Philistine Pottery. These pottery pieces from Ashkelon bear early Philistine decorations. Photo: © The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon.

The Philistines are best known from the Bible as the Israelites’ enemies, but they were much more than that. Recent archaeological discoveries help inform our understanding of their culture, economy, and even origins. In the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Daniel M. Master of Wheaton College looks at the biblical and archaeological evidence for the Philistines’ roots in “Piece by Piece: Exploring the Origins of the Philistines.”

Who Were the Philistines?

In the Bible, the Philistines are remembered as an uncircumcised people with advanced technology and a formidable military (Judges 14:3; 1 Samuel 13:19–20; Exodus 13:17). The Philistines frequently encroached on Israelite territory, which led to some battles, including the famous clash between David, the Israelite, and Goliath, the Philistine (1 Samuel 17). They were condemned for being idol worshipers (1 Samuel 5:1–5) and soothsayers (Isaiah 2:6). In short, the Philistines are portrayed quite negatively in the Bible.

They lived in the cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza—the heartland of ancient Philistia on the Mediterranean Sea’s southeastern shore. Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gath have been excavated in recent decades. The findings from these cities show that the Philistines had distinct pottery, weapons, tools, and houses. They also ate pork and had vast trade networks.

Philistine culture flourished during the Iron Age (12th through sixth centuries B.C.E.). Similar to the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the Philistines lost their autonomy toward the end of the Iron Age. They became subservient and paid tribute to the Assyrians, Egyptians, and then Babylonians, the great superpowers of the region who severely punished rebellion. For example, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed disloyal Ashkelon and Ekron and carried off many Philistines into exile.

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Where Did the Philistines Come From?

In his article, Daniel Master looks at archaeological and biblical evidence for the Philistines’ origins. He considers the accounts at Ramesses III’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu. In the 12th century B.C.E., during the reign of Ramesses III, a confederation of tribes from the “islands” of the “northern countries” attacked Egypt—several times, both on sea and land. The Peleset, whom scholars connect with the Philistines, was named as one of these tribes.

Battle Ships. This drawing of a relief at Medinet Habu shows a sea battle between the Egyptians and people from the “islands,” who had invaded Egypt in the 12th century B.C.E. Photo: Public Domain.

On the way to Egypt, the confederation had traveled through the eastern Mediterranean and destroyed numerous cities, including Ugarit on the Syrian coast. Ammurapi, the last king of Ugarit, had written to surrounding kingdoms for help, when the “seven ships of the enemy” had arrived to ransack his kingdom. By the time help had come, though, it was too late: Ugarit lay in ruins.

Egypt defeated the confederation, as recorded on one of the temple walls at Medinet Habu. A relief from that temple also depicts a sea battle between the island tribes and the Egyptians. In it, the islanders wear distinct headdresses, which clearly set them apart from the Egyptians. After being defeated, some of these tribes settled on the southern coast of Canaan—in what would become the land of the Philistines. Egyptian sources, thus, seem to record a migration of people from the “islands” to Philistia.

Philistine Portrait? A confederation of island tribes, including the Peleset (Philistines), attacked Egypt in the 12th century B.C.E. This relief from Medinet Habu records a sea battle between the two forces. Photo: Olaf Tausch, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Master also examines the evidence for Philistine origins in the Bible. The biblical authors remembered the Philistines as coming from a foreign land, from “Caphtor” (Genesis 10:14; Deuteronomy 2:23; 1 Chronicles 1:12; Amos 9:7; Jeremiah 47:4). Scholars have long drawn a connection between Caphtor and Crete. This is largely based on Egyptian inscriptions and paintings of “Keftiu” from the 15th and 14th centuries B.C.E., wherein the Keftiu are linked to the Minoan civilization, which was centered on Crete.

Migration Map. Who were the Philistines, and where did they come from? New archaeological evidence suggests that many of the Philistines originally came from Crete, called “Caphtor” in the Bible. Map: © Biblical Archaeology Society.

Excavations have shown that the Philistines had a distinct assemblage of artifacts. Master notes parallels between some early Philistine objects, especially from the 12th and 11th centuries B.C.E., and Aegean and Cypriot artifacts. Elements of Philistine material culture, then, also hint at an Aegean or Mediterranean origin for the Philistines.

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New evidence from Ashkelon further supports this connection. The Leon Levy Expedition excavated at Ashkelon from 1985–2016 under the direction of the late Lawrence Stager at Harvard University; for the last decade, Daniel Master co-directed excavations. They found some infant burials from the 12th century B.C.E., as well as a Philistine cemetery with burials from the 11th through eighth centuries B.C.E. Teaming up with scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, they were able to analyze DNA from seven of these individuals. When they looked at the 12th-century infants’ DNA, they discovered that the infants had some European ancestry. Crete proved to be one of the best matches for the infants’ heritage—when considering all of their genetic material. Yet other places in the western Mediterranean, such as Iberia, also provided a good match.

Interestingly, in the later individuals from Ashkelon’s cemetery, this European ancestry had been so diluted to barely register. Master explains that, by the tenth century B.C.E., enough intermarriage had taken place between the Philistines and the local Levantine population that the Philistines looked a lot like their neighbors:

While there was some evidence of the same Western European Hunter-Gatherer genetic input, for all statistical purposes, it could not be identified for certain. The best models showed that these people [the tenth- and ninth-century individuals buried in Ashkelon’s cemetery] were descendants of both the 12th-century inhabitants and the earlier Bronze Age inhabitants. It appears from these results that so much intermarriage had taken place between the original immigrants and the people around them that the genetic makeup of Ashkelon’s inhabitants had lost its immigrant distinctiveness.

Yet Master clarifies that, at this point in history, the Philistines still thought of themselves as distinct, as evident in a seventh-century inscription from the Philistine city of Ekron. The inscription names Ekron’s king as Ikausu, which means “Achaean” or “Greek.” The name Ikausu (or Achish) also appears in 1 Samuel 21:10 as Gath’s king.

The Philistines remembered their foreign origins

Master concludes that the new DNA evidence, coupled with the biblical and archaeological testimonies, suggests that the Philistines originated in Crete. That is not to say that the Philistines were a homogenous group, all coming from the Aegean world, but it seems that many Philistines did indeed migrate from there, bringing with them vestiges of Minoan culture. Learn more about this ancient people in Daniel M. Master’s article “Piece by Piece: Exploring the Origins of the Philistines,” published in the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article “Piece by Piece: Exploring the Origins of the Philistines” by Daniel M. Master in the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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This article first appeared in Bible History Daily on March 23, 2022.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Illuminating the Philistines’ Origins

Who Were the Philistines?

The Philistines Are Coming!

The “Philistines” to the North

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The Philistines

Piece by Piece: Exploring the Origins of the Philistines

What We Know About the Philistines

The Other “Philistines”

Exploring Philistine Origins on the Island of Cyprus

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Who were the Carthaginians? Representation of the Punic city on display in the Carthage National Museum. damian entwistle, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

For much of the first millennium BCE, the Carthaginian merchant empire dominated large swaths of the Mediterranean. But who were the Carthaginians? Carthage, located near the modern Tunisian capital of Tunis, began as one of many Phoenician trading colonies. The city’s Phoenician origins even led its inhabitants and language to be identified as Punic in Roman sources. However, a large-scale genetic study, published in the journal Nature, has revealed a startling truth about the Carthaginians: very few had any genetic link to the Phoenician homeland in the coastal Levant. So, where did they come from?

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Identifying a People

Known for their maritime prowess, the Phoenicians established trading colonies throughout the Mediterranean during the first millennium BCE, and while the original Levantine Phoenician city-states slowly waned in power and influence after coming under Assyrian control, their colonies continued to rule the seas. Despite the cultural continuity between Phoenicia and Carthage, it remains uncertain how closely related the Carthaginians were to their Phoenician predecessors. To tackle the question of who were the Carthaginians, a team of 70 scholars and scientists carried out the largest genetic study ever undertaken on the remains of individuals from Carthaginian sites. They examined the remains of nearly 400 individuals and conducted DNA analysis on around 200 who lived in the sixth through third centuries BCE.

Although previous genetic studies had shown Phoenicians to be closely related to other Levantine peoples, the large-scale study on the Carthaginians revealed something very different. The most common genetic ancestry was not from the Levant, but rather from Sicily and the Aegean. A much smaller portion had North Africa ancestry, and only a few had links to the Levant or the Iberian Peninsula. It is worth noting, however, that all of the analyzed samples dated to the sixth century BCE or later, a few hundred years after the establishment of many of the Phoenician trading colonies, when there was a marked shift from cremation to inhumation burial practices.

Phoenician Empire. The Phoenicians’ commercial empire stretched across the Mediterranean world. Map: Biblical Archaeology Society.

So, how could the Carthaginians have been culturally Phoenician but genetically Sicilian-Aegean? One of the best explanations involves not Phoenician but Greek colonies, as many Phoenician colonies were founded close to Greek settlements across Sicily and North Africa. While the Phoenician colonies would have been genetically Levantine when they were founded, over time they incorporated large numbers of individuals who were of Greek and Sicilian descent. While the Phoenician culture won out, Phoenician genetics did not.

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Related reading in Bible History Daily

Who Were the Phoenicians?

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Who Were the Minoans?

Did the Carthaginians Really Practice Infant Sacrifice?

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Destinations: Punic Double Take

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Child Sacrifice at Carthage—Religious Rite or Population Control?

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Aerial view of Philistine Gath. Courtesy Photo Companion to the Bible, Joshua.

Although the Philistines are well known from ancient texts, including the Hebrew Bible, and their cities have been extensively excavated, many questions remain about their culture and religion. A study published in the journal Scientific Reports attempts to provide answers to some of these questions by examining the plant remains from two excavated Philistine temples in the ancient city of Gath, the birthplace of the biblical figure Goliath.

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Gath’s Nature Cult

Examining two successive temples at Gath, which dated from the tenth to ninth centuries BCE, archaeologists identified dozens of plant species, including cereals, fruits, pulses, and herbs. While it is not surprising to find plant remains in an ancient temple, the types and quantities could tell researchers a great deal about Philistine cultic practices. The results of the study indicate the Philistine temple at Gath was likely associated with nature and agriculture. More interestingly, it suggests temple worship had close similarities with later Aegean cults, specifically the cult of Hera, the Greek mother goddess.

Among the plants identified in the temples, several stood out, including the fruit of the chaste tree. Although a local plant, the large quantity of chaste tree fruit is unique in the region and indicates its importance in Philistine cult. The only other region where the fruit took on a religious significance was Greece, where it was used in both Sparta and on the island of Samos as part of the cult of Hera. Numerous loom weights were also found in the temple, suggesting its association with weaving and Asherah, one of the Canaanite mother goddesses.

Flowers of the chaste tree. Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Researchers also discovered the floral remains of crown daisies, which are known to have been used in ancient Greek religion to adorn statues of the goddess Artemis, while flowers were also a common element in the cult of Hera. This is a notable difference from Levantine religions, whose cultic symbolism was focused more on crops and trees. The presence of the chaste tree and the crown daisy could connect Philistine cultic tradition to the wider cult of Aegean and Mycenean mother-goddess worship. The similarities between the Aegean and Philistine religions would be telling, as many scholars believe the Philistines, part of the infamous Sea Peoples, originated in the Aegean.

Other plants discovered in the temples included those used for medicine, food, decoration, incense, and alcohol. Some plants even had psychoactive properties. In addition, researchers found that most of the plants were processed on-site at the temples and, furthermore, that this processing was meant to prepare cultic offerings rather than food products for storage and later consumption. This indicates that plant processing likely played an important role within the Philistine cult.

As the lead researcher, Suembikya Frumin, told the Times of Israel,  “The study revealed that the Philistine religion relied on the magic and power of nature, such as running water and seasonality, aspects that influence human health and life.”

This article was originally published in Bible History Daily on March 1, 2024.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Who Were the Philistines, and Where Did They Come From?

Who Were the Philistines?

The Destruction of Philistine Gath

Philistine and Israelite Religion at Tell es-Safi/Gath

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Excavating Philistine Gath: Have We Found Goliath’s Hometown?

Philistine Cult Stands

Philistine Temple Discovered Within Tel Aviv City Limits

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Tel Kabri wall that fell into earthquake trench. Photo: U. Haifa

Tel Kabri, a 75-acre site in the western Galilee had been occupied by the Canaanites for centuries. Then, about 1900-1700 B.C.E.. the palace and the city were left deserted. In a study released on Plos One, researchers revealed their conclusion that an ancient Earthquake was most likely responsible.

The palace at Tel Kabri had been lavishly decorated in the Aegean-style. As Eric H. Cline and Assaf Yasur-Landau discussed in the article, Aegeans in Israel: Minoan Frescoes at Tel Kabri (Biblical Archaeology Review: July/August 2013), the inscribed tablets at Mari mention artists, physicians, and craftspeople traveling from city to city, going from king to king. Masons, sculptors, and other artisans from Minoan Crete–or inspired by their previous travels to work on the island’s palaces–brought the style to the frescoes and orthostat blocks that have been excavated in Tel Kabri’s ruins.

Orthostat Building of Tel Kabri. Photo: U. Haifa

In the University of Haifa press release, researcher Dr. Assaf Yasur-Landau explains, “A few seasons ago, we began to uncover a trench which runs through part of the palace, but initial indications suggested that it was modern, perhaps dug within the past few decades or a century or two at most. But then, in 2019, we opened up a new area and found that the trench continued for at least thirty meters, with an entire section of a wall that had fallen into it in antiquity, and with other walls and floors tipping into it on either side.” Lead author Dr. Michael Lazar explains that proving past earthquakes is normally difficult, but at Tel Kabri they found warped plaster floors, displaced walls, and mudbricks from walls and ceilings collapsed into rooms, burying jars.

Ancient Jars fell in the trench. Photo: U. Haifa

If this theory is correct, it won’t be the only time Seismic events have impacted the course of ancient civilizations. The Alaskan volcano of Okmok disrupted weather 6,000 miles away, contributing to the end of the Roman republic. Hippos-Sussita was damaged by earthquake in 363 C.E., though it recovered until the catastrophic Earthquake of 749 destroyed it, along with most of Tiberias, Beit She’an Pella, and Gadara. The Egyptian Nile delta cities Heracleion and Canopus sank into the sea some 2,000 years ago, partially as a result of earthquakes. In Crete, The Minoan civilization itself is believed to have ended after being weakened by the tsunami caused by the eruption of the Santorini volcano in the 17th century B.C.E.

The Study, Earthquake damage as a catalyst to abandonment of a Middle Bronze Age settlement: Tel Kabri, Israel, authored by Michael Lazar, Eric H. Cline, Roey Nickelsberg, Ruth Shahack-Gross, and Assaf Yasur-Landau, appeared in Plos One on September 11, 2020. Their work was funded by the National Geographic Society and the Israel Science Foundation.

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Imagining the Minoans by Barry Unsworth. Love Crete or not—and I have yet to meet anyone who has spent much time there and doesn’t—it is hard to think of anywhere else on earth where so many firsts and mosts are crammed into a space so small. At scarcely more than 3,000 square miles in area, it comes only fifth in order of size among the islands of the Mediterranean. But this patch of land, most of it rock, was home, something like 5,000 years ago, to the first society in Europe developed enough to be regarded as a distinctive civilization. We call the pre-Greek people who lived here Minoans, without knowing what they called themselves.

Did Theseus Slay the Minotaur?: How Myth and Archaeology Inform Each Other by Jeremy McInerney.In 1876, Heinrich Schliemann completed a season’s excavation at Mycenae, where his faith in Homer’s text was repaid with spectacular success. Having excavated one of the shafts in grave circle A, close by the Lion Gate, Schliemann had come down on a burial containing the remains of a man whose face in death had been covered by a gold plate, beaten out to form a crude portrait. According to a story widely told, Schliemann claimed that the features of the dead man’s face had remained visible for a split second before crumpling into dust. He cabled the king of Greece and announced that he had discovered the tomb of Agamemnon.

The Sea Peoples and Their Contributions to Civilization by Avner Raban and Robert R. Stieglitz. The Sea Peoples are unappreciated. This is in part because the most famous of them, the Philistines, received such bad press in the Bible. But the other Sea Peoples—among them the Shardana, Sikila, Lukka and the Danuna—have also been treated poorly, even by scholars, who often blame them for causing the widespread disorder and destruction that occurred throughout the eastern Mediterranean world at the end of the Late Bronze Age (about 1250–1200 B.C.E.)—for undermining the social, economic and military organization of Bronze Age civilization, and for bringing it to an end.

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Sunday, May 31, 2020.

The Brilliance of Aegean Bronze Age Wall Paintings.

Emily Egan.

This event is sponsored by the Hellenic Society Prometheas

The arc of magnificent Aegean-style wall painting began in Minoan Crete during the Middle Bronze Age. This style of pictorial art then spread to other Aegean islands and to the Mycenaean mainland.

By the collapse of the Bronze Age at the end of the thirteenth century BCE, this Greek art form had reached its apex, especially demonstrated in the extraordinary development and novel uses of color. Notable in this development was the use of “abstract” or “artificial” color, in which artists decorated subjects with seemingly nonsensical hues that veered away from naturalism. Among the subjects of this bold coloration were flora and fauna, particularly sea life.

This presentation explores this use of colors with prominent examples of wall paintings from Knossos, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Pylos.

Emily Egan is Assistant Professor of Eastern Mediterranean Art and Archaeology at the University of Maryland.

This event will be held at Raaga Indian Restaurant: 5872 Leesburg Pike / Falls Church / Virginia / 22041

The luncheon begins at 2 pm; the lecture begins at 3 pm.

For more information about this lecture and other events sponsored by BASONOVA, visit their website.

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More from Bible History Daily:

Minoan Frescoes at Tel Kabri  Over 100 years of excavations on Crete have exposed elegant Minoan frescoes that once adorned the walls of the island’s Bronze Age palaces. This distinctively colorful Aegean art style flourished in the Middle Bronze Age (1750-1550 B.C.).

Bronze Age Akrotiri Reopened  The mid-second millennium B.C.E. volcanic eruption on the island of Thera (the modern tourist island Santorini) redefined Bronze Age history for the entire Aegean. One of the largest eruptions in the planet’s history, the blast not only destroyed the island’s highly artistic Minoan population at Akrotiri, but also had repercussions across the region.

Starting the Dig  In the July/August 2013 issue of BAR, Tel Kabri excavation directors Eric Cline and Assaf Yasur-Landau describe the unique Aegean-style art at the Middle Bronze Age site in Israel. BAS web editor Noah Wiener is currently taking part in the excavation at Tel Kabri.

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