Who were the Philistines?

Open Heart

Well-known member
I've been reading lately about the Sea People, known to have invaded the Mediterranean at the end of the bronze age, being a major variable in the late bronze age collapse. It has been suggested by some authors that the Philistines were among the Sea Peoples. Apparently the early pottery of the Philistines was the same style as that of Aegean culture at the time, and some of the Sea People were from Aegea. What do you think?

 
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I've been reading lately about the Sea People, known to have invaded the Mediterranean at the end of the bronze age, being a major variable in the late bronze age collapse. It has been suggested by some authors that the Philistines were among the Sea Peoples. Apparently the early pottery of the Philistines was the same style as that of Aegean culture at the time, and some of the Sea People were from Aegea. What do you think?

Sounds possible. With all the genetic testing going on it seems that there should be some recent published research that sheds light on that.
 
I've been reading lately about the Sea People, known to have invaded the Mediterranean at the end of the bronze age, being a major variable in the late bronze age collapse. It has been suggested by some authors that the Philistines were among the Sea Peoples. Apparently the early pottery of the Philistines was the same style as that of Aegean culture at the time, and some of the Sea People were from Aegea. What do you think?
Sure, while the nomenclature of "Sea Peoples" has fallen into disuse, there is no significant dispute amongst biblical scholars about an east Mediterranean origin of the Philistines... disagreement revolves around where specifically they came from --- the four theories are, moving east to west (1) southeast Anatolia and/or Cyprus, (2) western Anatolia, (3) mainland Greece and Crete, and (4) Illyria. As you touch on above, their origins are established on the basis of pottery unearthed from excavations of the Pentapolis sites (ie. the five Philistine cities). Styles vary, which leads to the aforementioned theories, but the strongest correlations are with pottery from Cyprus and Cilicia in southeast Anatolia.

If you're interested in digging a bit deeper into these subjects, I would recommend the chapter "The Philistines: Urban Colonists of the Early Iron Age" in Ann E. Killebrew's book Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early Israel, 1300-1100 B.C.E. (Archaeology and Biblical Studies 9; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005), pp. 197-245. If you want to go even further in depth, then I would recommend the 700+ page collection of essays edited by Killebrew along with Gunnar Lehmann titled The Philistines and Other "Sea Peoples" in Text and Archaeology (Archaeology and Biblical Studies 15; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013).

Kind regards,
Jonathan
 
"Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim)."
Genesis 10

"Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 12 Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and the Caphtorim)."
1 Chronicles 1


I think the idea of connection to Aegea is possible, because there were Hamites who went to Northern areas
like Canaan to Lebanon area and Zepho to Kittim (Rome area).

 
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