Ashkelon under the Philistines, from the 12 th to the 7th century BC, was the detested Ashkelon of the Hebrew Bible. In this era, it was one of the city-states of the Pentapolis, whose kings the Book of Joshua calls “five lords of the Philistines.” Enmity between Ashkelon and Israel is recorded in 2 Sam. 1:20, as David mourns the death of Saul, the Israelites’ king: “Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon,” he warns, “lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.” The hatred was mutual: The Bible credits the Philistines with being master metalworkers but says they refused to divulge their skills to the Israelites.
The Bible sheds no light on when the Philistines came to Ashkelon, or from where. Pottery finds, however, have led Stager to theorize that the Philistines were Mycenaean Greeks who settled in the city around 1175 BC, after losing a great battle to the Egyptians.
Although the term philistine has come to mean “coarse and uncultured” in modern times, this reflects less an objective appraisal of this ancient people than it does the enmity of their declared foes, the Israelites. In fact, recent archaeological discoveries have shown that the Philistines were, by the standards of the time, an advanced society in terms of wealth, artistic development, and standard of living. Their potter)% for instance, was finer than contemporary Israelite wares.
Philistine tenure in Ashkelon came to an end in dramatic fashion in 604 BC, when the Babylonian army under King Nebuchadnezzar razed the city, nearly 20 years before he laid Jerusalem to waste. Nebuchadnezzar took many captives into exile in Babylon, where the Philistines lost their ethnic identity. In time, only the name Philistia—later, Palestine—clung to the region the Philistines had once dominated.
A lone excavator probes the floor of a 12th-century BC public building used by Philistines for weaving. Discoveries included examples of two closely linked styles of local pottery (opposite).
Feathered headgear dtsttngmshes these captive Philistine soldiers in. a relief carved jbr the pharaoh Ramses HI. Ramses dfeated the Philistine army and the so-called Sea Peoples in about 1175 BC.
Pottery decorated with two colors, like the bowl at right, was long regarded as typical of the Philistines. Stcger suggests that although the earlier monochrome ware, represented by the bowl above, was decorated in Mycenaean style, it was not an import but was made ofAshkelon clay and thus also Philistine. If he is ryH, this identifies the Philistines as Mycenae-ans and places their earliest appearance inAshkelon around 1175 BC.
World History
