade centre for a resort area that attracts exurbanites from New York City.