The land of Canaan is referred to many times in the Bible and other documents from the same period. Historians have been puzzled, however, as to who these Canaanites really were. They had a tremendous influence on the cultures of the people around them, but most of what we know comes from their enemies, and their origins and fate have been mysterious. Now the sequencing of genomes from one of their major cities has provided some answers.
Around 3700-3100 years ago much of the territory now marked as Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan was inhabited by the Canaanites. They appear to have been the first people to create a systemic alphabet, and for a while represented such a superpower in the region they were able to establish numerous colonies and offshoots, including Carthage.
Yet for all their capacity with letters, few Canaanite written records survive, perhaps because they preferred papyrus to clay. Consequently, most of what we know of them comes from ancient Romans, Greeks and Israelites, none exactly unbiased sources. So we know little about their ancestry or what happened to them, assuming you take Biblical accounts of their annihilation with a grain of salt.
The Sanger Institute’s Dr Mark Haber extracted DNA from the skulls of five Canaanites buried 3,700 years ago in 
Sidon, a major city in what is now Lebanon, and sequenced their genomes. These were compared with the genomes of 99 modern Lebanese individuals. In the American Journal of Human Genetics Haber reveals that, far from disappearing from the region the Bible implies, the Canaanites were the dominant contributor to the genetics of the people living there today. The Sidon genomes were also similar to those from nomadic people of the day in what is now Jordan, who also called themselves Canaanites.
The burial site of one of the people from whose skulls Haber was able to get inctact DNA. Dr Claude Doumet-Serhal
“The present-day Lebanese are likely to be direct descendants of the Canaanites, but they have in addition a small proportion of Eurasian ancestry that may have arrived via conquests by distant populations such as the Assyrians, Persians, or Macedonians,” Haber said in a statement. As to their origins; “The Canaanites were a mixture of local people who settled in farming villages during the Neolithic period and eastern migrants who arrived in the region about 5,000 years ago.”
“In light of the enormously complex history of this region in the last few millennia, it was quite surprising that over 90 percent of the genetic ancestry of present-day Lebanese was derived from the Canaanites,” said co-author Dr Chris Tyler-Smith.
Moreover, Haber and Tyler-Smith’s work shows that the Canaanites looked much like modern Lebanese, their genes indicating, hair and eye colors and slightly darker skin. Something to consider when you see portrayals of biblical peoples as fair haired and light-skinned.
Noah’s Children and Grandchildren
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I find the following text as a fascinating insight into the nakedness of Noah and the Cursing of Canaan [Genesis 9:18-10:32]
Ham was Never cursed!!! It was a BIG LIE started in the Middle Ages in Europe! Ham NEVER disrespected his father, Noah!!! Most of the world have not been told the truth about what happened on the mountains of Ararat. Noah was NOT the town drunk, no drinking problem! This is a metaphor: he had a problem with sex: Heard of “the wine of fornication”? Check the Book of Revelation. Noah waking up from “his wine” is not the same as “the wine”: his wine came from the vineyard; and the wine is Noah’s sex problem. Noah was sexually abusing Ham’s wife for years, and Ham didn’t know it. Shem and Japheth knew this about their father, and they covered it up, for they wanted “the blessing.” Noah got Ham’s wife pregnant, and the child was Canaan; he was the 4th son, and illegitimate. He found out when he got older when he walked in Noah’s tent and caught Noah with Mrs. Ham. Noah was unconvered in the tent, sexual abusing his daughter-in-law. Canaan was going to tell everyone about this, but Noah told Canaan that he was his father, not Ham. Canaan lost his mind! True! Canaan calmed down, and realized he was better off being the 4th son of Noah than the youngest son of Ham. Canaan started to blackmail Noah. Noah would NOT recognize Canaan as his son publicly! To make the story short, Noah coursed Canaan because of the blackmailing, and he thought the Canaan tried to kill him with poison wine which made people think that Noah was drunk! Ham was in Noah’s tent to clean him up, that was his role. He left, and Canaan came into the tent. Noah remarried to a young woman, a Japhethite princess; Canaan seduced her. Then Ham came back into the tent and saw them together: Yes, his father’s nakedness is another metaphor for “his father’s wife.” Canaan got into a fight with his step-father Ham: Ham was angry about “his son” being with his grandfather’s new wife. Ham didn’t know that he was fighting with his half-brother! The fight woke up Shem and Japheth. Canaan got out of Noah’s tent before the older brothers got there. Ham came out, and he came face to face with Shem and Japheth demanding what was going on in Noah’s tent. Ham lied to his brothers about what he saw, to protect Canaan! Yes, Ham told his brothers WITHOUT THE TRUTH—He lied!!!
How do I know these things because my ancestors traded with the Canaanites, and they told the story: Who they were and what happened to Canaan. The story was passed down to me by my father who got it from his grandmother, and she got it from her ancestors. There are people who know this story, but they don’t want it to come out!
— Curse of Ham – Curse of Canaan – Book of Jubilees
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