Concept in Definition ABC

In the maelstrom of peoples and cultures that have seen the lands of the Middle East, the Philistines shine with a certain light of their own, mentioned both in historical sources and in the Bible.

The Philistines were a Bronze Age people, whose probable origin seems to be one of the so-called "peoples of the sea”, Which settled in what is now the Gaza Strip and of which we have news since the 12th century BC. C. until II a. C.

As the origin and provenance of the so-called peoples of the sea, it is therefore difficult to explain the origin of the Philistines as a people before their settlement in present-day Gaza, although it seems that the reason it is, clearly, having found a land that they could conquer after a failed confrontation with the Egyptians.

The Philistine people were warriors, a trait that was aided by their mastery of iron forging, something they had probably learned from the Hittites.

Their confrontations with the Israelites are good proof of this bellicosity, in addition to making them one of the peoples mentioned in the Bible.

Politically, the Philistines formed a federation of city-states.

That is, they never formed a united and unique kingdom, although these cities (each with its corresponding ruler) collaborated with each other. This model can be found in other ancient peoples and cultures, one of the best known cases being Greece (although with certain differences).

Is Unitcultural and convenience allowed the federation Philistine obtain a certain military hegemony in the region, although the country ended up being a satelite from other regional powers of much greater size and demography, such as Pharaonic Egypt or Assyria.

Before this, the Philistine expansion made them reign over much of today's Israel and Lebanon.

Along with the loss of political autonomy, the mixture with other populations in the environment and with the successive occupants of the country, led the Philistines to be assimilated, losing their native culture.

This process would end, approximately, with the conquest of Alexander the Great, a time when Philistine culture almost no longer exists as such.

We have few traces of the language of the Philistines, although it is suspected that some words of current Hebrew could be derived from Philistine words, by way of loanwords.

Ignorance of the Philistine language prevents us from knowing if it was of Indo-European origin (and, therefore, theorize about the autochthonous origin of this people), either it was related to the Greek or it had another root.

Similarly, only a few Philistine inscriptions have survived, which prevents us from reconstructing their writing.

Photo: Fotolia - Morphart