ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ancient core of Jerusalem in the Canaanite period. It aims to present the main historical and archaeological information known about Canaanite Jerusalem, while highlighting the key controversies and their background as much as possible, without going into extensive technical detail. The earliest remains of human activity discovered at the ancient core of Jerusalem were found in the southeastern hill near the Gihon Spring. In the Chalcolithic period, a rich culture flourished in Canaan whose remains have been uncovered at many sites, including Beersheba, Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, Transjordan, Samaria, Galilee, and the Golan Heights. A long portion of the eastern wall of the Middle Bronze Age city was found on the eastern slope of the southeastern hill in the 1960s, during the excavations by the British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon. The Middle Bronze Age is illuminated by external historical and archaeological sources as well as by other archaeological excavations in the city itself.
