To understand how ancient Israel began, we first need to know that the land of Canaan was not an independent country before 1200 BCE. Instead, it was controlled by the Egyptian Empire. We know this from the Amarna Letters—a collection of ancient clay tablets from the 14th century BCE. These letters show that Canaan was split into small city-states that were constantly begging the Egyptian Pharaoh for military help against local rivals and a group called the ‘Apiru. The word ‘Apiru was not an ethnic group; it was a socio-economic term (a label based on wealth and class) used to describe outcasts, runaway slaves, and poor farmers living on the edges of society. This shows that Canaan was experiencing a severe class struggle long before society collapsed.

Egypt’s control wasn’t just a threat on paper; it was a physical reality. Archaeologists have dug up massive Egyptian tax centers and military bases in Canaanite cities like Beth-Shean and Jaffa. However, this imperial system eventually broke down. Scientific evidence—like pollen samples and cave formations—shows that the region suffered from extreme climate changes, including severe droughts. This climate stress didn’t cause society to collapse on its own, but it made famines, broken trade routes, and wars much worse.

When the Late Bronze Age society finally collapsed, the Egyptian military abandoned its bases and left Canaan. This sudden lack of leadership caused two major shifts in the population. First, a group known as the Philistines migrated to the southern coast. We know this from epigraphy (the study of ancient inscriptions), specifically the Medinet Habu reliefs in Egypt, which are stone carvings showing the Pharaoh fighting off a migration of “Sea Peoples.” Archaeologists track this migration by finding a specific style of Greek-inspired pottery (Mycenaean IIIC:1b) that suddenly appears on the coast. Second, as the coastal cities collapsed, people fled into the rugged central highlands, setting the stage for the birth of a new society.