Editing Philistines (section)

===Material culture: Aegean origin and historical evolution===
====Aegean connection====
[[File:Ashdod-Philistine-Culture-Museum-31139.jpg|thumb|Philistine pottery, Corinne Mamane Museum of Philistine Culture]]

[[File:Philistine pottery petrie.png|thumb|Philistine pottery patterns]]

Many scholars have interpreted the ceramic and technological evidence attested to by archaeology as being associated with the Philistine advent in the area as strongly suggestive that they formed part of a large scale immigration to southern Canaan,<ref name="NewSci" /><ref name="BAS">{{cite web | url=https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/who-were-philistines-where-did-they-come-from/ | title=Who Were the Philistines, and Where Did They Come From? | date=16 April 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Philistine-people | title=Philistine &#124; Definition, People, Homeland, & Facts &#124; Britannica | date=27 August 2024 }}</ref> probably from [[Anatolia]] and [[Cyprus]], in the 12th century BC.{{sfn|Killebrew|2005|p=230}}

The proposed connection between [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] culture and Philistine culture was further documented by finds at the excavation of Ashdod, Ekron, Ashkelon, and more recently Gath, four of the five Philistine cities in Canaan. The fifth city is Gaza. Especially notable is the early Philistine pottery, a locally made version of the Aegean Mycenaean [[Late Helladic IIIC]] pottery, which is decorated in shades of brown and black. This later developed into the distinctive Philistine pottery of the Iron Age I, with black and red decorations on white slip known as [[Philistine Bichrome ware]].<ref>{{harvnb|Maeir|2005|pp=528–536}}.</ref> Also of particular interest is a large, well-constructed building covering {{convert|240|m2}}, discovered at Ekron. Its walls are broad, designed to support a second story, and its wide, elaborate entrance leads to a large hall, partly covered with a roof supported on a row of columns. In the floor of the hall is a circular hearth paved with pebbles, as is typical in Mycenaean [[megaron]] hall buildings; other unusual architectural features are paved benches and podiums. Among the finds are three small bronze wheels with eight spokes. Such wheels are known to have been used for portable cultic stands in the Aegean region during this period, and it is therefore assumed that this building served [[Cult (religion)|cultic functions]]. Further evidence concerns [[Ekron inscription|an inscription in Ekron]] to PYGN or PYTN, which some have suggested refers to "[[Potnia]]", the title given to an ancient [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] goddess. Excavations in Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gath reveal dog and pig bones which show signs of having been butchered, implying that these animals were part of the residents' diet.<ref>{{harvnb|Levy|1998|loc=Chapter 20: Lawrence E. Stager, "The Impact of the Sea Peoples in Canaan (1185–1050&nbsp;BCE)", p. 344}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Stager |first=Lawrence |title=When Canaanites and Philistines Ruled Ashkelon |publisher=Biblical Archaeological Review |url=http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/canaanites-and-philistines.asp |access-date=4 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519195012/http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/canaanites-and-philistines.asp |archive-date=19 May 2011 }}</ref> Among other findings there are wineries where fermented wine was produced, as well as loom weights resembling those of Mycenaean sites in Greece.<ref>{{cite web|last=Schloen|first=David|title=Recent Discoveries at Ashkelon|publisher=The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago|date=30 July 2007|url=http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/nn/spr95_ash.html|access-date=4 April 2011|archive-date=2 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090402152051/http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/nn/spr95_ash.html}}</ref> Further evidence of the Aegean origin of the initial Philistine settlers was provided by studying their burial practices in the so far only discovered Philistine cemetery, excavated at Ashkelon (see below).

However, for many years scholars such as Gloria London, John Brug, Shlomo Bunimovitz, [[Helga Weippert]], and Edward Noort, among others, have noted the "difficulty of associating pots with people", proposing alternative suggestions such as potters following their markets or [[technology transfer]], and emphasize the continuities with the local world in the material remains of the coastal area identified with "Philistines", rather than the differences emerging from the presence of Cypriote and/or Aegean/ Mycenaean influences. The view is summed up in the idea that 'kings come and go, but cooking pots remain', suggesting that the foreign Aegean elements in the Philistine population may have been a minority.<ref name="Ehrlich1996">{{harvnb|Ehrlich|1996|p=10|ps=: "The difficulty of associating pots with peoples or ethnic groups has often been commented on. Nonetheless, the association of the Philistines with the Iron Age I bichrome pottery bearing their name is most often taken for granted. Although scholars have backed off from postulating that every site with bichrome pottery was under Philistine control, the ethnic association remains... A cautionary note has, however, been sounded in particular by Brug, Bunimovitz, H. Weippert, and Noort, among others. In essence, their theories rest on the fact that even among sites in the Philistine heartland, the supposed Philistine pottery does not represent the major portion of the finds... While not denying Cypriote and/or Aegean/ Mycenean influence in the material cultural traditions of coastal Canaan in the early Iron Age, in addition to that of Egyptian and local Canaanite traditions, the above named "minimalist" scholars emphasize the continuities between the ages and not the differences. As H. Weippert has stated, "Könige kommen, Könige gehen, aber die Kochtöpfe bleiben." In regard to the bichrome pottery, she follows Galling and speculates that it was produced by a family or families of Cypriote potters who followed their markets and immigrated into Canaan once the preexisting trade connections had been severed. The find at Tell Qasile of both bichrome and Canaanite types originating in the same pottery workshop would appear to indicate that the ethnic identification of the potters is at best an open question. At any rate, it cannot be facilely assumed that all bichrome ware was produced by "ethnic" Philistines. Thus Bunimovitz's suggestion to refer to "Philistia pottery" rather than to "Philistine" must be given serious consideration... What holds true for the pottery of Philistia also holds true for other aspects of the regional material culture. Whereas Aegean cultural influence cannot be denied, the continuity with the Late Bronze traditions in Philistia has increasingly come to attention. A number of Iron Age I features which were thought to be imported by the Philistines have been shown to have Late Bronze Age antecedents. It would hence appear that the Philistines of foreign (or "Philistine") origin were the minority in Philistia."}}</ref><ref name="Richard2003">{{cite book|editor=Suzanne Richard|title=Near Eastern Archaeology: A Reader|chapter=Ethnicity and Material Culture|author=Gloria London|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=khR0apPid8gC&pg=PA146|year=2003|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=978-1-57506-083-5|page=146}}</ref> However, Louise A. Hitchcock has pointed that other elements of Philistine material culture like their language, art, technology, architecture, rituals and administrative practices are rooted in [[Cyprus|Cypriot]] and [[Minoan civilization]]s, supporting the view that the Philistines were connected to the Aegean.<ref name="Hitchcock">{{cite book |title=Tell it in Gath: Studies in the History and Archaeology of Israel : Essays in Honor of Aren M. Maeir on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday |last=Hitchcock |first=Louise A. |publisher=Zaphon |year=2018 |isbn=978-3-96327-032-1 |pages=304–321 |editor-last=Shai |editor-first=Itzhaq |chapter=‘All the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites’ (2 Samuel 2:15-18) –  An Up-To-Date Account of the Minoan Connection with the Philistines |editor-last2=Chadwick |editor-first2=Jeffrey R. |editor-last3=Hitchcock |editor-first3=Louise |editor-last4=Dagan |editor-first4=Amit |editor-last5=McKinny |editor-first5=Chris |editor-last6=Uziel |editor-first6=Joe |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/37810590}}</ref>

Following [[DNA sequencing]] using the modern method, DNA testing has concluded sufficient evidence that there was indeed a notable surge of immigration from Aegean,<ref name="NewSci" /> supporting the Biblical/Aegean connection and theory that the Philistine people were initially a migrant group from Europe.

====Geographic evolution====
Material culture evidence, primarily pottery styles, indicates that the Philistines originally settled in a few sites in the south, such as Ashkelon, Ashdod and Ekron.<ref name="Gadot">{{harvnb|Fantalkin|Yasur-Landau|2008|loc=Yuval Gadot, "Continuity and Change in the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition in Israel's Coastal Plain: A Long-Term Perspective", pp. 63–64|ps=: "Based on material culture studies, we know that the Philistines initially immigrated only to the southern Coastal Plain"}}.</ref> It was not until several decades later, about 1150&nbsp;BC, that they expanded into surrounding areas such as the [[Yarkon River|Yarkon]] region to the north (the area of modern [[Jaffa]], where there were Philistine farmsteads at [[Tel Gerisa]] and [[Aphek (biblical)|Aphek]], and a larger settlement at Tel Qasile).<ref name="Gadot"/> Most scholars, therefore, believe that the settlement of the Philistines took place in two stages. In the first, dated to the reign of Ramesses III, they were limited to the coastal plain, the region of the Five Cities; in the second, dated to the collapse of Egyptian hegemony in southern Canaan, their influence spread inland beyond the coast.<ref>{{harvnb|Grabbe|2008|p=213}}.</ref> During the 10th to 7th centuries BC, the distinctiveness of the material culture appears to have been absorbed with that of surrounding peoples.<ref>{{harvnb|Killebrew|2005|p=234|ps=: "During the Iron II (tenth-seventh centuries B.C.E. ), the Philistines completed the process of acculturation with the surrounding indigenous culture (Stone 1995). By the end of the Iron II, the Philistines had lost much of their distinctiveness as expressed in their material culture (see Gitin 1998; 2003; 2004 and bibliography there). My suggested chronological framework for Philistine acculturation spans the tenth to seventh centuries B.C.E. (Tel Miqne-Ekron Strata IV-I; Ashdod Strata X-VI)."}}.</ref>

===== Early connections =====
There is evidence that Cretans traded with Levantine merchants since the [[Neolithic]] [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] era,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kieser |first=D. |title=CHAPTER 1: The Dawn of the Bronze Age – The Aegean in the 3rd Millennium |url=https://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/2066/02chapter1.pdf |journal=Unisa International Repository |via=}}</ref> which increased by the Early Bronze Age.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shelmerdine |first=Cynthia W. |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-139-00189-2 |edition=2nd |pages=209–229}}</ref> In the Middle Bronze Age, coastal plains in the southern Levant economically prospered due to long-distance exchange with the Aegean, Cypriot and Egyptian civilizations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Marcus |first1=Ezra S. |last2=Porath |first2=Yosef |last3=Paley |first3=Samuel M. |date=2008 |title=THE EARLY MIDDLE BRONZE AGE IIa PHASES AT TEL IFSHAR AND THEIR EXTERNAL RELATIONS |journal=Ägypten und Levante / Egypt and the Levant |volume=18 |pages=221–244 |doi=10.1553/AEundL18s221 |jstor=23788614 }}</ref>

The Cretans also influenced the architecture of Middle Bronze Age Canaanite palaces such as [[Tel Kabri]]. Dr. Assaf Yasur-Landau of the [[University of Haifa]] said that "it was, without doubt, a conscious decision made by the city's rulers who wished to associate with Mediterranean culture and not adopt Syrian and Mesopotamian styles of art like other cities in Canaan did; the Canaanites were living in the Levant and wanted to feel European."<ref>[http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/134292 "Remains of Minoan fresco found at Tel Kabri"]; [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091109121119.htm "Remains Of Minoan-Style Painting Discovered During Excavations of Canaanite Palace"], ''ScienceDaily,'' 7 December 2009</ref>

====Burial practices====
The [[Leon Levy]] Expedition, consisting of archaeologists from [[Harvard University]], [[Boston College]], [[Wheaton College (Illinois)|Wheaton College]] and [[Troy University]], conducted a 30-year investigation of the burial practices of the Philistines, by excavating a Philistine cemetery containing more than 150 burials dating from the 11th to 8th century BC [[Ashkelon#History|Tel Ashkelon]]. In July 2016, the expedition finally announced the results of their excavation.<ref name="MSN_News">{{cite web|url=https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ancient-philistine-cemetery-in-israel-could-solve-one-of-the-bible%E2%80%99s-biggest-mysteries/ar-BBuajjo?li=AAdeCd7&ocid=spartanntp|title=Ancient philistine cemetery in Israel could solve one of the Bible's biggest mysteries|website=www.msn.com}}</ref>

Archaeological evidence, provided by architecture, burial arrangements, ceramics, and pottery fragments inscribed with non-Semitic writing, indicates that the Philistines were not native to Canaan. Most of the 150 dead were buried in oval-shaped graves, some were interred in ashlar chamber tombs, while there were 4 who were cremated. These burial arrangements were very common to the Aegean cultures, but not to the one indigenous to Canaan. [[Lawrence Stager]] of Harvard University believes that Philistines came to Canaan by ships before the Battle of the Delta ({{circa|1175}}{{nbsp}}BC). DNA was extracted from the skeletons for [[archaeogenetics|archaeogenetic]] population analysis.<ref name="Haaretz">Philippe Bohstrom, 'Archaeologists find first-ever Philistine cemetery in Israel,' Haaretz 10 July 2016. [http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.729879]: "Cemetery in ancient Ashkelon, dating back 2700-3000 years, proves the Philistines came from the Aegean, and that in contrast to the conventional wisdom, they were a peaceful folk.</ref>

The Leon Levy Expedition, which has been going on since 1985, helped break down some of the previous assumptions that the Philistines were uncultured people by having evidence of perfume near the bodies in order for the deceased to smell it in the afterlife.<ref name="NPR">{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/10/485469088/long-buried-by-bad-reputation-philistines-get-new-life-with-archaeological-find|title=Long Buried By Bad Reputation, Philistines Get New Life With Archaeological Find|website=NPR.org|date=10 July 2016 |last1=Dwyer |first1=Colin }}</ref>

====Genetic evidence====
{{See also|Genetic history of the Middle East}}

A study carried out on skeletons at Ashkelon in 2019 by an interdisciplinary team of scholars from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Leon Levy Expedition found that human remains at Ashkelon, associated with Philistines during the Iron Age, derived most of their ancestry from the local Levantine gene pool, but with a certain amount of [[Southern Europe|Southern-European]]-related admixture. This confirms previous historic and archaeological records of a Southern-European migration event.<ref name=pmid31281897/><ref name="NewSci">{{cite web | url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2208581-ancient-dna-reveals-that-jews-biblical-rivals-were-from-greece/ | title=Ancient DNA reveals that Jews' biblical rivals were from Greece }}</ref> The DNA suggests an influx of people of European heritage into Ashkelon in the 12th century BC. The individuals' DNA shows similarities to that of ancient Cretans, but it is impossible to specify the exact place in Europe from where Philistines had migrated to Levant, due to limited number of ancient genomes available for study, "with 20 to 60 per cent similarity to DNA from ancient skeletons from Crete and Iberia and that from modern people living in [[Sardinia]]."<ref>{{cite journal|date=4 July 2019|title=Ancient DNA reveals the roots of the Biblical Philistines|journal=Nature|volume=571|issue=7764|page=149|doi=10.1038/d41586-019-02081-x|s2cid=195847736}}</ref><ref name="pmid31281897" />

After two centuries since their arrival, the Southern-European genetic markers were dwarfed by the local Levantine gene pool, suggesting intensive intermarriage, but the Philistine culture and peoplehood remained distinct from other local communities for six centuries.<ref name="timesofisrael">{{Cite web | url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/know-thine-enemy-dna-study-solves-ancient-riddle-of-origins-of-the-philistines/ |title = Know thine enemy: DNA study solves ancient riddle of origins of the Philistines|website = [[The Times of Israel]]}}</ref>

The finding fits with an understanding of the Philistines as an "entangled" or "transcultural" group consisting of peoples of various origins, said [[Aren Maeir]], an archaeologist at [[Bar-Ilan University]] in Israel. "While I fully agree that there was a significant component of non-Levantine origins among the Philistines in the early Iron Age," he said, "these foreign components were not of one origin, and, no less important, they mixed with local Levantine populations from the early Iron Age onward." Laura Mazow, an archaeologist at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., said the research paper supported the idea that there was some migration from the west.<ref name="pmid31281897" /> She added that the findings "support the picture that we see in the archaeological record of a complex, multicultural process that has been resistant to reconstruction by any single historical model."<ref name="NYT">{{cite news |last1=St Fleur |first1=Nicholas |title=DNA Begins to Unlock Secrets of the Ancient Philistines |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/03/science/philistines-dna-origins.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=3 July 2019}}</ref>

Modern archaeologists agree that the Philistines were different from their neighbors: their arrival on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean in the early 12th century B.C. is marked by pottery with close parallels to the ancient Greek world, the use of an Aegean —instead of a Semitic— script, and the consumption of pork.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/07/ancient-dna-reveal-philistine-origins/ |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190703194348/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/07/ancient-dna-reveal-philistine-origins/ |archive-date= 3 July 2019 |title = Ancient DNA may reveal origin of the Philistines|website = [[National Geographic Society]]|date = 3 July 2019}}</ref>