Canaan, Palestine, Judea... What Are We Even Calling This Place?

When the British Museum quietly updated some of its ancient Near East exhibit labels from "Palestine" to "Canaan," the internet exploded. But what does the history actually say?

Israel tour guide, Jewish educator, and Substack writer Alex Stein joins Jay and ChayaLeah to break it all down, from the Bronze Age Canaanites and the Hyksos to Herodotus, to Hadrian officially naming the Roman province "Palestina" in the second century CE. Along the way we get into Jewish indigeneity, the archaeology of the Israelite conquest (spoiler: it's complicated), dual-narrative tourism, and how you'd even begin to explain any of this to a sixth grader. This is the episode for anyone who wants to actually understand the history beneath the headlines, without the yelling.

Where to find Alex:

Make sure to check out Alex’s upcoming Love of the Land Tour in October!

From Palestine to Canaan article