Philistine Origins
Much like the Israelites, the Philistines
were an immigrant culture which appeared in the Levant at the
beginning
of the Iron
Age I period (c.a. 1200, B.C.) The Bible first mentions this culture
in Genesis 10:14, stating that the Philistines came from “Caphtorim,” which
scholars now believe to be the island of Crete or another island in
the Aegean (Dothan, Anch. 1). Several
pieces of archaeological evidence support this claim. For instance,
motifs in Philistine pottery, such as spirals,
fish, and birds come from the Mycenaean culture in the Aegean (Trude
Dothan 198-199, 203). The material culture from Philistine cultic
practices also implies an Aegean origin. Hearths, which are connected
with cultic shrines, have been found in the middle of Philistine structures
and are Aegean in origin (Dothan, Anch.
5). Additionally, at Ashdod,
archaeologists found a ceramic figure of a seated female deity, which
is indicative of Aegean cultic practices (Dothan,
Anch. 7-8). Likewise,
the Philistine burial practice of using rock-cut chamber tombs was
also a burial practice of the Mycenaean culture in the Aegean (Dothan,
Anch. 8). Egyptian texts give further background information on the Philistines’ origins by associating them with the Sea Peoples, who left the Aegean during a general eastern migration at the end of the Late Bronze Age (Dothan, Anch. 1). Records in the mortuary temple of Rameses III tell of a great battle between the ships of the Sea Peoples and the Egyptians (Dothan, Anch. 1). Amongst the scenes of Rameses’ great victory, the Egyptians name the Philistines as part of the Sea Peoples (Dothan and Dothan 21-22). Another Egyptian text, the Harris Papyrus I, corroborates this evidence, naming the Philistines as one of the Sea Peoples as well (Dothan, Anch. 2). Thus, scholars believe that the Philistines were part of a group of Aegean migrants, who, after their defeat in Egypt, settled on the coastal plain of southern Palestine (Dothan, Anch. 1-2).
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| Philistine Origins | |