Who were the Philistines? (History of the Philistines explained)

who where the philistines the short answer the philistines were an ancient people who lived on the southeastern shore of the mediterranean during the late bronze to early iron age their civilization was centered around the pentopolis the five cities of the philistines ashdod ashkelon eckeron gas and gaza the land that this confederation of city-states inhabited is known as philistia the philistines are most known for their role in the biblical narrative where they are the long time rival of the hebrew tribes and their later kingdoms a little bit of context before philistia was founded the region was inhabited by the canaanites they were the indigenous people who lived along much of the eastern mediterranean coast the canaanites were predominantly descended from the neolithic farmers and city dwellers that had lived there long before written history began peoples from mesopotamia and anatolia also migrated and assimilated into the canaanite population through conflict migration and trade mesopotamian culture was the most significant outside influence on the early canaanite civilizations that was followed by an increase in egyptian influence especially in southern canaan egypt's first foothold in the region was a fortress built at the strategic choke point where gaza would later be built the site controlled the entry and exit point for the easiest but still very difficult land route to egypt during the middle kingdom period of egypt's history pharaohs campaigned in canaan for the first time they plundered cities extracted tribute and made trade agreements there as egypt exploited kanan for its resources many canaanites had a thought hey egypt seems like a nice place to live right now so many moved to egypt during the later middle kingdom the mass migration of canaanites to the nile delta seems to have been mostly peaceful at least at first later the egyptian middle kingdom was overthrown by the hixos a foreign group that was either completely made up of canaanite newcomers or in large part after a century of hicksos domination of egypt and rule in the nile delta they were defeated and egypt reunited the new egyptian kingdom that emerged was far more militaristic than any that had come before it their main foreign policy goal was to dominate kanan they were successful egyptian armies moved at will throughout canaan they built fortresses and removed uncooperative kings who were replaced with more friendly and pro-egyptian successors in addition to creating a large buffer zone against invading enemies control of kanan also brought control of trade which created a lucrative source of revenue for egypt during the 15th century bc the city of gaza was built as an egyptian administrative and trade center managed by an egyptian royal governor egypt controlled canaan for more than three centuries although it did occasionally lose control and dealt with periodic rebellions despite the heavy-handed egyptian rule there were some benefits especially for the southwestern coastal plain for the hundreds of years the egyptian empire controlled the region it was far from the front lines of egypt's wars with neighboring empires to the north like the matani and hittite empires this allowed the region to focus on productivity and commerce numerous unwalled agricultural settlements and cities thrived there the city of ashdod became a commercial hub for producing and selling purple fabric and clothing ashkelon developed into a busy seaport while all of southern canaan became a bustling thoroughfare as it was the last stop for merchants on both the busiest land and sea routes to egypt there merchants could relax and stock up on some of the local canaanite wine filling any empty space they had in their ship or caravan before heading to egypt where they could exchange their various goods for gold mycenean merchants from what is now greece would have been among the most frequent visitors to southern coastal canaan this is evidenced by the large numbers of mycenaean pottery found in the region at the beginning of the 12th century bc southwestern canaan was one small prosperous component within a large interconnected system of empires and the good times were about to abruptly end chapter 3 the bronze age collapse and the rise of the philistines in the early 12th century bc the old international order dramatically collapsed in the span of a few decades ancient empires were reduced to rubble prosperity gave way to desolation and a golden age gave way to a dark one this devastating event had many causes including but not limited to drought famine disease civil unrest and region-wide prolonged imperial conflicts but by far the most dramatic enigmatic and emblematic contributing factor to the collapse was the mysterious maritime radical band of apocalyptic marauders known as the sea peoples they left a swath of destruction along the coast of the eastern mediterranean which culminated in the failed invasion of egypt in their final assault on the nile delta one of the sea peoples called the pelosette appear to have been the most numerous based on how many times they are mentioned in inscriptions and the frequency they are depicted on temple wall reliefs after the egyptian victory ramses iii stated that he resettled captured palestine prisoners of war in southwestern canaan the peloset were garrisoned in fortresses bound in the pharaoh's name the intended goal was that the peloset would guard egypt's northeastern border there the descendants of the pelasette became the philistines chapter four where did the peloset come from and what happened to the canaanites who were living in southwestern canaan before three decades before the final sea people's assault on the nile delta the pharaoh mernepta also defeated a major sea people's coalition which did not include the peloset around the same time mernepta also campaigned with his army in canaan there he mentions the sack of three rebellious cities including ashkelon which was one of the leading canaanite cities of the time interestingly he also makes the claim that during his campaign in canaan israel is laid waste and his seed is not although apparently exaggerating this is significant because the mernepta inscription is the oldest written artifact mentioning israel which is not mentioned as a city country or region but has a foreign people group as signified by the hieroglyphic determinative of a throw stick beside male and female seated figures although mernepta may have also slightly exaggerated when he stated that kanan has been plundered into every sort of woe it is safe to say that at least some of kanan was not in great shape after murnepta's campaign from the archaeological record it is apparent that almost all of the city's towns hamlets and small settlements on the southwestern coastal plain were destroyed immediately before during or after the first decades of the 12th century bc so what happened to the canaanites of the coastal plain well most of them died but it should be strongly emphasized that not all of them died and even though only a small percentage of the earlier dense population of the coastal plains survived they were still more numerous than the newly arrived peloset the vast majority of scholars today believe that the pelosette originated somewhere around the aegean sea with the island of crete to being the most popular option but more on that later chapter 5 settlement modern estimates for the peloset population at the time of their settlement in canaan range anywhere from only a few thousand to a little more than ten thousand settlers in contrast ramsay's claims to have captured and resettled hundreds of thousands as with many things that concern the philistines there's a great deal of scholarly disagreement concerning ramses the third's claim to every settle the captured peloset in his strongholds the traditional view is that these strongholds evolved into the five cities of the philistines there is some evidence to support this like at ashkelon where resettlement began on the ruins of the egyptian fort there this could also fit in the scenario where the pelicette were the ones that destroy the fort or the fort could have been destroyed during murnepta's campaign in canaan when he sacked ashkelon and the pelosette later reoccupied the abandoned ruin because the five cities of the philistines were situated along the road of horus which was vital to egypt's military and economic success it has been called into question whether egypt voluntarily resettled the peloset in such a precarious position some have hypothesized that the pellet set either conquered southern canaan not long before or after their assault on the nile delta and egypt just lied and claimed that's all part of the plan however it is unlikely that egypt would try to get away with such a blatant lie it is more likely that they just tried to stretch the truth a little bit another possibility is that a bankrupt and war-weary egypt negotiated a truce with a surviving peloset if both were not strong enough to benefit from continuing to fight perhaps in return for captured prisoners of war the pelle set would pay a token tribute to egypt and accept the status of being an egyptian vassal if such an agreement took place both parties received the benefit of recognition and legitimacy this made egypt falsely appear stronger and more stable while the philistines received the prestige and legitimacy that came along with being the agent of the empire that had controlled kanan for centuries again if such a negotiation or something similar took place then most that heard ramses iii's lofty boasts probably believed them because it wasn't so far off from the truth or the word on the street in addition to possibly negotiating with the egyptians the pelosette almost certainly successfully negotiated with the canaanite survivors from what has been excavated so far at the philistine sites it is abundantly clear that in addition to a new foreign element in the material culture a local canaanite population was an integral part of every philistine settlement from its emergence the current general consensus is that at least 50 percent of the early population at these sites were canaanites it is possible that the philistine settlements were established under egyptian supervision or encouragement however given egypt's internal turmoil and economic woes in the 12th century bc their involvement was likely minimal at best if at all after their failed assault on egypt another one of the sea peoples the tajeker established themselves at the city of dhur which they used as a base for their practical operations for over a century some of the tajeker that the egyptians captured also seemed to have been settled in what became the philistine cities because the peloset were formidable warriors they would have been able to offer protection to some of the canaanite survivors of the coastal plain in return they would have benefited from the extra manpower and the local knowledge of their new homeland in the egyptian depiction of the battle of the delta there are a few ox carts shown with women and children inside so it appears it would have at least been some females and a few whole families that arrived with a pelican however given the turbulent times and the great distance traveled it is likely that a disproportionate number of the pelosette were adult males consequently when the peloset initially settled in canaan finding wives was probably a top priority after survival which would have motivated them to negotiate with and incorporate anyone who had extra daughters the speed that both pelosette and canaanite cultures join together to become a new philistine culture is remarkable this was undoubtedly expedited out of necessity but another likely factor that aided the two peoples joining together so quickly was that they already knew each other well chapter 6 the aegean connection for centuries merchants from the aegean had been traveling to southern canaan because of this there were likely some canaanite survivors that were able to communicate in the pelosette language and were familiar with their cultural customs and vice versa as well almost every time in history there are long-term commercial contacts between two peoples there is also intermarriage it is very possible that prior to the bronze age collapse there was already a small hybrid aegean and canaanite community and culture in the region the survivors from this community may have sped up the assimilation process between the two larger groups one of the most solid pieces of evidence that suggests at least a partial legend ancestry for the philistines is their pottery the striking similarity between mycenaean pottery from the aegean and philistine pottery in form style and decoration is unmistakable in some pieces the only way to detect a difference is that the philistine pottery is made from local clay and not from aegean clay this piece of evidence on its own is not conclusive some have argued in the near post-apocalyptic aftermath of the bronze age collapse the surviving canaanites missed the aegean pottery they used to import so much that they began to manufacture an imitation of it locally which is possible but unlikely in addition to fascinating pottery fragments philistine architecture also had some elements that suggest an aegean origin while earlier canaanite homes cooked their food in closed ovens philistine homes cooked their meals over a centrally placed open circular hearth in the same manner as aegean homes what the philistines ate again suggests in aegean origin while digging through ancient philistine garbage piles archaeologists have discovered an unusually large amount of pig bones the type of pig was not previously native to the levant but it was a native of the aegean in contrast to cows sheep and other livestock pigs do quite well at sea they are hardy low maintenance and great at cleaning up any biological waste all over the ship the many philistine pork dinners may be directly related to their nautical origin as sea peoples or the swine could have been imported not long before the bronze age collapse but it is another piece of evidence that points towards an aegean connection the clothing arms and armor of the pelican also suggest but do not confirm an aegean origin like their iconic headgear while helmets like these were used in the aegean similar helmets were first used in mesopotamia as they slowly went out of style in the east they became fashionable in the west one theory about the pelle set is that they were members of a mercenary warrior cult as similar headgear was most often depicted on gods or priests according to the biblical account a tribe of canaanites called the avites lived on the southern coastal plain before the philistines arrived from kaftur the avites are later listed as living among the philistines most scholars identify kaftura's crete but caria cilicia and cyprus are also popular options cyprus has a compelling case for being the homeland or the last stop for the peloset before coming to canaan like southern canaan cyprus was a long time trading partner of the myceneans who would have been very familiar with the island in times of danger people often flee to somewhere familiar during and after the collapse of the kingdom of alicia many mycemians fled their own collapsing society to live on cyprus mycenians cypriots or a combination of both might have been one in the same with the pelosette and maybe one or the other was the chajekar criticism of the aegean connection two of the best arguments that the peloset were not from the aegean region is that there is no clear evidence of aegean influence on philistine language or religion the gods of the philistines worshipped baal azeroth and daegon were already worshipped in canaan before the arrival of the pelasette one obvious answer to why the palace had abandoned their old possibly greek gods is that they lived through the traumatic collapse of their own civilization and then they suffered the humiliation of defeat at the hands of the egyptians some would have been made slaves their most beautiful women taken as trophies and even more would have died along the way or in battle the tiny group of survivors just likely lost faith in the gods of their fathers additionally many ancient peoples viewed gods as being tied to a specific geographic territory so they may have just believed that their old gods had no power in the land they settled in as for the language this could be explained by 1. we know very little of the philistine language so maybe there was some words that linked to mycenaean greek luin or another aegean language but we just don't know about it two the pelosettes saw the advantage of mastering the canaanite language which some of them probably already knew so they could negotiate better three while the philistine men farmed their fields drank wine with their friends and weighed shore on their enemies philistine women many of whom were probably of canaanite origin taught their children to speak and worship the canaanite gods most other theories not mentioned here heavily or completely rely on linguistic similarities to place names and the pelosette out of the many possible homelands for the pelosette somewhere near the aegean fits best given the current evidence following the collapse of the bronze age empires a complete restructuring of society took place nomads moved into the ruins of cities and some surviving city dwellers took on a nomadic way of life while in most areas of the near east a nomadic pastoralist lifestyle became the most common one of the few places where urban life recovered and thrived was along the eastern coast of the mediterranean for centuries heavy-handed imperial administrations regulated and taxed the flow of trade that went through canaan following the bronze age collapse independent city-states became the leading traders as egypt gradually abandoned the region in the 12th century bc even though at first there was only a small trickle of trade flowing through the region compared to the traffic of earlier times it was more profitable for small independent traders like the philistines their fortified settlements rapidly expanded into cities and their soldiers filled the power vacuum left by the egyptians on the coastal plain all of the philistine cities were situated close to some of the best farmland in the region in contrast to earlier canaanite cities where the farming communities that supported the city were spread out over a large area philistine farmers lived in the city and their cultivated land was nearby this city plan reflected the times where marauders and invaders were a much more likely occurrence and protecting farmers was a higher priority the philistines were an industrious people not only did they tax trade going to egypt they produced large amounts of wine and olive oil for export ekron which was a small settlement during canaanite times developed into a large production center for olive oil at ekron 115 large olive oil presses have been excavated which would have produced many tons more of olive oil than they could have needed for personal consumption by the beginning of the 11th century bc philistia was one of the most rapidly recovering regions in the entire near east while most other regions were still in turmoil although over time there were a few other philistine settlements and cities political and economic power was concentrated in the pentopolis the league of city-states was governed by a council of five lords they gathered to deliberate on matters where collective action might be necessary for most of the 11th century bc the philistines dominated the entire canaanite coastal plain according to the biblical account the philistines were able to defeat and vassalize the hebrew tribes to their north and east multiple times in one instance for 40 years this was partially due to the philistines technological advantage they had chariots which were very effective on the flat coastal plain but not so much in the hills and they enjoyed an early monopoly on iron weapons in the region iron armor and weapons would have been a significant advantage over the bronze armor and weapons used by the hebrews and the other people in the region one of the major motivating factors for the philistines to expand their territory eastwards would have been the control of trade routes in addition to the sea route if the philistines controlled all the major land routes going to egypt they could charge significantly higher tariffs philistine aggression and expansionist aspirations probably played a role in the hebrew tribe's uniting and toy kingdom according to the book of samuel israel's first king saul was killed in battle against the philistines before saul's death his successor david famous for killing a large fellow from gath fled saul and lived in gath there he worked as a mercenary for the philistines interestingly after becoming king david had 600 philistines from gath in his personal retinue in addition to some charithites and some pelophites who some think are a subset of philistines when david's son rebelled and he had to flee jerusalem his philistine soldiers were some of the few that remain loyal to him even though the philistines are most well known for being the frequent antagonists in many of the bible's most intense narratives the many not as exciting instances of cooperation collaboration and somewhat peaceful coexistence are often overlooked intermarriage between the two groups is mentioned as being common and in contrast to most of the other canaanites intermarriage with the philistines was not outright banned although it was frowned upon around the early 10th century philistine territory shrank to around its core region the loss of the port of japa was a major blow to the philistines this allowed merchants to easily bypass the philistine coast on their way to egypt including the canaanites to the north who were allied with the hebrews today these canaanites are more commonly known by their greek name phoenicians their commercial ascendancy coincided with a slow philistine economic decline the 10th century bc also saw the split between israel and judah and a short-lived but triumphant return of egypt under the libyan pharaoh shoshank he sacked cities and collected tribute throughout canaan before returning to egypt with a large caravan full of loot a few decades later at the beginning of the 9th century bc the aramean king hazel of damascus successfully campaigned against israel judah and philistia where he destroyed the city of gath which never fully recovered afterwards and became a dependency of ashdod over the next century philistia gradually recovered and then the judeans successfully besieged ashdod and gath and destroyed their city walls and then the assyrians showed up they destroyed the kingdom of israel and made judah a tributary in the later eighth century assyria took the philistine cities one by one puppet states were set up at ekron ashkelon and gaza ashdod became a fully incorporated assyrian province while gath became a backwater under assyrian rule philistia had a much better 7th century than its eighth as assyria controlled the whole region philistia got down to business and did well that is until the very end of the 7th century as the syrian empire was beginning to fall apart gaza sought to assert its independence then egypt which was trying to assert his loyalty to assyria sacked gaza then the babylonian empire that superseded the assyrian invaded philistia nebuchadnezzar ii of babylon destroyed ekron and the port city of ashkelon was the last to hold out against nebuchadnezzar before also being destroyed nebuchadnezzar deported some of the philistine population to babylon this allowed the phoenician canaanites to come in and fill the void over the following centuries the new amalgamated population that formed lost all of its philistine characteristics while the region was dominated by a series of empires after unsuccessfully revolting against the romans judea was renamed palestine after their old nemesis the philistines are often a footnote in other people's histories so i wanted to do a little bit of a longer video just focused on them this has been epimetheus a big thanks to my patrons and to you for watching till the end of the video

Channel: Epimetheus

Views: 1,599,527

Keywords: Who were the Philistines?, Philistine, Philistines, Philistia, Philistine history, Canaan, canaanite, canaanites, Judah, Gath, gaza, ashdod, ashkelon, david and goliath, philistines bible, history, history documentary, documentary, ekron, mycenaean, mycenaeans, kingdom of israel, Philistines history, assyria, assyrian, bronze age collapse, pelest, sea people, sea peoples, palestine, philistines palestine, philistines and israelites, philistines documentary, philistines archaeology, ancient history

Id: S3eLWgy2jus

Length: 24min 45sec (1485 seconds)

Published: Sat May 22 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Unlucky-Paint-1545]

Very intriguing, thank you.

[u/ajump23]

I have seen their pigeon coops that they dug into the rocks. They loved their pigeons.

[u/[deleted]]

People who weren’t interested in books and movies and things