Legacy of Ancient Canaanites in the DNA of modern Jews

Aliev AA, Ampilogov AY, Lutak SV, Klyosov AA

But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, could not expel the children of Judah, and so the
Jebusites live with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.
Book of Joshua. 15.63

Starting conversation
Religious scriptures are a valuable source of information not only about the outlook of people,
but also about the ethno genesis of some ancient nations. Mentioned in the Bible, the possibility
of the origin of mankind from one pair, a genetic relationship between the ancient Jews and
Arabs was perceived until recently just as legends.

Recent developments in DNA genealogy have shown that the basis of these legends is real fact.
The painstaking work of scientists established «Y-chromosomal Adam» – a distant ancestor of
all living men and «mitochondrial Eve» – the first mother of all modern humans. Studies of the
Y-chromosome of Seyyids – the descendants of Imam Ali, cousin of Prophet Mohammed,
revealed a common ancestor who lived about 1500 years ago – «Y-chromosome ‘Abd al-
Muttalib» – the grandfather of the Prophet Mohammed and Imam Ali and carrier of haplogroup
J1e.1

Among modern Arabs and Jews, haplogroup J is predominant, which also confirms the Biblical
account of their origin from one ancestor – Abraham, who, as shown by AA Klyosov, had
haplogroup J1.2 However, it this does not necessarily mean that his name was Abraham. Simply
that a man from whom descend both Jewish and Arab genealogical lines, as shown by DNA
genealogy, actually lived about 4000 ± 520 years ago. Arab line J1, however, dispersed among
many different peoples. As a result, many people who have no direct relationship to either the
Arabs or the Jews can track their DNA line to the biblical Abraham.

However, papers on DNA genealogy concerning the identification of the modern descendants of
the Biblical and Quranic personages do not properly consider the issue of Y-DNA of people who
lived in the Promised Land (Canaan) before the arrival of Jews. This land was later known as
Palestine.

Aboriginal Palestinians
According to the Bible, the land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants, stretching
along the Mediterranean coast from the Nile to the Euphrates,3 was known as Canaan.4 In
essence, the western part of the Fertile Crescent was called Canaan and stretched west from the
river Jordan. Currently, the land of Canaan is divided among Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan.

In the Scriptures, the inhabitants of Canaan before the Jews are called «seven nations», 5 but in
the text more than seven nations are listed. They are the Amorites, Hittites, Philistines,
Sidonians, Jebusites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arvadites, Zemarites, Horites etc.

All these people are called Canaanites6 as they are descendants of Canaan, one of the sons of
Ham. 7 Ham incurs the damnation on Canaan8 that causes the land of the Canaanites to be
surrendered to Jews, and the Canaanites to be completely annihilated.9
For the most part, not much about these people is known, except their name and some rare
mentions in the Bible. However, there are some significant Canaanian nations that deserve a
closer look. They are the Amorites, the Hittites, the Philistines and the Horites.

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The Amorites are the descendants of Amorite, the son of Canaan.10 They lived in many areas of
Palestine. 11 Moses defeated the Amorites, but they were not totally destroyed, but were left to
live among Jews. 12 Later, Solomon drafted the surviving Amorites and the other Canaanite
peoples as forced labor.13 Jews intermarrying with Amorite women is even mentioned at times in
Ezra.14

Despite the unenviable fate described in the Old Testament, the Amorites played a significant
role in history far beyond Syria and Palestine. They founded the first royal dynasty of Babylon,
of which the most famous representative was Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), the author of the
renowned «Code of Hammurabi». We know about Mari, the kingdom of the Amorites on the
middle Euphrates, where excavation revealed the royal archive (about 20 thousand clay tablets
containing correspondence written in cuneiform). The information from the archive enables a
better understanding of the Biblical data relating to the time of the Patriarchs. Also, the Amurru
kingdom in Palestine is mentioned in Egyptian letters from the archive of el-Amarna. In
Sumerian and Akkadian texts of the 23-16 centuries BC, the Sumerian word MAR.TU and
Akkadian Amurru are used as geographical terms meaning «west».

The Hittites appear in the Old Testament as one of the tribes related to the Amorites. Both of
these peoples originate from the sons of Canaan: Amorite and Heth.15 From the Book of Joshua,
it follows that the Hittites inhabited the whole territory between Lebanon and the Euphrates.16
The Book of Kings informs us that the Hittite mercenaries Uriah17 and Ahimelech18 served in the
Israeli army. In other fragments it is reported that the Jews intermarried with Hittite women.19
All this suggests that the Hittites and the people of Israel peacefully co-existed and partly mixed
with each other.

Many scholars identify the Hittites of Canaan with the Hittites20 known from the line II-III
millennium BC. The facts confirm this interpretation. Although the land of the Hittites was north
of Palestine in Anatolia and Syria, Egyptian sources suggest that the Hittites stayed for a long
time on Egypt’s subject territories, including Palestine. In addition, the language of the early
books of the Old Testament contains a number of Hittite words, which indicates the cultural
interaction between Hittites and the ancient Hebrews.

The Philistines inhabited the land along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, from the Nile to
Ekron.21 In the Bible the Philistines are also referred to by different names, including Amorites22
and Canaanites.23 This was a very warlike people. The Jews did not subdue them, and they were
always at war with the Jews. David slew Goliath the Philistine, and yet later found refuge among
them.24 This indicates that the Philistines were not wiped out and lived among the Jews. It should
be noted that in the Bible the Philistines do not originate from Canaan, the son of Ham, but from
Casluhim, the son of Mizraim. 25 Mizraim was the older brother of Canaan. 26 According to the
Bible the Philistines and the Amorites were relatives.

The Horites were the ancient inhabitants of the country of Seir, south of the Dead Sea.27 The
Horites were driven out by the Edomites,28 but apparently not completely, because later their
elders are mentioned among the inhabitants of the land of Seir.29 The progenitor of the Horites is
called Seir.30

The researcher Gernot Wilhelm identifies the Horites with the Hurrites,31 an ancient people
known from the 3rd millennium BC. The Hurrites lived in Northern Mesopotamia and created
Middle Eastern states such as the kingdom Urkesh and Nawar (present-day borders of Syria and
Turkey, 20-19 centuries BC), Mitanni (1600-1200 centuries BC) and Kizzuwatna (1500-1400
centuries BC). In addition, the Hurrites created a number of city-states, covering the territory
from Palestine to Mesopotamia.

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Perhaps due to their proximity to the Israelis, the culture of the Hurrites had several features in
common with Jewish culture. The cuneiform documents discovered in the ruins of the ancient
city of Nuzi (Nuzu) near modern Kirkuk, described rules also known from the Bible. Thus,
among the Hurrites it was taken that the servant became the heir of a childless couple, 32 the
barren wife could give her maidservant to her husband for procreation;33 a birthright could be
sold,34 etc.

So, despite the fact that the Bible refers the native peoples of Palestine exclusively in negative
terms and speaks about their total annihilation, at the same time it simultaneously maintains that
part of the Canaanite population of the Promised Land was preserved and incorporated into the
Jewish community. This will be our starting point in identifying the modern descendants of the
ancient Canaanites.

The Grandsons of Canaan and Mizraim

Based on the Biblical evidence, we can assume that the Y-chromosome of the ancient population
of Canaan was relevant to the Middle East haplogroups, but not related to the Jews (not J
haplogroup and its subclades). «Canaanite haplogroups» incorporated into the Jewish community
even before the dispersion and therefore must be present in all Jewish groups: the Ashkenazim,
Sephardim and Israelim. Among the haplogroups which are represented in modern Jews,35 the
most likely is the E1b1b1 (M35) haplogroup and its subclades – E1b1b1c1, E1b1b1a1 and
E1b1b1a3. The others (G1, G2, I1, I2, Q, R1a, R1b, R2, T) are represented only in select local
communities of Jews. This indicates their late appearance among the Jews either these sub-
clades were conceived after the Jewish conquest of Canaan, and therefore could not be included
from the ancient Canaanites.

According to available data, haplogroup E1b1b1a1 emerged 4300 ± 680 years ago36 in Upper
Egypt, i.e., before the Jewish conquest of Canaan, which was about 3600 years ago. This
haplogroup could be among the ancient Canaanites. Carriers of this sub-clade could join in the
Jewish nation during their living in Egypt or they are descendants of the Egyptians who later
settled in the Promised Land and adopted Judaism.

Ancestor of sub-clade E1b1b1a3 lived 5075 ± 600 years ago.37 He could be among the ancient
Canaanites too. Currently 6.9% of Palestinian Arabs are the carriers of this sub-clade.38 In
addition, this sub-clade is present among the Samaritans.39

According Klyosov,40 modern Jewish carriers of haplogroup M35 are divided into four branches.
Representatives of the first branch are two-thirds of the total surveyed and descended from a
common ancestor who lived 6400 ± 400 years ago. Three other branches descended from
ancestors who lived less than 1100 years ago.

For our research we used 25-marker Jewish haplotypes from the Haplozone E-M3541 databases
and Jewish E3b project.42 Haplotypes with outstanding SNP were not used. The entire sample
consisted of 99 persons. Among them 69 persons (70%) belonged to haplogroup E1b1b1c1, 25
persons (25%) – to E1b1b1a3 and 5 persons (5%) – to E1b1b1a1.

It is noteworthy that the largest concentration of haplogroup E1b1b1c1 (M34) observed in

population of Jordanian Arabs near the Dead Sea (14 persons among 45 surveyed or 31.1%).43

The vast majority of our samples are carriers of the haplogroup E1b1b1c1 (M34). This suggests
that in early times, the ancient Jews had close relations with the peoples who were the carriers of

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this haplogroup. This must be correct if the roots of this haplogroup among the Jews really
originate from that time. Going forward let’s say – and turned out.

Trees and Analysis

Using the Phylip algorithm (the Phylogeny Inference Package program, Felsenstein, 2005),
phylogenetic trees were constructed (Fig. 1-2). We are now interested only in those results that
correlate with the time of the exile of Jews from Egypt and wandering in the desert: about 3600
years ago. For our sample of haplogroups E1b1b1c1, E1b1b1a3 and E1b1b1a1 we constructed
phylogenetic trees (Figs. 1-2) and identified the times of the most recent ancestors.

a) b)
Fig. 1. Phylogenetic tree of Jewish E1b1b1a1 (a) and E1b1b1a3 (b)

Fig. 2. Phylogenetic tree of the Jewish E1b1b1c1

From these trees it follows that the common ancestor of the Jews with E1b1b1a1 lived 2150 ±
550 years ago. This is too late to be relevant to our case. Hence, this subclade among Jews is
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later including. The second tree shows that the common ancestor of the Jews with E1b1b1a3
lived much later – 1500 ± 240 years ago, i.e. 2000 years after the conquest of Canaan, which also
can be considered as late including. As described above, these subclades appeared 4300 ± 680
and 5075 ± 600 years ago. Hence, subclades E1b1b1a1 and E1b1b1a3 are later additions in the
Jewish community.

The tree of Jews with haplogroup E1b1b1c1, however, is very interesting. According to it,
subclade E1b1b1c1 came to the Jews from two different men who lived in periods of time very
far apart from one another. One lived 3375 ± 430 years ago, i.e. just at the time of settling Jews
in Canaan, which fits in the chronology of events. The other lived in AD, 1875 ± 250 years ago.

Thus, from the three previously proposed subclades of haplogroup E1b1b1 (M35), only subclade
E1b1b1c1 is included into the Jewish community during their appearance in Palestine. As
shown, carriers of this subclade in Palestine were most likely representatives of the major nations
of Anatolia and Mesopotamia, as the Hittites, Amorites and Hurrites. But we shall discuss this in
our further studies.

References
1
R. Elass. DNA could illuminate Islam’s lineage. The National. June 18, 2009. UAE
2
Klyosov, A,A. DNA genealogy, mutation rates, and some historical evidences written in y-chromosome. II.
Walking the map. J. Genetic Geneal., 2009, in the press
3
Gen. 12.1; 13.15; 15.18-21; Heb. 11.9
4
Exodus 15.15; Is. 23.11
5
Deut. 7.1; Acts 13.19
6
Gen. 10.15-18, 12.6
7
Gen. 9.18, 22, 25-27; 10.6, 15; 1Chr. 1.8, 13
8
Gen. 9.25
9
Num. 31.17; Deut. 20.16; 25.19
10
Gen. 10.15-16
11
Gen. 14.7, Gen. 14.13, Num. 13.30; Josh 10.5,6
12
Num 21.21-35; Deut. 2.24-3.11, 2Sam 1.2; 3Sam 9.20-21, Judg 1.35; 3.5; 1Sam 7.14, 2Chr. 8.7 etc., Ezra 9.1,
Ezk. 16.3
13
1Kings 9:20 etc.; 2Chr. 8.7 etc.
14
Ezra 9.1
15
Gen. 10.15
16
Josh 1.2-4
17
2Sam 11.3
18
1Sam 26.6
19
Gen. 26:34, 36:2, Judg. 3.5
20
O. Gurney. The Hittites, Penguin (1952)
21
Gen. 10.14, Josh 13.3
22
1Sam 7.14
23
Josh 13.3; Zeph 2.5
24
1Sam 27.1-7
25
Gen. 10.14
26
Gen. 10.6
27
Gen. 14:6
28
Deut. 2:12, 22
29
Gen. 36.21, 29, 30
30
Gen. 36.20,21; 1Chr. 1.38
31
Grundzüge der Geschichte und Kultur der Hurriter, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1982
32
Gen. 15.2
33
Gen. 16.2
34
Gen. 25.30-34
35
Coffman-Levy. A mosaic of people: the Jewish story and a reassessment of the DNA evidence. Journal of Genetic
Genealogy 1:12-33, 2005
36
Sergey V. Lutak and Anatole A. Klyosov. Haplogroup E1b1b1a (M78) - Modern Descendants of Ancient
Egyptians

5
37
Ibid
38
Ibid
39
B. Bonn´ e-Tamir et al. Maternal and Paternal Lineages of the Samaritan Isolate: Mutation Rates and Time to
Most Recent Common Male Ancestor, 2003. P. Shen et al. Reconstruction of Patrilineages and Matrilineages of
Samaritans and Other Israeli Populations From Y-Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation, 2004
40
Anatole A. Klyosov. Origin of the Jews via DNA Genealogy. 2008 (in the Notes on Jewish History)
41
Haplozone Е-М35
42
Jewish E3b project
43
Flores et al. (2005), «Isolates in a corridor of migrations: a high-resolution analysis of Y-chromosome variation in
Jordan», J Hum Genet 50: 435-441, doi:10.1007/s10038-005-0274-4