For the past several hundred years, the Amorites, a Semitic people from the Arabian peninsula, have been settling this region. Arriving as small groups of nomads, they now live in the numerous fortified towns of Syria and Palestine and form a mosaic of small kingdoms.
One such group is probably led by a figure whom later generations will know as Abraham, the ancestor of the Jews.
Culturally, the southern part of the region, Canaan, has been coming increasingly under Egyptian influence, whereas the northern part, now under the political domination of the Mitanni, remains within the cultural orbit of Mesopotamia.
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