Ancient Israel: The land of the Jews.
The civilization of the ancient Israelites is a story that has been retold for generations, steeped in lore, history, and tradition. The Biblical narrative states that Abraham, who would become the father of all Israelites, was called through divine providence to leave his home in Ur, a Sumerian city located in modern day Iraq, into a land known as Canaan. However, the historical consensus differs from this original narrative and suggests that the Israelites actually developed from within Canaan itself. These patriarchal traditions, regardless of their precise historicity, reflect the broader cultural landscape of the Late Bronze Age Levant—an environment characterized by small city-states, shifting pastoral groups, and long-distance trade networks under Egyptian influence. The stories of semi-nomadic ancestors resonate with what is known about mobile populations of the period, even if they cannot be tied to specific individuals. PREHISTORY: In the centuries before Israel eme...