The Seaborne Migration of the Philistines

Assaf Yasur-Landau examines the early history of the biblical Philistines who were among the 'Sea Peoples' who migrated from the Aegean area to the Levant during the early twelfth century BC. Creating an archaeological narrative of the migration of the Philistines, he combines an innovative theoretical framework on the archaeology of migration with new data from excavations in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel and thereby reconstructs the social history of the Aegean migration to the southern Levant. The author follows the story of the migrants from the conditions that caused the Philistines to leave their Aegean homes, to their movement eastward along the sea and land routes, to their formation of a migrant society in Philistia and their interaction with local populations in the Levant. Based on the most up-to-date evidence, this book offers a new and fresh understanding of the arrival of the Philistines in the Levant.

In the early/mid-12th century BCE, the social and cultural milieu in the Southern Levant went through deep changes (e.g., Ward and Joukowsky 1992; Gitin et al. 1998; Killebrew 2005; Yasur-Landau 2010; Cline 2014). This is manifested in various ways, including: 1. the gradual waning of the Egyptian control of Canaan; 2. a drawn-out process of destruction and/or depopulation of many of the Canaanite city states; 3. the appearance of ‘new groups’ in the region, in the inland (identified by most scholars as the precursors of the ‘Israelites’, Aramaeans, and others) and along some of the coastal regions; and 4., the primary focus of this article, the advent of so-called Sea Peoples, and the most notable among them, the Peleset, in the southern Coastal Plain of Canaan (e.g., Hitchcock and Maeir 2014; Maeir et al. 2013).

Scripta Mediterranea, 2007

The complexity and extent of regional interconnections between the Aegean and the Levant during the final centuries of the Bronze Age are well documented in both the textual and archaeological record. The appearance of Mycenaean-inspired material culture in the east reaches its peak during the late 13th and 12th centuries BCE, coinciding with the crisis and eventual demise of this Age of Internationalism at the end of the Late Bronze Age. Associated with the widespread Aegeanization of Cyprus and the Levant during this period are several peoples mentioned in New Kingdom Egyptian texts whom modern scholars collectively refer to as the “Sea Peoples.” The most notorious of these peoples are the biblical Philistines long associated with the appearance of Aegean- inspired material culture at several 12th century urban centers located in the southern coastal plain of Canaan. At the heart of the ensuing scholarly debate is the identity, origin and wider historical implications of the transmission and diffusion of 14th–12th century BCE Mycenaean-style material culture from its mainland Greek production centers eastward. A majority of scholars continue to endorse the view that the appearance of Mycenaean-style artifacts in the eastern Aegean, Cyprus, and the Levant commenced with trade relations with mainland Greece in the 14th–mid-13th centuries, eventually leading to Mycenaean colonization and migration at numerous sites in the eastern Mediterranean. The sudden appearance of Mycenaean-inspired material culture in significant quantities at key sites corresponding to the Philistine Pentapolis cities (cf. Joshua 13:2–3) is seen as the culmination of this process of transmission and appropriation of Aegean culture in the east, founded literally upon the ruins of the preceding Late Bronze Age. However, does the spread of locally produced Mycenaean-style material culture, especially pottery, actually reflect the movement of peoples from the west Aegean to the east? Or, does it attest to a more complex process of east-west interaction that resulted in the transmission of Mycenaean-inspired practices and ideologies in the creation of regionally defined “Aegeanized” cultures?

Historical Biblical Archaeology and the Future-The New Pragmatism, ed. T.E. Levy, 2010

This paper reviews different methodological and theoretical approaches to culture transmission in general and as applied to the Philistines in particular. Recent archaeological evidence is then summarized that challenges simplistic 20th-century Eurocentric hyper-diffusionist migration interpretations and linear narratives that portray the Philistines as a group of 'Mycenaean' refugees fleeing the Greek mainland and/or the western Aegean. New directions for future research regarding the transmission of Aegean-style material culture in the eastern Mediterranean are proposed and their implications for the biblical Philistines. In this way, this paper contributes to efforts to forge a more pragmatic historical Biblical Archaeology for the southern Levant.

2013

The search for the biblical Philistines, one of ancient Israel's most storied enemies, has long intrigued both scholars and the public. Archaeological and textual evidence examined in its broader eastern Mediterranean context reveals that the Philistines, well-known from biblical and extra-biblical texts, together with other related groups of Sea Peoples, played a transformative role in the development of new ethnic groups and polities that emerged from the ruins of the Late Bronze Age empires. The essays in this book, representing recent research in the fields of archaeology, Bible, and history, reassess the origins, identity, material culture, and impact of the Philistines and other Sea Peoples on the Iron Age cultures and peoples of the eastern Mediterranean. The contributors are Matthew J. Adams, Michal Artzy, Tristan J. Barako, David Ben-Shlomo, Mario Benzi, Margaret E. Cohen, Anat Cohen-Weinberger, Trude Dothan, Elizabeth French, Marie-Henriette Gates, Hermann Genz, Ayelet Gilboa, Maria Iacovou, Ann E. Killebrew, Sabine Laemmel, Gunnar Lehmann, Aren M. Maeir, Amihai Mazar, Linda Meiberg, Penelope A. Mountjoy, Hermann Michael Niemann, Jeremy B. Rutter, Ilan Sharon, Susan Sherratt, Neil Asher Silberman, and Itamar Singer.

Near East Historical Reviev, 2023

Deniz Kavimleri Göçü ya da diğer ismiyle Ege Göçleri, MÖ 13. yüzyılın son çeyreği ile 12. yüzyılın ilk çeyreği arasında vuku bulmuş büyük bir kavimler hareketidir. Bu göçe iştirak eden kavimlerin büyük bir kısmı, Ege ve Akdeniz adaları ile Anadolu'nun batı ve güney kıyılarında oturan denizci kavimlerdi. Kıtlık, toprak yetmezliği ve açlık gibi nedenlerle başlayan bu göçün başlangıç noktası Yunanistan'dır. Egeli kavimlerin ulaşmak istedikleri hedef ülke ise bir bolluk memleketi olan Mısır'dır.