The Ancient Semites were a group of people who lived in the Middle East and North Africa during ancient times. They included the Essenes, a Jewish sect that lived in the Judean Desert during the Second Temple period; the Arabs, an ethnic group that originated in the Arabian Peninsula; the Amorites, a Semitic-speaking people who lived in the Levant during the Bronze Age; and the Moabites, an ancient people who lived in what is now modern-day Jordan.