WHO WERE THE PHILISTINES?

 Philistine soldiers, captives of the Egyptians,
from a graphic wall relief at Medinet Habu

In about 1185-52BC, during the reign of Rameses III of the XXth Dynasty, Egypt and the countries at the eastern end of the Mediterranean were invaded in what Rameses called 'the Great Land and Sea Raid'. We know this from the walls reliefs found at Medinet Habu. They tell the story, and it is not a pretty one (see the illustration of Philistine captives above).

WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?

The Philistines seem to have been a large group of marauding foreigners who had been displaced, possibly by invading forces, from their own region. These people had strong cultural links with the Mycenaeans, whose powerful city-states in Greece were suffering destruction at about this time. Homer's story of the Trojan War is an echo of this violent period. Wherever they were form, the 'Sea Peoples' had come to stay.

Among them were the Philistines (Peleset). Depicted on the monumental frieze of Rameses III as tall, slim warriors wearing tasselled kilts and distinctive ribbed caps or helmets (see above), they possibly originated from Cyprus or Crete.

Some of the Sea Peoples, including the Philistines, settled in Canaan, mainly in the south coastal plain, a fertile strip forty miles long and fifteen or twenty miles deep.

There they founded five strong city-states. Three of these states, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Gaza, were beside the coastal road.

• Ashkelon possessed a harbour and enjoyed a prosperous trade.
• So also did Gaza, which seemed to have specialised in military resources.
• So did the fortress and commercial centre of Ashdod, three miles from the coast, which the Philistines had destroyed, but subsequently rebuilt.
• Another of the fortresses was Gath – a generic name meaning 'wine-press'; it lay a litle further inland;
• so did the city of Ekron.

Philistine were traders, by sea and inland by caravans moving into the desert interior. Their wares were often transported in a new and distinctive form of pottery, which at first echoed the styles of Mycenaean Greek lands, and especially of Cyprus.

WHY WERE THEY FEARED?

The Philistine cities were separate and independent, but when they were threatened their princes combined forces. They had a unified military command, with a well-armed and trained professional military class that was able to dominate the local Canaanites.

The army had exclusive use of iron, a newly discovered metal. The Bible tells us they denied blacksmiths and iron weapons and tools to the Israelites, as a way of keeping them in check.

Nevertheless, over the years the Philistines gradually assimilated with the Canaanites, and presumably intermarried with them as well; even their language was eventually replaced by a local Canaanite dialect.

Excavations at Ashdod have shown how many Canaanite elements became blended into Philistine culture. The gods of Aegean origin whom they had brought to the country adopted the names of Canaanite deities. These included

• Dagon, formerly a Mesopotamian deity, became their chief god, with Ashdod as his main centre
• Baal, worshipped at Ekron as Baalzebul, the prince (mockingly transformed by the Israelites into Baalzebub, Lord of the Flies)
• and the goddess Ashtoreth, fierce protectress of the family.

Despite this assimilation and apparent unity, the city-states of the Philistines became increasingly important independent military powers.

As time went on, their attempts to expand into the hill country inevitably involved them in open conflict with the Israelite tribes.

SAMSON AND THE PHILISTINES

These hostilities are mirrored in the story of Samson, from the tribe of Dan, was forced by the Philistines to leave the foothills and migrate to its eventual home much further north.

Samson was said to have killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass (an attempted explanation for the name Ramathlehi, 'the hill of the jawbone'). But the sagas relating to his exploits also declared that he had a weakness for Philistine women, every one of whom proved treacherous. Here was a familiar moral concerning the danger of foreign females.

Finally he found himself trapped by the temptress Delilah, who cut off his hair, the source of his strength, while he slept.

Later, when he grew it again, he pulled down the whole temple of Dagon at Gaza, killing its occupants and himself. The photograph at right shows the Egyptian temple at Dendur - from another country and another period, but the double columns at the front of the building are similar to the ones described in the story of Samson's death.

His long hair (like the sun's rays?) has caused some scholars to regard him as a mythical figure etymologically related to the Canaanite sun-god Shemesh, whose shrine was in the centre of Dan's original territory.

At all events, Samson became known as a boisterous, Herculean, folk-hero of fabulous strength and bawdy pranks. But he was probably a historical individual all the same: not perhaps, one of the judges, as the Bible regards him, but a tough resistance leader who made a name for himself.

He also earned admiration because he was one of the Nazirites (whose hair must not be cut). These were holy men set aside by their possession of 'the spirit of Yahweh' - ecstatic frenzy and ascetic abstinence. Originating from Canaanite fertility worships, the Nazirite movement was converted by the Israelites into an instrument designed to destroy those very cults, and the cults of other foreigners such as the Philistines.

Resistance warriors like Samson took the lead in whipping up the Israelites' hatred of the Philistines, whose uncircumcised state made them alien. Israelite patrols attacked Philistine caravans coming in from the desert.

This was a foolish thing to do, since the Philistines had superior military organization and weapons. In about 1050BC the Philistines mustered their troops and confronted the Israelites, possibly all twelve tribes, at Ebenezer.

In the engagement that followed, the Israelites were rash enough to put their trust in a pitched battle, and suffered total defeat. After the disaster the Israelite elders sent for the Ark of Yahweh from Shiloh (which had fallen to the enemy), in order to raise the spirits of their shattered troops. If so, the measure proved ineffective, because a second crushing setback rapidly followed.

The Ark itself was captured by the enemy and taken to Ashdod.

It was a bitter lesson, but the Israelites learned to fight differently - to use guerilla warfare and surprise attacks. These worked far better for them than facing the Philistines in battle.

Detail of one of the Philistine captives
An Egyptian wall relief from the time of Rameses III