The Canaanites

The Canaanites were the people of the Bronze Age southern Levant, and their cities fill the pages of the Bible; Megiddo, where many of these individuals were buried, is the Armageddon of Revelation. A study of seventy-three individuals from five sites found that people who shared Canaanite material culture were genetically one group. They descend from the region's Neolithic farmers blended with ancestry from the Chalcolithic Zagros and Bronze Age Caucasus, a share that grew over the centuries, and three individuals were outright recent migrants. These twelve were buried at Megiddo, Hazor and Baq'ah in Jordan between the Middle and Late Bronze Age, townspeople of the Canaanite world.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant.

Every Ancestry Map includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances. That is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Canaanites are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about Ancestry Map, the full Global25 report.

• 01

  Who were the Canaanites?

  The Canaanites (c. 2000-1150 BCE, Megiddo, Hazor and Baq'ah, Israel and Jordan) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 12 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Canaanites mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

• 03

  Are they my ancestor?

  No, and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

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  How do I see my own distance to the Canaanites?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestry Map, never sold separately. Order Ancestry Map, our Global25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers. Browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• The Mycenaeans of Mygdaliac. 1600-1450 BCE

• The Citizens of Alalakhc. 2000-1350 BCE

• The Funadomari Jōmon Womanc. 1800-1500 BCE

• The Trzciniec Culturec. 1650-1250 BCE

• The Old Babyloniansc. 1900-1600 BCE

• The Bronze Age Anatolians of Kaman-Kalehöyükc. 2000-1500 BCE

• The Tombs of Aidoniac. 1600-1200 BCE

• The Bronze Age Armenians of Lchashenc. 1450-1200 BCE

• The Cetina Culturec. 2200-1600 BCE

• The Kingdom of El Argarc. 2200-1550 BCE

• The Únětice Culturec. 2200-1600 BCE

• The Palace of Nestor Burialsc. 1350-1000 BCE