So I might be thinking that this is only partially correct. Many places in that region have a very VERY old history, For example Jericho dates back to 10,000 B.C.E. and was nothing more than a small villiage by the time Joshua conquerd it (not very impressive of a feat, really). This is typical of many colonies in that area as they were in the hills, and no empire cared much about the "hill people." So there may be colonies there with ancient history, but they were not very complex nor were they often mentioned as the rulers of Mesopotamia and Egypt (who had invinted writing skills) simply did not care about them.
All these towns up and down what would later be known as Judiah and Israel (or the Levant) had always been there, they were just under Egyptian rule, and had been such for several mellennia. As far as the Exodus is concerned, well... that didn't really happen like the bible says.
Imagine that the United States' economy and resources started to fall to a dire point, and the state of Texas decided to secede. The only exodus that would happen would be from former Texans living throughout the United States who wanted to be back home with their families. The vast majority of Texans who lived within the Texas borders, would not have moved at all. The biggest change would be federally appointed leaders and commerce (money, etc.). Because the land of Israel and Judah had little water and resources, then they had arrangements with Egypt. The Levant was a provence of Egypt and was taxed, people were recruited for service in the army, and people were offered (sold) by their villages for labor. This was also true of provences to the south of Egypt as well. So when the Exodus happened, it wasn't so much as a "breaking free of the chains of slavery" as it was an already established hill country between two nations (Mesopotamia and Egypt) where their main source of supplies was a crumbling empire and they had to learn to survive on their own. THEN many Jews left Egypt to go... where the other Jews were. So... the exodus wasn't all that dramatic.
However, from there, towns and cities that where once named under the Egyptian rule became renamed, reestablished, and reorganized. Now the names of places changed. Many of them may not have existed before, many did exist as small villages, but were renamed or started to be called something else. Sometimes villiages would pop up next to other villiages, etc. The area in general was occupied for several thousand of years before Christ. What they called themselves changed as the history of the area developed.
