Editing Philistines (section)

==Origin==
[[File:Noahsworld_map_Version2.png|thumb|A 1854 map showing possible locations of the [[Casluhim]], [[Caphtor]]im, [[Mizraim|Misraim]], and other peoples mentioned in the Hebrew Bible]]
Several theories are given about the origins of the Philistines. The [[Hebrew Bible]] mentions in two places that they originate from a geographical region known as Caphtor (possibly Crete/[[Minoa]]),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Philistine people |date=11 August 2023 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Philistine-people |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |quote=According to biblical tradition (Deuteronomy 2:23; Jeremiah 47:4), the Philistines came from Caphtor (possibly Crete, although there is no archaeological evidence of a Philistine occupation of the island.)}}</ref> although the Hebrew chronicles also state that the Philistines were descended from [[Casluhim]], one of the 7 sons of Ham's second son, [[Mizraim|Miṣrayim]].<ref>{{bibleverse|1|Chronicles|1:12|HE}}</ref> The [[Septuagint]] connects the Philistines to other biblical groups such as [[Caphtorim]] and the [[Cherethites and Pelethites]], which have been identified with the [[Crete|island of Crete]].<ref name="ngeo">Romey, Kristin. 2016. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20160710083526/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/bible-philistine-israelite-israel-ashkelon-discovery-burial-archaeology-sea-peoples/ Discovery of Philistine Cemetery May Solve Biblical Mystery]." ''[[National Geographic]]''. Retrieved 31 July 2017.</ref> These traditions, among other things, have led to the modern theory of Philistines having an [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] origin.<ref name="JeEncyCherethites" /> In 2016, a large Philistine cemetery was discovered near Ashkelon, containing more than 150 dead buried in oval-shaped graves. A 2019 [[Genetic history of the Middle East|genetic study]] found that, while all three Ashkelon populations derive most of their ancestry from the local [[Semitic languages|Semitic]]-speaking Levantine gene pool, the early [[Iron Age]] population was genetically distinct due to a European-related admixture;<ref name="NewSci" /> this genetic signal is no longer detectable in the later Iron Age population. According to the authors, the admixture was likely due to a "[[gene flow]] from a European-related gene pool" during the Bronze to Iron Age transition, which supports the theory that a migration event occurred.<ref name="pmid31281897">{{cite journal |last1=Feldman |first1=Michal |last2=Master |first2=Daniel M. |last3=Bianco |first3=Raffaela A. |last4=Burri |first4=Marta |last5=Stockhammer |first5=Philipp W. |last6=Mittnik |first6=Alissa |last7=Aja |first7=Adam J. |last8=Jeong |first8=Choongwon |last9=Krause |first9=Johannes |date=3 July 2019 |title=Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines |journal=Science Advances |volume=5 |issue=7 |pages=eaax0061 |bibcode=2019SciA....5...61F |doi=10.1126/sciadv.aax0061 |pmc=6609216 |pmid=31281897 |doi-access=free}}

* {{cite magazine |author=Clare Wilson |date=3 July 2019 |title=Ancient DNA reveals that Jews' biblical rivals were from Greece |url=https://www.newscientist.com/index.php/article/2208581-ancient-dna-reveals-that-jews-biblical-rivals-were-from-greece/ |magazine=New Scientist |url-access=registration}}</ref> Philistine 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 [[Sardinians|modern people living in Sardinia]]."<ref name="pmid31281897" />

=== Scholarly consensus ===
Most scholars agree that the Philistines were of Greek origin,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Young |first1=Ian |url= |title=Linguistic Dating of Biblical Texts |last2=Rezetko |first2=Robert |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-93578-9 |volume=1 |page=287 |language=en |quote=First, there is widespread understanding that the Philistines, Israel's near neighbours, were of Greek, or more generally, Aegean origin.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brug |first=John Frederick |url= |title=A Literary and Archaeological Study of the Philistines |date=1978 |publisher=British Archaeological Reports |isbn=978-0-86054-337-4 |page=41 |language=en |quote=Many scholars have identified the Philistines and other Sea Peoples as Mycenaean Greeks...}}</ref> and that they came from Crete and the rest of the [[Aegean Islands]] or, more generally, from the area of modern-day [[Greece]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Arnold |first1=Bill T. |url= |title=Ancient Israel's History: An Introduction to Issues and Sources |last2=Hess |first2=Richard S. |date=2014 |publisher=Baker Academic |isbn=978-1-4412-4634-9 |page=152 |language=en |quote=Most scholars conclude that the Philistines came from the area of Greece and the islands between Greece and Turkey.}}</ref> This view is based largely upon the fact that archaeologists, when digging up strata dated to the Philistine time-period in the coastal plains and in adjacent areas, have found similarities in material culture (figurines, pottery, fire-stands, etc.) between Aegean-Greek culture and that of Philistine culture, suggesting common origins.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Shai |first=Itzhaq |date=2011 |title=Philistia and the Philistines in the Iron Age IIA |journal=Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins |language=en |publisher=Deutscher verein zur Erforschung Palästinas |volume=127 |issue=2 |pages=124–125 |jstor=41304095}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Old Testament in Archaeology and History |last=Killebrew |first=Ann E. |publisher=Baylor University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4813-0743-7 |editor-last=Ebeling |editor-first=Jennie R. |page=332 |chapter=The Philistines during the Period of the Judges |quote=... a distinctive Aegean-style material culture associated with the Philistines |editor-last2=Wright |editor-first2=J. Edward |editor-last3=Elliott |editor-first3=Mark Adam |editor-last4=Flesher |editor-first4=Paul V. McCracken |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/45145809}}</ref><ref name="Hitchcock" /> A minority, dissenting, claims that the similarities in material culture are only the result of [[acculturation]], during their entire 575 years of existence among Canaanite (Phoenician), Israelite, and perhaps other seafaring peoples.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Stone |first=Bryan Jack |date=1995 |title=The Philistines and Acculturation: Culture Change and Ethnic Continuity in the Iron Age |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |language=en |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |volume=298 |issue=298 |pages=7–32 |doi=10.2307/1357082 |jstor=1357082 |s2cid=155280448}}</ref>

===The "Peleset" from Egyptian inscriptions===
{{main|Peleset}}
[[File:Philistine captives at Medinet Habu.jpg|thumb|Peleset, captives of the Egyptians, from a graphic wall relief at [[Medinet Habu (temple)|Medinet Habu]], in about 1185-52&nbsp;BC, during the reign of [[Ramesses III]]]]

Since 1846, scholars have connected the biblical Philistines with the Egyptian "{{Transliteration|egy|Peleset}}" inscriptions.<ref name="Hincks">{{cite journal|last=Hincks|first=Edward|year=1846|title=An Attempt to Ascertain the Number, Names, and Powers, of the Letters of the Hieroglyphic, or Ancient Egyptian Alphabet; Grounded on the Establishment of a New Principle in the Use of Phonetic Characters|journal=The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy|volume=21|issue=21|jstor=30079013|page=176}}</ref><ref name="Osburn">{{cite book|title=Ancient Egypt, Her Testimony to the Truth of the Bible|first=William|last=Osburn|date=1846|publisher=Samuel Bagster and sons|page=107|url=https://archive.org/stream/ancientegypther00osbugoog#page/n132/mode/2up}}</ref><ref name="Van2" /><ref name="Van1">{{harvnb|Vandersleyen|1985|pp=39–41}}: "Quand Champollion visita Médinet Habou en juin 1829, il vit ces scénes, lut le nom des Pourosato, sans y reconnaître les Philistins; plus tard, dans son ''Dictionnaire égyptien'' et dans sa ''[[Grammaire égyptienne]]'', il transcrivit le même nom Polosté ou Pholosté, mais contrairement à ce qu'affirmait Brugsch en 1858 et tous les auteurs postérieurs, Champollion n'a nulle part écrit que ces Pholosté étaient les Philistins de la Bible. [When Champollion visited Medinet Habu in June 1829, he experienced these scenes, reading the name of Pourosato, without recognizing the Philistines; Later, in his ''Dictionnaire égyptien'' and its ''Grammaire égyptienne'', he transcribed the same name Polosté or Pholosté, but contrary to the assertion by Brugsch in 1858 and subsequent authors, Champollion has nowhere written that these Pholosté were the Philistines of the Bible.]"</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Dothan|Dothan|1992|pp=22–23}}, write of the initial identification: "It was not, however, until the spring of 1829, almost a year after they had arrived in Egypt, that Champollion and his entourage were finally ready to tackle the antiquities of Thebes… The chaotic tangle of ships and sailors, which Denon assumed was a panicked flight into the Indus, was actually a detailed portrayal of a battle at the mouth of the Nile. Because the events of the reign of Ramesses III were unknown from other, the context of this particular war remained a mystery. On his return to Paris, Champollion puzzled over the identity of the various enemies shown in the scene. Since each of them had been carefully labeled with a hieroglyphic inscription, he hoped to match the names with those of ancient tribes and peoples mentioned in Greek and Hebrew texts. Unfortunately, Champollion died in 1832 before he could complete the work, but he did have success with one of the names. […] proved to be none other than the biblical Philistines."

Dothan and Dothan's description was incorrect in stating that the naval battle scene (Champollion, Monuments, [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-5e44-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 Plate CCXXII]) "carefully labeled with a hieroglyphic inscription" each of the combatants, and Champollion's posthumously published manuscript notes contained only one short paragraph on the naval scene with only the "[[Tjeker|Fekkaro]]" and "[[Sherden|Schaïratana]]" identified (Champollion, Monuments, [https://books.google.com/books?id=MeNEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PR65 page 368]). Dothan and Dothan's following paragraph "Dr. Greene's Unexpected Discovery" incorrectly confused [[John Beasley Greene]] with {{ill|John Baker Stafford Greene|ca|John Baker Stafford Greene|vertical-align=sup}}. Champollion did not make a connection to the Philistines in his published work, and Greene did not refer to such a connection in his 1855 work which commented on Champollion ({{harvnb|Greene|1855|p=4}})</ref> [[Timeline of the name "Palestine"#Egyptian period|All five of these]] appear from {{circa}}1150&nbsp;BC to {{circa}}900&nbsp;BC just as archaeological references to ''Kinaḫḫu'', or ''Ka-na-na'' (Canaan), come to an end;<ref name="Drews49b">{{harvnb|Drews|1998|p=49}}: "As the Egyptian province in Asia collapsed after the death of Merneptah, and as the area that identified itself as 'Canaan' shrank to the coastal cities beneath the Lebanon range, the names 'Philistia' and 'Philistines' (or, more plainly, 'Palestine' and 'Palestinians') came to the fore"</ref> and since 1873 comparisons were drawn between them and to the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] "[[Pelasgians]]."<ref name="Drews55">{{harvnb|Drews|1995|p=55|ps=: "A slight shift occurred in 1872, when [[François Chabas|F. Chabas]] published the first translation of all the texts relating to the wars of Merneptah and Ramesses III. Chabas found it strange that the Peleset shown in the reliefs were armed and garbed in the same manner as "European" peoples such as the Sicilians and Sardinians, and he therefore argued that these Peleset were not from Philistia after all, but were Aegean Pelasgians. It was this unfortunate suggestion that triggered [[Gaston Maspero|Maspero]]'s wholesale revision of the entire episode. In his 1873 review of Chabas's book, Maspero agreed that the Peleset of Medinet Habu were accoutred more like Europeans than Semites and also agreed that they were Aegean Pelasgians. But he proposed that it must have been at this very time — in the reign of Ramesses III — that these Pelasgians became Philistines."}}</ref><ref name="YasurLandau">{{harvnb|Yasur-Landau|2010|p=180|ps=: "It seems, then, that the etymological evidence for the origin of the Philistines and other Sea Peoples can be defined as unfocused and ambiguous at best."}}</ref> Archaeological research to date has been unable to corroborate a mass settlement of Philistines during the Ramesses III era.<ref name="auto1"/>{{sfn|Drews|1995|p=69|ps=: "For the modern myth that has replaced it, however, there is [no basis]. Instead of questioning the story of the Philistines Cretan origins, in an attempt to locate a core of historical probability, [[Gaston Maspero|Maspero]] took the story at face value and proceeded to inflate it to fantastic dimensions. Believing that the [[Medinet Habu (temple)|Medinet Habu]] reliefs, with their ox carts, depict the Philistine nation on the eve of its settlement in Canaan, Maspero imagined a great overland migration. The Philistines moved first from Crete to Caria, he proposed, and then from Caria to Canaan in the time of Ramesses III. Whereas Amos and Jeremiah derived the Philistines directly from Crete, a five-day sail away, Maspero's myth credited them with an itinerary that, while reflecting badly on their intelligence, testified to prodigious physical stamina: the Philistines sail from Crete to Caria, where they abandon their ships and their maritime tradition; the nation then travels in ox carts through seven hundred miles of rough and hostile terrain until it reaches southern Canaan; at that point, far from being debilitated by their trek, the Philistines not only conquer the land and give it their name but come within a hair's breadth of defeating the Egyptian pharaoh himself. Not surprisingly, for the migration from Caria to Canaan imagined by Maspero there is no evidence at all, whether literary, archaeological, or documentary.<br /> Since none of Maspero's national migrations is demonstrable in the Egyptian inscriptions, or in the archaeological or linguistic record, the argument that these migrations did indeed occur has traditionally relied on place-names. These place-names are presented as the source from which were derived the ethnica in Merneptahs and Ramesses inscriptions."}}{{sfn|Ussishkin|2008|p=207|ps=: "Reconstruction of the Philistine migration and settlement on the basis of the above model is hard to accept. First, it is not supported by any factual evidence. Second, it assumes that the Philistines had at their disposal a large and strong naval force of a kind unknown in this period. Third, in the period immediately following their settlement in Philistia there is hardly any archaeological evidence connecting the Philistine culture and settlement with sea and navigation. Had the Philistines really possessed such a strong naval force and tradition, as suggested by Stager, we would expect to observe these associations in their material culture in later times."}}

==="Walistina/Falistina" and "Palistin" in Syria===
====Pro====
A ''Walistina'' is mentioned in [[Luwian language|Luwian]] texts already variantly spelled ''Palistina''.<ref name="Rieken2008">{{cite journal|last=Rieken|first=Elisabeth|title=Das Zeichen &lt;sà> im Hieroglyphen-luwischen|journal=Acts of the VIIth International Congress of Hittitology, Çorum, August 25–31, 2008|location=Ankara|publisher=Anıt Matbaa|volume=2|pages=651–60|editor=A. Süel}}</ref><ref name="RiekYak2010">{{cite journal |last1= Rieken |first1= Elisabeth |last2= Yakubovich |first2= Ilya |title= The new values of Luwian signs L 319 and L 172 |pages= 199–219 [215–216] |journal= Ipamati Kistamati Pari Tumatimis: Luwian and Hittite Studies Presented to J. David Hawkins on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday |publisher= Tel-Aviv: Institute of Archaeology |year= 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last= Hawkins |first= J. David |title= The inscriptions of the Aleppo Temple |year= 2011 |journal= Anatolian Studies |volume= 61 |pages= 35–54 |doi= 10.1017/s0066154600008772|s2cid= 162387945 }}</ref> This implies [[dialectic]]al variation, a [[phoneme]] ("f"?) inadequately described in the script,<ref>{{cite journal | title=Phoenician and Luwian in Early Iron Age Cilicia| author=Ilya Yakubovich | year=2015 |journal=Anatolian Studies |volume=65 |pages=35–53 | doi=10.1017/s0066154615000010| s2cid=162771440 }}, 38</ref> or both. Falistina was a kingdom somewhere on the Amuq plain, where the [[Amurru kingdom]] had held sway before it.<ref>Inscription TELL TAYINAT 1: {{cite book |last= Hawkins |first= J. David |title= Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions 1. Inscriptions of the Iron Age |location= Berlin |publisher= de Gruyter |year= 2000 |page= 2.366}}</ref>

In 2003, a statue of a king named [[Taita I|Taita]] bearing inscriptions in [[Luwian language|Luwian]] was discovered during excavations conducted by German archaeologist Kay Kohlmeyer in the [[Citadel of Aleppo]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Bunnens |first= Guy |title= A New Luwian Stele and the Cult of the Storm-god at Til Barsib-Masuwari |page= 130 |publisher= Peeters Publishers |location= Leuven |series= Tell Ahmar, Volume 2 |year= 2006 |isbn= 978-90-429-1817-7 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=YMxY_hfXkCQC&pg=PA130 |access-date=9 December 2020}}</ref> The new readings of [[Anatolian hieroglyphs]] proposed by the Hittitologists Elisabeth Rieken and Ilya Yakubovich were conducive to the conclusion that the country ruled by Taita was called [[Palistin]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rieken|first1=Elisabeth|last2=Yakubovich|first2=Ilya|year=2010|editor-last=Singer|editor-first=I.|title=The New Values of Luwian Signs L 319 and L 172|url=https://www.academia.edu/617478|journal=Ipamati Kistamati Pari Tumatimis: Luwian and Hittite Studies Presented to J. David Hawkins on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday|publisher=Institute of Archaeology|location=Tel-Aviv}}</ref> This country extended in the 11th-10th centuries BC from the [[Amik Valley|Amouq Valley]] in the west to [[Aleppo]] in the east down to [[Mhardeh|Mehardeh]] and [[Shaizar]] in the south.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8Z7AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA111|title= Ancient Syria: A Three Thousand Year History|author=Trevor Bryce|page= 111|isbn= 978-0-19-100292-2|date= 2014-03-06|publisher= OUP Oxford}}</ref>

Due to the similarity between Palistin and Philistines, [[Hittitologist]] John David Hawkins (who translated the Aleppo inscriptions) hypothesizes a connection between the [[Syro-Hittite states|Syro-Hittite]] Palistin and the Philistines, as do archaeologists Benjamin Sass and Kay Kohlmeyer.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gBCl2IQfNioC&pg=PA662|title= The Philistines and Other "Sea Peoples" in Text and Archaeology|author= Ann E. Killebrew|page= 662|isbn= 978-1-58983-721-8|date= 2013-04-21|publisher= Society of Biblical Lit}}</ref> [[Gershon Galil]] suggests that King David halted the Arameans' expansion into the Land of Israel on account of his alliance with the southern Philistine kings, as well as with Toi, king of Ḥamath, who is identified with Tai(ta) II, king of Palistin (the northern Sea Peoples).<ref name="Salner">{{cite web|last=Salner|first=Omri|title=The History of King David in Light of New Epigraphic and Archeological Data|date=17 December 2014|publisher=[[Haifa University]]|url=https://www.haifa.ac.il/index.php/en/2012-12-16-11-30-12/new-media/900-the-history-of-king-david-in-light-of-new-epigraphic-and-archeological-data|access-date=1 October 2018|archive-date=1 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001070407/https://www.haifa.ac.il/index.php/en/2012-12-16-11-30-12/new-media/900-the-history-of-king-david-in-light-of-new-epigraphic-and-archeological-data}}</ref>

====Contra====
However, the relation between Palistin and the Philistines is much debated. Israeli professor [[Itamar Singer]] notes that there is nothing (besides the name) in the recently discovered archaeology that indicates an [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] origin to Palistin; most of the discoveries at the Palistin capital [[Tell Tayinat]] indicate a [[Syro-Hittite states|Neo-Hittite]] state, including the names of the kings of Palistin. Singer proposes (based on archaeological finds) that a branch of the Philistines settled in Tell Tayinat and were replaced or assimilated by a new Luwian population who took the Palistin name.<ref>See Before and After the Storm, Crisis Years in Anatolia and Syria between the Fall of the Hittite Empire and the Beginning of a New Era (c. 1220 – 1000&nbsp;BCE), A Symposium in Memory of Itamar Singer, University of Pavia [http://www.academia.edu/5403302/The_Philistines_in_the_North_and_the_Kingdom_of_Taita_unpublished_paper_by_Itamar_Singer_zl_ p. 7+8]{{dead link|date=November 2023|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

===''phyle histia'' theory===

Allen Jones (1972 & 1975) suggests that the name ''Philistine'' represents a corruption of the Greek ''[[phyle]]-histia'' ('tribe of the [[hearth]]'), with the [[Ionic Greek|Ionic]] spelling of ''[[hestia]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Jones|1972|pp=343–350}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Allen H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P2FtAAAAMAAJ |title=Bronze Age Civilization: The Philistines and the Danites |date=1975 |publisher=Public Affairs Press |isbn=978-0-685-57333-4 |pages=VI |language=en}}</ref> Stephanos Vogazianos (1993) states that Jones "only answers problems by analogy and he mainly speculates" but notes that the root ''[[phyle]]'' may not at all be out of place.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vogazianos |first=Stephanos |date=1994 |title=The philistine emergence and its possible bearing on the appearance and activities of Aegean invaders in the east Mediterranean area at the end of the Mycenaean period |url=https://lekythos.library.ucy.ac.cy/handle/10797/6375 |journal=Archaeologia Cypria |publisher=[[University of Cyprus]] |volume=3 |issue=14 |page=31 |issn=0257-1951}}</ref> Regarding this theory, [[Israel Finkelstein]] & [[Nadav Na'aman]] (1994) note the hearth constructions which have been discovered at [[Tell Qasile]] and [[Ekron]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Finkelstein |first1=Israel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q75tAAAAMAAJ |title=From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel |last2=Na'aman |first2=Nadav |date=1994 |publisher=Ben Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East |isbn=978-1-880317-20-4 |page=336 |language=en}}</ref>