“Archaeologists have discovered the graves of Canaanite warriors from the 19th century B.C. in Sidon, Lebanon. The tombs were unearthed by a team
of British Museum researchers who have been excavating the Frères
archaeological site for 21 years and have discovered 171 ancient burials over
the decades. The two found this season are particularly well-preserved.
“The graves contained the skeletal remains of
two adult males. The goods interred with them — bronze daggers and belts —
identify the men as members of the warrior elite. The feet of sheep or goats
were buried by the men’s feet so the animals would accompany them to the
afterlife.
"[The head of the British Museum’s delegation Claude]
Doumet-Serhal said the daggers were not used for fighting, but were significant
because they showed the warriors belonged to the society’s elite: “The
Canaanites did not bury in such a way unless the dead belonged to the
aristocratic and elite class of the Canaanite society.”
“DNA taken previously from other Canaanites
graves at Frères compared to the DNA of 100 Lebanese showed 95 percent were of
Canaanite descent, Doumet-Serhal said, adding, ‘We were never divided. We were
all Canaanites, then we were Phoenicians, then the Romans came, then the
Byzantines, then the Arabs.’”
(That is a statement of remarkable accuracy, given
that the official Palestinian history says people of that area of the world
have always been Palestinian.)
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