Philistine settlements and fortifications seem to indicate an advanced society. At Ekron, one of the main cities in the Philistine Pentapolis, excavations show that the Philistines transformed what was once a Canaanite city-state in the Late Bronze Age into a fifty-acre city with large public edifices and industrial quarters (Mazar 310). Excavations at the city of Ashdod also show advanced city planning and elaborate structures. Houses in the northern part of that city consisted of a series of large rooms and spacious paved courtyards. The Philistines even made the main street steeply sloped in order to give the city an outlet for drainage (Dothan and Dothan 152). Tell Qasile also reveals extensive urban planning, as it has a regular orthogonal street network with well-defined blocks (Mazar 317). Likewise, it also contains complex structures, such as a large hall of mud-bricks with benches on the inner face (Mazar 317). Meanwhile, during this period, major Canaanite cities, such as Hazor and Lachish, had been abandoned. Additionally, the Israelites mostly lived in small, unwalled villages on hilltops, and houses were generally confined to small, four-roomed courtyard houses, which were clustered closely together (Dever 5). Thus, as Amihai Mazar, asserts, “The Philistines, as well as perhaps other Sea Peoples, were responsible for the continuation of urban life in Palestine during the twelfth and eleventh centuries, B.C.” (313).

Photo: Hearth sanctuary in Ekron, from Dothan and Dothan, plate 24

In addition to massive fortifications and complex residences, the Philistines constructed cult centers which surpassed their Israelite neighbors. For instance, at Ekron, in what Moshe and Trude Dothan call the “elite zone” of the city, archaeologists found two hearths in a brick frame at the entrance of a palace building (242). Since hearths were a part of Aegean palaces and shrines, these structures stand as elaborate evidence of Philistine cultic practices (Dothan and Dothan 245). Hearths were also found in another Philistine temple at Tell Qasile, which provides even more evidence of the advanced building skills of the Philistines (Dothan and Dothan 245). At Tell Qasile, the structure included an entrance chamber, as well as stone walls surrounding a courtyard (Mazar 321). Cedarwood pillars supported the main hall’s ceiling, and the temple also contained a three-foot high offering platform (Mazar 320); (Dothan and Dothan 248). Additionally, a cultic center at Ashdod contained many pottery vessels, Egyptian scarabs, and beads (Dothan and Dothan 152). In contrast, Israelite settlements contain little material culture pertaining to religious practices (Mazar 348). Granted, a site in the northern Samarian hills reveals an Israelite cult structure, but it only consists of a circle of large stones and a bronze statuette (Mazar 350-351). At Mount Ebal, A. Zertal suggests that a two-meter-wide circular construction was evidence of an Israelite altar as well (Mazar 348). Still, this structure, as well as the northern Samarian altar, was open-air and did not approach the magnitude and complexity found in the religious edifices of the Philistines.

Fortifications and Cult Centers

Conclusions