Bethlehem

===Canaanite period===
The earliest reference to Bethlehem appears in the [[Amarna letters|Amarna correspondence]] ({{circa|1400&nbsp;BCE}}). In one of his six letters to Pharaoh, [[Abdi-Heba]], the Egyptian-appointed governor of Jerusalem, appeals for aid in retaking ''Bit-Laḫmi'' in the wake of disturbances by [[Habiru|Apiru]] mercenaries:<ref name="auto"/> "Now even a town near Jerusalem, Bit-Lahmi by name, a village which once belonged to the king, has fallen to the enemy... Let the king hear the words of your servant Abdi-Heba, and send archers to restore the imperial lands of the king!"

It is thought that the similarity of this name to its modern forms indicates that it was originally a settlement of Canaanites who shared a Semitic cultural and linguistic heritage with the later arrivals.<ref name="IDHP4">"''International Dictionary of Historic Places: Vol 4, Middle East and Africa''", Trudy Ring, K.A Berney, Robert M. Salkin, Sharon La Boda, Noelle Watson, Paul Schellinger, p. 133, Taylor & Francis, 1996, {{ISBN|978-1-884964-03-9}}.</ref> ''[[Lahmu|Laḫmu]]'' was the [[Mesopotamian mythology|Akkadian]] god of fertility,<ref>{{cite book |title=The Uttermost Part of the Earth: A Guide to Places in the Bible |publisher=Wm. A. Eerdmans |author=Losch, Richard R. |year=2005 |page=51}}</ref> worshipped by the [[Canaan#In Jewish and Christian scriptures|Canaanites]] as ''Leḥem''.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} Some time in the third millennium BCE, Canaanites erected a temple on the hill now known as the Hill of the Nativity, probably dedicated to [[Lahmu|Laḫmu]]. The temple, and subsequently the town that formed around it, was then known as ''Beit Lahama'', "House (Temple) of Lahmu". By [[1200s BC (decade)|1200 BC]], the area of Bethlehem, as well as much of the [[Palestine (region)|region]], was conquered by the [[Philistines]], which led the region to be known to the Greeks as "''Philistia''", later corrupted to "[[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]".<ref name="Loschp51">{{cite book|author=Losch, Richard R.|title=The uttermost part of the earth: a guide to places in the Bible|page=51|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|year=2005|edition=Illustrated|isbn=978-0-8028-2805-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5GJaakRvPgC&pg=PA51|access-date=October 14, 2020|archive-date=January 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122131920/https://books.google.com/books?id=S5GJaakRvPgC&pg=PA51|url-status=live}}</ref>

A burial ground discovered in spring 2013, and surveyed in 2015 by a joint Italian–Palestinian team found that the necropolis covered 3 hectares (more than 7 acres) and originally contained more than 100 tombs in use between roughly 2200 BCE and 650 BCE. The archaeologists were able to identify at least 30 tombs.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.livescience.com/53939-ancient-burial-ground-found-near-bethlehem.html|title=Ancient Burial Ground with 100 Tombs Found Near Biblical Bethlehem|website=LiveScience.com|date=March 4, 2016|access-date=March 7, 2016|archive-date=March 7, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307164013/http://www.livescience.com/53939-ancient-burial-ground-found-near-bethlehem.html|url-status=live}}</ref>