The Philistines and Aegean Migration at the End of the Late Bronze Age

by Assaf Yasur-Landau

• ISBN13: 9780521191623
• ISBN10: 0521191629
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In this study, Assaf Yasur-Landau examines the early history of the biblical Philistines who were among the "Sea Peoples" who migrated from the Aegean area to the Levant during the early twelfth century BC. Creating an archaeological narrative of the migration of the Philistines, he combines an innovative theoretical framework on the archaeology of migration with new data from excavations in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel and thereby reconstructs the social history of the Aegean migration to the southern Levant. The author follows the story of the migrants from the conditions that caused the Philistines to leave their Aegean homes, to their movement eastward along the sea and land routes, to their formation of a migrant society in Philistia and their interaction with local populations in the Levant. Based on the most up-to-date evidence, this book offers a new and fresh understanding of the arrival of the Philistines in the Levant.

Author Biography

Assaf Yasur-Landau is Senior Researcher at the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, University of Haifa. He has edited three volumes and published numerous articles on the archaeology of the Levant and interactions between the Aegean world and the Levant, including the Philistine migration, with an emphasis on the investigation of the personal lives of ancient people.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Uncharted Areas and Blind Spots in the Archaeology of the Philistines	p. 2
The Aim of the Present Study	p. 7
The Archaeological Identification of Migration and Other Ranges of Interregional Interactions	p. 9
Establishing the Course of Inquiry	p. 9
Describing Interactions and the Parameters of Interaction	p. 10
Defining Deep Change	p. 13
The Archaeological Identification of Migration, When Treated As a Range of Interregional Interactions	p. 14
Migration and Deep Change in Domestic Assemblages	p. 15
Deep Change and Innovation Processes	p. 17
Demonstrating Deep Change: Case Studies for the Influence of Migration on Behavioral Patterns and Material Culture	p. 19
Causality of Migration	p. 30
Conclusions	p. 32
Setting the Scene: The Mycenaean Palatial Culture and the Outside World	p. 34
Social Complexity in the Mycenaean Palatial System	p. 35
Aegean Peoples and Mediterranean Geography	p. 38
Thirteenth-Century Aegean Maritime Capabilities and Interregional Interactions	p. 44
Palatial Administration and Aegean Migration and Colonization of the Late Thirteenth to the Early Twelfth Century BCE	p. 54
The Twelfth-Century-BCE Aegean: Political and Social Background	p. 58
Changing Rulership and the Decapitation Theory	p. 58
Social Complexity in Selected Aegean Sites in LHIIIC	p. 60
Regional Aspects of Rulership in the Twelfth Century	p. 81
The Change in Imagery and Ideology between LHIIIB and LHIIIC	p. 83
Conclusions	p. 95
Preconditions for Migration	p. 97
Push and Pull Factors Affecting Migration	p. 97
Twelfth-Century-BCE Sources of Information	p. 102
The Maritime Option	p. 102
The Land Option	p. 114
Conclusions	p. 120
Along the Routes	p. 122
Investigating Routes and New Populations	p. 122
The Aegean Hearth	p. 123
Cooking Activities	p. 124
Cyprus: Interactions along the Sea Route	p. 138
Western Anatolia: The Expansion of the East Aegean Koine	p. 154
Cilicia and the Amuq: The Land Route from Southeastern Anatolia to Syria	p. 158
The Syro-Phoenician Coast: Along the Sea and Land Routes	p. 164
Through the Egyptian Lens	p. 171
The Origin of the Attackers	p. 180
Conclusions: Twelfth-Century Interactions along the Routes	p. 186
Strictly Business? The Southern Levant and the Aegean in the Thirteenth to the Early Twelfth Century BCE	p. 194
Mycenaean Imports to the Southern Levant	p. 194
Merchants and Mercenaries: Foreigners in Late Bronze Age Canaan	p. 204
Conclusions: Strictly Business?	p. 214
The Material Culture Change in Twelfth-Century Philistia	p. 216
From Canaan to Philistia	p. 216
The End of the Bronze Age-Iron Age Transition in the Philistine Sites	p. 220
Behavioral Patterns As Indicators of Interaction with Aegean Population in the Southern Levant	p. 227
Cooking Installations: Hearths, Ovens, and Tabuns	p. 234
Form, Function, and Variability in Cooking Traditions	p. 238
Assessing the Degree of Change	p. 240
Patterns of Use of the Pottery Assemblage: Storing and Serving Food and Drink in Aegean and Local Styles	p. 241
LHIIIC-Style Pottery: Local Production of Traded Pottery or a Domestic Assemblage?	p. 243
Serving and Storage Vessels in the Local, Canaanite Tradition	p. 255
Cypriot (and Egyptian?) Shapes	p. 262
The Nature of the Aegean-Style and Canaanite Ceramic Repertoires in Philistia	p. 262
Pottery Production and Technology	p. 264
Textile Production	p. 267
The Organization of Domestic Space	p. 270
Conclusions: Philistine House, Philistine Migrants	p. 279
The Philistine Society and The Settlement Process	p. 282
Settlement Patterns in Philistia	p. 282
Economy	p. 295
Trade	p. 300
Ceremonial and Cultic Activity	p. 302
Elite in the Pentapolis	p. 307
Literacy and Administration	p. 308
The Role of Women in the Aegean Migration	p. 313
Social Stratification in Twelfth-Century Philistia	p. 315
Chronology and the Paradigm of Unified Migration	p. 315
The Origin of the Migrants	p. 325
Conclusions	p. 330
A Short History of The Aegean Immigration to The Levant	p. 335
A Land Much Divided: The World that Created the Aegean Migration	p. 335
A Family Portrait with an Ox Wagon: On the Routes to the East	p. 336
The Arrival	p. 338
The Settlement	p. 340
Aegean Life Abroad: The Making of Philistia	p. 342
Bibliography	p. 347
Index	p. 383
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