Canaanites Weren't Annihilated by Ancient Israelites After All

The Bible suggests the Canaanites were wiped out by the ancient Israelites, but a new study says otherwise, claiming the people survived and went on to be the ancestors of those who today live in Lebanon, ScienceDaily reports. 

Per a study in the American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers from the UK's Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute sequenced the genomes of five 4,000-year-old Canaanites, as well as 99 people now residing in Lebanon—DNA evidence that enabled the scientists to establish ancestry. The study results show an overwhelming majority of the genetic makeup (93%) of today's Lebanese can be traced back to the Canaanites, per the Times of Israel. Study co-author Chris Tyler-Smith calls that percentage "quite surprising," given the "enormously complex history of this region," per ScienceDaily.

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