This volume explores the ancient population of the Western Levant (Israel, Transjordan, Lebanon and coastal Syria), examining the development of its distinctive yet indigenously based culture from the early farming communities of the eighth millennium BC to the fragmention of its socio-cultural ideals in the latter half of the first millennium. Jonathan Tubb stresses the demographic continuity of Canaanite civilization, portraying events such as the imposition of Egyptian imperial rule or the development of historical Israel as episodic interruptions, the impact of which was minimized by a characteristic and enduring assertion of identity. He also looks at the role of the Canaanites within the context of the ancient Mediterranean, examining their interactions with neighbouring countries and the effects these contacts had on the material culture of Canaan in particular and the Near East in general.