Comment on British Museum removes ‘Palestine’ from ancient Middle East displays
napoleonsdumbcousin@feddit.org 1 week agoAFAIK it is common practice to call them Canaanites:
Thus, while “Phoenician” and “Canaanite” refer to the same culture, archaeologists and historians commonly refer to the Bronce Age pre-1200 BC Levantine peoples as Canaanites, while their Iron Age descendants, particularly those living on the coast, are referred to as Phoenicians.
ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Not disputing that, but even in that section of explanatory text it uses ‘Levantine peoples’.
napoleonsdumbcousin@feddit.org 1 week ago
Well Levantine is the broader term, so you need it to define the more specific term Canaanite.
ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
It’s a broader term that is no less accurate. But it is also one more removed from political connotations since this is not just about using the term ‘Canaanite’ as it is also changing it from ‘Palestinian.’
Changing ‘Palestinian’ to ‘Canaanite’ in 2026 specifically means something more given the Israelite-Canaanite context.
It’s either malicious or stupid, and evidence is tending to the former for the group that sought the change and the latter for the museum.