Who were the people who lived on the land of the Levant thousands of years ago? Did ancient peoples disappear, or have their traces remained present in the societies living on this land today?
In the second episode of the program "From Known to Unknown," we return to archaeological evidence and historical documents to explore the history of the earliest inhabitants of the Levant and trace the succession of civilizations and kingdoms that left their mark on the region.
The journey begins in Jericho, where the ruins of Tell es-Sultan reveal one of the oldest human experiences in settlement, passing through the cities of Canaan and the Amarna letters that document political life in the fourteenth century BCE, and reaching Ugarit and its tablets, which revealed a side of the beliefs and writing of the ancient world.
The episode also discusses Phoenician civilization and the coastal cities, the Aramean kingdoms—foremost among them Aram-Damascus—as well as the kingdoms of Moab and Israel, based on prominent historical evidence such as the Mesha Stele and the Tel Dan Stele, and the information they provide about the conflicts and the political and religious relations of that era.
The episode poses a central question: Did ancient peoples disappear with the fall of their kingdoms and the changing of their names? By drawing on archaeological and genetic studies, it examines the relationship between demographic continuity and the transformations the Levant witnessed over the centuries, emphasizing that genetic similarity does not prove the lineage of a specific family, nor does it determine a religious or sectarian identity.
The journey follows the historical transformations the region witnessed, from the Roman and Byzantine eras to the spread of Christianity and the Islamic conquests, leading to the rise of the monotheistic movement in the eleventh century CE and the subsequent formation of various religious communities in the Levant.
"Who lived on this land before us?" is not an attempt to search for a single people or an exclusive origin, but a reading into the history of a land where civilizations succeeded one another, and where cultures, migrations, and identities intertwined.
Between what the stones reveal, what the documents preserve, and what scientific studies say, we attempt to understand the path that extended from ancient societies to the societies we know today.
From Known to Unknown… History as revealed by evidence, not as created by assumptions.
