Monday, July 18, 2011

Philistines

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According to an AP article from Yahoo news, In Israel, diggers unearth the Bible's bad guys, by Matti Friedman (Jul 8, 2011), the city of Gath (later, the Arab village of Tel el-Safi; now a national park) lay between the Israelites and their enemy, the Philistines, almost 3000 years ago. The Philistines are probably most familiar from the story of the future king David slaying the giant Philistine Goliath with his sling.

This summer's annual archaeological excavations there, under Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University, are revealing aspects of the lifestyle of the Philistines. Pottery remains suggest the Philistines had come by sea from the Aegean in about 1200 B.C. This is about the time the Trojan War would have taken place. They ate lentils, like the Greek people of the Aegean area, as well as such animals as pigs and dogs. Evidence from the next five centuries -- a time at which the city was razed, probably by an Aramaean king named Hazel in 830 B.C. -- suggest their worship included Greek-named gods. It wasn't until two centuries later that the other Philistine cities were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, in 604.

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