Uncultured Swine!: The Philistines

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There are two Bible stories every kid learns growing up in Sabbath School: Daniel and the Lions’ Den and David against Goliath. The story of David and Goliath is arguably the most iconic story in the entire Bible, one that is told and retold in a million different ways. We even use the saying “a David and Goliath story” to describe an underdog beating all the odds to come out victorious.

The antagonist of this epic is the Philistine Goliath, who is emblematic of his people. The Philistines are viewed as the Bible’s primary villains and their struggles with the “good guy” Israelites are depicted in remarkable detail throughout the Bible’s pages. Although not nearly a powerhouse nation such as Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, or Rome, they interact (almost always antagonistically) with the Israelites more than anyone else. They are portrayed as the bad guys and we tend to view them as such. Often our image of the Philistines is colored by the Bible’s attitude toward them. We see them as rough, beer-drinking, pig-eating, uncultured thugs. In fact we even call people a “Philistine” if they are behaving in a rude way.

But who were the Philistines really? Were they truly these rough and tumble barbarians? Or is the reality a bit more nuanced than our perception?

The Philistines were not native to Canaan, or as archaeologist prefer, the southern Levant (referring to the region that predominantly comprises modern Israel). The Bible in both Amos 9:7 and Jeremiah 47:4 refers to them as having hailed from “Caphtor,” which Hebrew scholars equate with the island of Crete. Essentially, they were Greek in origin, specifically a culture known as Mycenaean, coming from the Aegean Sea and migrating to the southern Levant in the early part of the 12^th century BC.

This requires a little further background. At the end of what archaeologists call the Late Bronze Age (roughly 1550-1200 BC), the entire Mediterranean world suffered a massive cultural collapse. During the Late Bronze, the Egyptian New Kingdom (of Thutmose III and Rameses II fame) controlled lands as far north as modern northern Lebanon and Syria. In Mesopotamia, the Mitanni Empire was thriving; the Hittite Empire controlled most of Turkey and south, coming into conflict with Egypt.

In Greece, the Mycenaean culture was booming. Crete and its palace at Knossos formed one of the nexuses for Mycenaean power as a loose confederation of city states expanded their sea trade and military power. If anyone has read the Iliad or knows the story of Achilles, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Hector, Priam, Paris, Helen, or the famed wooden horse, these were the Mycenaeans. Their pottery, examples of their trading network are found in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Egypt.

Then, around 1200 BC, everything fell apart. Why this happened is not entirely clear. Various reason have been offered ranging from climate change, to overexpansion, to warfare. But whatever the reason, unilaterally the great powers of the Mediterranean world collapsed. Egypt began losing control over conquered territories as the nation became fractured. The Hittite Empire’s leadership fell apart. The Mitanni Empire simply ceases to be. The Mycenaeans faced invasion from a group of barbarian tribes called the Dorics. As a result, many of them fled east and among them were the Philistines.

Around this time, records begin to show a group of marauding pirates labelled the “Sea Peoples” that were ransacking cities up and down the eastern Mediterranean coast. They were the Tjeker (or Sikils), Shekelesh, Denye, Weshesh, and Peleset, or Philistines, according to Egyptian records. They started in the north along Turkey, sacking the city of Tarsus (where Paul would later hail), and began moving steadily south. The great city of Ugarit was destroyed by the Sea Peoples. The island of Cyprus was conquered. The city of Dor fell as well. Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gaza were taken over by the Sea Peoples as well. Eventually they made it as far as the Nile Delta itself where Ramses III repelled them (according to him) in an epic sea battle.

It seems this battle more or less stopped the Sea Peoples’ rampage as they had run out of places to attack. The Denye (or Danaoi for Homer fans), took over Cyprus. The Tjeker settled in Dor as well as sailing west to Sicily (which derives its name from the Sikils). The Sherden took over Acco. And the Peleset, or Philistines, settled along the southern coast of Canaan and established their famed pentapolis of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza.

These cities formed the political and economic centers of Philistia and ought to be viewed as their own, independent entities. Unlike other nations, the Philistines did not have a king, although English translations of both the Bible and Assyrian records use that title. Instead, each city was ruled by a “seren” in Hebrew, which seems to be a loan word from an Aegean language and has no known cognate in any Semitic language. These five serens formed a right enough alliance with each other that they are viewed as a single entity. They shared a culture and heritage and as such traded together, fought together, and lived in harmony with each other. Yet as far as we can tell, they were viewed as equals

Exactly how one became a seren is unclear. The Bible never explains it and the Philistines were not exactly known for their record keeping. Not that it would matter; almost all the inscriptions from the first two hundred years or so from Philistine sites are in the cryptic Linear A Aegean language and these are rare enough. It is possible serens were elected officials like the leaders of Athens some 700 years later, although most likely it was a hereditary position. Still, the Philistine pentapolis is the closest we get to democracy in the southern Levant, particularly in a major military and political force. It should be also noted while large houses have been found, no palaces have been uncovered.

Upon settling down, the Philistines took advantage of their location and began building up a trade based economy. Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gaza are all cities built on the coast were major trading hubs during the Bronze and Iron Ages, Ashkelon in particular. Since they had begun this migration with Sea Peoples settled in major ports across the Mediterranean, they had a ready-made trading network which they exploited. While most of the world declined economically during the 12^th and 11^th centuries, Cyprus, Dor, Acco, and Ashkelon thrived, as indicated by the prolific amounts of foreign pottery found at these sites.

The land the Philistines took over was the best in all of the southern Levant. Rainfall in the Shephelah (foothills to the Judean hill country) washed rich soil down to the Philistine plain. Being on the coast, they rarely, if ever, lacked for adequate rainfall. The region was particularly good for growing grapes and wine was the chief export of the region. Industrial wineries have been found at Ekron and Ashkelon, indicating they mass produce the drink and Philistine wine jars have been found all over the Mediterranean.

In addition to wine, the Philistine territory was great for growing wheat and olives. By the 7^th century, Ekron had become the oil capital of the southern Levant. More than a hundred oil facilities supplied the demands of enormous markets such as Egypt who could not grow olives. Regarding wheat, the Philistines grew enough of it to make Dagan, the Canaanite god of wheat, their primary deity.

Like the Israelites and Canaanites, the Philistines raised sheep and goats. However, uniquely they raised pigs as well. In fact, during the Philistine settlement, there is a sharp spike in pig bones found while definitively Canaanite and Israelite sites have few to none. The contrast is so sharp, the presence of pig bones is one of the diagnostic markers in determining whether or not a site was Philistine or Israelite/Canaanite.

Not only were the Philistines in prime sea trade real estate, but the international coastal highway, the primary trading route from Egypt to Mesopotamia, ran right through the middle of Philistia. They controlled the land and sea trade through the southern Levant.

As a result of this, Philistine cities were tremendously cosmopolitan. Cypriot, Greek, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and even the occasional Italian item have been found in their cities. The Philistines stood at one of the nexuses of international exchange. At first, they made efforts to preserve their Aegean heritage. Their temples were built in Aegean style. They had unique hearths in the middle of their rooms, similar to hearths found in Greece and Crete. Their pottery, in particular the bichrome (two-colored), preserved Mycenaean motifs such as birds and deer. Even their language, the aforementioned Linear A which still has not been cracked, is Aegean.

But as time went on, the Philistines grew to absorb the various cultural elements of the myriad of people they came in contact with. Eventually they adopted the Canaanite/Hebrew language with their own variation. Their pottery was Greek in style, with elements of everyone else thrown in. Toward the beginning of their occupation, they adopted Egyptian style coffins with their own unique twist. They were as diverse a people as one can find in the ancient world as they had a little bit of everyone. Not only were they not uncultured, but their massive cities served as the cultural capitals of the Levant. They introduced art to the Levant, as well as new pottery forms such as the krater and a bell-shaped bowl used as for serving wine and drinking cups. If you wanted to hear a new idea or find out what the latest fashion trends were, you went to the Philistines.

As their trading network increased, so did their population, doubling with in a century. Tapping into their warrior roots, the Philistines began pushing into the highlands, bringing them into conflict with the Israelites. Militarily, the Philistines were vastly superior to the Israelites. They brought new weapons, such as the Aegean long sword (referred to as a spear in the Goliath account) and powerful iron chariots who were complimented by an elite infantry.

Initially, the Israelites were overwhelmed by the Philistine onslaught, culminating in the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Ebenezer where Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phineas were killed and the Ark was captured. Although not recorded in the Bible, shortly after this, Shiloh, where the Tabernacle was located, was sacked by the Philistines.

This threat was something entirely new to the Israelites. The Philistine confederacy coupled with their control of trade, new technology, and strange political organization was different than the petty Canaanite, Ammonite, and Moabite kings the Israelites had fought before. It is most likely this threat that prompted the Israelite leaders to come to the aging Samuel and request a king to truly unite and lead them.

Saul had some success in slowing the Philistine advance on the highlands, who had entrenched themselves as far east as Michmash (located in the modern-day West Bank, on the east side of the highlands). Saul and Jonathan managed to expel the Philistines for a time back down to the Shephelah but all of this was reversed at the catastrophe on Mount Gilboah. After this battle, the Philistines controlled the entire Jezreel Valley, which connected the coast with the Transjordan and Mesopotamia and cut Israel in two.

This was the high point for Philistia. David and Joab’s rise to power in the power vacuum left by Saul lead to a series of crushing defeats for the Philistines, resulting in the destruction of Philistine cities such as Tell Qasile (on the Yarkon River near modern Tel Aviv), Timnah in the Shephelah, Dor, and even Ekron itself. Militarily and politically, the Philistines never quite recovered and spent the rest of their history as Israel and Judah’s little brother to the point Hezekiah forced Ekron and Ashkelon to go along with his ill-fated revolt against Sennacherib, likely against their will.

While politically and militarily weakened, the Philistines continued to flourish economically. Their ports continued to be major hubs of trade for the region and their exports of oil and wine were sought after all over the world. Eventually they, like everyone else in the Levant, fell under Assyria’s control but they continued to thrive, with the exception of Sennacherib’s campaign.

But with Assyria’s demise at the end of the 7^th century, so too died the Philistines. Nebuchadnezzar did not give the Philistines a chance to side with him against the Assyrians and utterly destroyed their cities in his rampage of 604 BC. Ashkelon, Gaza, Ashdod, and Ekron all met fiery ends at the hands of the Babylonian king (Gath had been destroyed some two hundred years earlier at the hands of Hadadezer, king of Aram). After that, the Philistines vanished from history.

So who were the Philistines? They were pirates, conquerors, traders, farmers, and connoisseurs of culture. Far from being uncultured thugs, they operated the cultural capital of the southern Levant. They brought new art and technology to the region and were the agents of change in Israel. Without the Philistines, there might never have been a David.

There was a lot here and so if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask away. That’s what I’m here for, after all. Next up will be the Samaritans, unless anyone has a specific request, in which case let me know.

Stager, Lawrence E. “Forging an identity: the emergence of Ancient Israel.”The Oxford History of the Biblical World (1998): 123-75.

Stager, Lawrence E. “The impact of the Sea Peoples in Canaan (1185-1050 BCE).” The Archaeology of society in the Holy Land (1995): 332-48.

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