Origin of the Philistines

[Duncan Head]

David Blanchard just posted this link on the dbmmlist Yahoo group: http://www.haaretz.com/life/archaeology/1.676943

Riddle of the Ages Solved: Where Did the Philistines Come From?
Anomalous discoveries in southern Turkey now explained: The Philistine 'Sea Peoples' didn't invade Kunulua, they lived there.

This is based on finds of Philistine pottery in southern Turkish sites - in Cilicia and the Alexandretta area - including Tel Tayinat, apparently ancient Kunulua; and a suggestion that Luwian inscriptions of "King Taita of Walistin" should actually be read "Palistin".

I'm not quite sure how they get "Rather than the "Sea Peoples Invasion" theory... Philistines migrated in small numbers to the area, and assimilated with the locals" given the Egyptian documentation for a Sea Peoples Invasion, unless the idea is that some Philistines were already in place in Palestine before the attack on Egypt?

[Patrick Waterson]

Yes, the records of Ramses III would need another explanation ...

It does seem a bit of a stretch equating 'Walistin' (or putatively 'Palistin') with Kunulua, not least because it raises questions of basic geography.  One observes that the presence of Late Helladic IIIC (post-Trojan War) pottery is considered to be a 'marker' for Philistine habitation, but presumably only when convenient for a particular hypothesis otherwise one would have to posit Philistine settlement in Greece itself, notably Myceanae, where this particular 'marker' is well represented.

One day someone will short-circuit the whole process by stating that Philistines were Mycenaean Greeks (which would at least save us an army list).  Then there will be a frantic search at 'Philistine' sites for Cadmeian alphabet inscriptions and/or tablets in Linear B.

Taita is an interesting chap.  Given the estimated date (c.1100 BC), if we treat the date and the name with the same flexibility that is adopted with 'Walistin' and 'Patasatni' becoming 'Palistin' then we could easily identify him with King David (D-v-d) of Israel.  If this is indeed he, then he might have been in a bit of trouble with his deity for allowing himself to be represented in a graven image (and without a beard), let alone patronising another deity.  I would however be inclined to see Taita as a local ruler, not a Hebrew or Philistine - he is worshipping the wrong god for either.

[Andreas Johansson]

One day someone will short-circuit the whole process by stating that Philistines were Mycenaean Greeks (which would at least save us an army list).

Already been done, more or less. The fairly common idea they came from Crete implies that they at minimum where close neighbours of the Mycenaeans, and the royal name Achish has been interpreted as "the Achaean" (Akhaiwos or similar in Mycenean).

(As I guess you're aware, other Sea People groups have also been interpreted as Greeks: the Ekwesh are conceivably Achaeans, and the Denyen are just possibly Danaeans. This based on absolutely nothing beyond the rough similarity of names AFAIK.)

[Patrick Waterson]

(As I guess you're aware, other Sea People groups have also been interpreted as Greeks: the Ekwesh are conceivably Achaeans, and the Denyen are just possibly Danaeans. This based on absolutely nothing beyond the rough similarity of names AFAIK.)

Similarity of names does appear to be something of a touchstone among analysts, for all that it can really only be icing on the identificatory cake.  Ekwesh might even be Argives and Denyen Athenians - one really needs some historical perspective providing recognisable identifying activity to put any solidity on these pre-classical who's whos.

[Robert Heiligers]

Thanks for the info, Duncan. I'm currently writing an article for Sling Shot on the Trojan War and its possible connection with the Age of the Sea Peoples.

Some of my sources seem to think that the Peleset were inhabitants of Crete. But then they may have been all over the place. Eric Cline, author of "1077 BC, the year that civilisation collapsed" (Princeton University Press 2014) already refers to the "Land of Tell Ta'yinat" mentioned in the Haaretz article, and which may have become known as the "Land of Palistin" during the Iron Age.

Let's see what I can find out.

[Andreas Johansson]

Some of my sources seem to think that the Peleset were inhabitants of Crete.

The idea is, as I said above, fairly popular, but AFAIK only based on the following chain of identifications, which taken as a whole isn't very reassuring:

• The Peleset (prst) of the Egyptian inscriptions are the same as the Philistines of the Bible. Few, I think, would dispute this.
  
• The Bible, e.g. Jer 47, says the Philistines were the "remnant of Caphtor". Even a literalist should hesitate to put too much stock in this, because elsewhere, e.g. Gen 10:13-14, the Philistines are said to derive from not the Caphtorim but their brother-people the Casluhim (both descendants of Mizraim, i.e. Egypt).
  
• Caphtor is similar in shape to Keftiu, mentioned in Egyptian texts, and possibly refers to the same place.
  
• Keftiu has, among other places, been identified with Crete.
  
  If any of your sources has another or additional argument, I'd be most interested to hear it.

[Robert Heiligers]

Hi Andreas,

I finally found some info in "Ethnicity in Mediterranean Protohistory" by Van Binsbergen and Woudhuizen (British Archaeology Reports 2011) that may be of interest to you.

The Peleset were most likely a Pelasgian (proto-Greek) tribe. Some Pelasgians joined the Phrygians in their movement from the Balkans to Asia Minor, founding the city of Larisa, for instance, south of Troy. As you know, there is also a Larisa in Thessaly, which was Pelasgian territory before the Greeks moved in (see my article on the Thessalian cavalry in Slingshot 299).

There is evidence that at some point before 1600 BC, some Pelasgian tribes moved to Crete under the leadership of Teutamos. Teutamos (often wrongly referred to as Tektamos) married the daughter of the Cretan king Kretheus.

Other Pelasgians moved on to Cyprus, the Levant and Egypt and became known as the Peleset. With a bit of fantasy one can see a connection between the names. So basically, the Pelasgians were all over the place in the eastern Mediterranean. It is likely that some Cretan Pelasgians joined their relatives that had moved to the Levant and Egypt.

The Pelasgian emigration from Thessaly to Crete can be backed up by toponymic evidence, since the region of Gortyn in the Messara plain in Crete is characterised by a number of place names which are also recorded for Thessaly, such as Phaistos, Phalanna, Magnesia, Boibe and Lethaios, whereas an alternative name for Gortyn is Larisa.

The Pelasgians spoke a Thraco-Phrygian language, but those who settled in Anatolia adopted a Luwian dialect. Interestingly enough, during a severe Anatolian famine occurring shortly before 1200 BC, some Pelasgian tribes in Asia Minor are thought to have moved to Italy, where they became known as the Tyrrhenians, or Etruscans (see chapter 19 "Philistines and Pelasgians" in the book referred to above).

Is this of any help?
Take care,
Robert

[Dave Beatty]

Maybe Minoan refugees from the Thera eruption (1642ish BC) stopped in southern Anatolia on their way to Cyprus and then Philistia?