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- Ancient region between the Mediterranean and
- the Dead Sea, called in the Bible the
- `Promised Land' of the Israelites. 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 (what is 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).
-