who was the land of canaan named after
Canaanites
title: Canaan text: Canaan Canaan (; Northwest Semitic: '; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 "Kenā‘an"; Hebrew: ') was a Semitic-speaking region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. The name "Canaan" appears throughout the Bible, where it corresponds to the Levant, in particular to the areas of the Southern Levant that provide the main setting of the narrative of the Bible: i.e., the area of Phoenicia, Philistia, Israel, and other nations. The word Canaanites serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled and nomadic-pastoral groups—throughout the regions of the southern Levant or Canaan. It is by far the most title: Canaan text: Phoenicia in the last half of the 1st millennium. It first occurs in Greek in the writings of Hecataeus as "Khna" (Χνᾶ). Scholars connect the name "Canaan" with ', "Kana'an", the general Northwest Semitic name for this region. The etymology is uncertain. An early explanation derives the term from the Semitic root "" "to be low, humble, subjugated". Some scholars have suggested that this implies an original meaning of "lowlands", in contrast with Aram, which would then mean "highlands", whereas others have suggested it meant "the subjugated" as the name of Egypt's province in the Levant, and evolved into the title: Canaan text: to the watershed of the Jordan river. Many earlier Egyptian sources also mention numerous military campaigns conducted in "Ka-na-na", just inside Asia. Archaeological attestation of the name "Canaan" in Ancient Near Eastern sources relates almost exclusively to the period in which the region operated as a colony of the New Kingdom of Egypt (16th–11th centuries BC), with usage of the name almost disappearing following the Late Bronze Age collapse (c. 1206–1150 BC). The references suggest that during this period the term was familiar to the region's neighbors on all sides, although scholars have disputed to what extent such references provide title: Canaan text: Judaea" is disputed. After the Iron Age the periods are named after the various empires that ruled the region: Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek (Hellenistic) and Roman. One of the earliest settlements in the region was at Jericho in Canaan. The earliest settlements were seasonal, but, by the Bronze Age, had developed into large urban centres. By the Early Bronze Age other sites had developed, such as Ebla (where an East Semitic language, Eblaite, was spoken), which by c. 2300 BC was incorporated into the Mesopotamia-based Akkadian Empire of Sargon the Great and Naram-Sin of Akkad (biblical Accad). Sumerian references to title: Canaan text: BC) founded the first Babylonian Empire, which lasted only as long as his lifetime. Upon his death, the Amorites were driven from Assyria, but remained masters of Babylonia until 1595 BC, when they were ejected by the Hittites. The semi-fictional "Story of Sinuhe" describes an Egyptian officer, Sinuhe, conducting military activities in the area of "Upper Retchenu" and "Finqu" during the reign of Senusret I (c. 1950 BC). The earliest "bonafide" Egyptian report of a campaign to "Mentu", "Retchenu" and "Sekmem" (Shechem) is the Sebek-khu Stele, dated to the reign of Senusret III (c. 1862 BC). Around 1650 BC, Canaanites