People of the Sea: The Search for the Philistines

by Trude Dothan, Moshe Dothan

The Philistines are among the most maligned peoples of ancient history. The Bible characterized them as cunning pagan warmongers, the ancient Egyptians as pirates and marauders. In today's language, a "philistine" is an uncouth, uncultured person.
Thanks to the work of Trude Dothan and Moshe Dothan, three thousand years of bad press are at last giving way to a wholly different picture of the Philistines. Through their excavations and other studies, these two eminent archaeologists have unearthed startling answers to some of the great mysteries of biblical history, revealing the Philistines as a highly civilized people. They were advanced artisans and craftsmen, sophisticated architects and ecologically minded town planners.
One of the Aegean Sea Peoples who settled on the southern coast of Canaan at the end of the twelfth century B.C., the Philistines entered history as the main adversaries of the Israelites, stigmatized by the wicked Delilah and the arrogant Goliath. While the nature of their written language is still a mystery, the nature of their civilization is not. The remains of monumental buildings, a flourishing olive-oil industry, cast bronze, iron, and ivory artifacts, weaving looms, wine presses, and a wide range of artistically distinctive pottery urge us to make a historical reassessment.
In People of the Sea, the world's preeminent authorities on Philistine history and culture provide the first popular account of their ground-breaking work. Handsomely illustrated with line drawings, photographs, and maps, the book interweaves a fascinating history of the rise and fall of the Philistines with the first-person experiences of archaeologists at work. The result is a work that not only dramatically changes our understanding of an important and legendary era but also serves to illuminate an ancient civilization long lost to history.

Genres: Ancient History, Archaeology, History, Egyptology, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published October 9, 1992

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Philistines have an evil reputation, thanks to their bad-guy role in the Hebrew Bible narrative, to say nothing of the use of their name for uncultured and prosaic people and their interests, even if they did give us Delilah and Goliath. However, in recent years, we now have learned that they possessed a sophisticated material culture, and were highly advanced city planners, architects, builders, artists, potters, merchants, textile manufacturers, smelters, soldiers and farmers. Trude and Moshe Dothan were Israel's premier experts in Philistine archaeology and culture, having taken part in or run excavations at Ashdod, Ekron, Deir el-Balah, Tel Qasile, Tel Mor and Akko. As such, they certainly were able to review not only our knowledge of the Philistines but also how we came about knowing what we do. This well-written and beautifully illustrated volume covers the history of modern Middle Eastern archaeology and research and how it relates to the Philistines (including the famous wall paintings depicting the battles between the Egyptians and the "Sea Peoples" at Medinat Habu near Thebes) as well as the state of our awareness (and lack of same) of Philistine culture and history as it stood in the early 1990s. The short version: the settlement of the Philistines along with other "Sea Peoples" along the coasts of the Eastern Mediterranean basin was part of the upheavals that accompanied the general collapse of civilizations in the Middle East and Aegean worlds at the end of the Late Bronze Age, about 1200 BCE. Many theories have been offered as to why this took place; the flavor of the month is climate change. They would found an enclave based upon the 5 cities of the Philistine confederation (Gaza, Ashkelon [Ascalon], Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron). Their cities lasted until destroyed by the Babylonians in the 6th century BCE. Most archaeology books tend to be pretty dry - one archaeological marker that differentiates between adjacent Philistine and Israelite settlements is that only the former contains pig bones - but the Dothans breathe a liveliness and wonder into their work that is enough to make you wish that you had been out kneeling in a trench under the hot Israeli sun with them. If Biblical history or archaeology is your interest, this book is well-nigh indispensable I'd reckon. A readable introduction to some of the Old Testament's 'bad guys.'

[Don LaVange · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of the migrations of peoples, called "The Sea Peoples" in historical Egyptian texts. They invaded the regions of Ancient Egypt and were defeated by Ramses III. He settled them in Palestine. We know them by their biblical name, "Philistines", from whence we get the name Palestine.

Some epochal event caused a mass migration of people from the islands and costal regions around the Mediterranean around 1200 BC. The Egyptian record describes many, many peoples, most of whom have not been identified. The Egyptian staelae show not the invasion of soldiers, but the mass-migration of people with carts, oxen, wives, children -- something was pushing them.

Around the same time the old world of Mycenea was being turned upside down. It's all very curious.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped form the base of my undergraduate thesis on the Philistine ruins on Cyprus, as well as the established trade routes between Egypt and Palestine.

[Adrian Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book follows a couple of archeologists on a trip through time, via buried artifacts they have discovered, to find the truth behind the people called the Philistines, a race that has been villified as being the main enemy of the Israelites in the Judeo-Christian Bible. The text follows the theories of where the Philistines originally came from, and then details their culture and accomplishments. While it does throw a number of names and dates at you, this is well written and easy to understand. It adds a personal dimension by the authors when it tells how they found each other and raised a family while being entranced by the riddle of a people long dead, and their attempts to piece together that civilization's story. Full of pictures and diagrams, as well as detailed descriptions of the various digs, this is a good book for anyone who is a student of history, archeology, or both. Highly recommended.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating this book was actually quite hard - the content is a good, but I am no friend of how the book was organized. The book more or less starts off with some 100 pages of the history of Philistine research which can be quite confusing if you don't know what is still considered valid and what was to be discarded later on.

The rest of the book, focusing on the Dothans' own work and modern archaeology was much more interesting and informative (I might even have enjoyed that first part had I read it in a different order, a different order than was intended).

And it was also a quite interesting view into the sometimes rather different world of Israeli archaeology (I'm educated in a more North European style, and later on top of that), which this snippet illustrates quite well:

"...I [Trude Dothan] was unwilling to abandon hope of finding cemetery. The Department of Antiquities did not have official jurisdiction over the area [Gaza], so I decided to seek help from someone who did: Moshe Dayan, the minister of defense. Dayan's reputation as an antiques collector was already legendary. He had extensive contacts among all the antiques dealers and was usually aware of the source of their finds. Many objects from Azor and Tell Aitun had already found their way into his private collection, so when I called him to ask for his help I assumed he already knew about the rich, ancient cemetery in the Gaza strip. Much to my surprise, he had not yet heard about it and promised to check. Quite some time passed and the plundering of the cemetery continued unabated. Just as I was about to lose all hope, I got a call from Dayan early in 1968. The cemetery, he informed me, was a few miles south of Gaza, near the village of Deir el-Balah, and if I wished I could visit the site the next morning [with military escort]." (202f.) It really gives a whiff of the 19th century. Fascinating in more ways than one!

[Alexander Curran · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and enticing account of the Philistines. Interesting illustrations and information utilising archaeological evidence to biblical references.
Certainly People of the Sea: The search for the Philistines is an interesting book about an ancient sea-faring, artisan and warrior nomadic tribe... That had been resurrected by Roman Emperor Hadrian, in naming the region, to humiliate his enemies gathered there. It is a journey that explores a demonised tribe as they were the defeated the victors wrote their perspective regarding these philistines. Interestingly as a result still retained, with most modern people, the word philistine denotes uncultured, savage or barbaric. (Ignorant or somewhat uncouth...)
Yet the truth about the philistines and their language, plus their role as a coloniser or conqueror still remains partially shrouded in mystery. A fascinating book which tries to get closer to who they were and what they were about... Which also shows the reader that they were artisans and craftsmen, sophisticated architects and ecologically minded town planners. The straightforward paint your enemy as pirates and marauders isn't the whole story so it was inspiring and interesting to learn more about the philistines and the region that has changed so many times throughout history and seen many inhabitants come and go...
Worth checking out and reading if you love history, archaeology and looking at biblical stories too.