In Israel, Diggers Unearth The Bible's Bad Guys

AP ^ | 7/6/11 | Matti Friedman

[marshmallow]

TEL EL-SAFI, Israel (AP) — At the remains of an ancient metropolis in southern Israel, archaeologists are piecing together the history of a people remembered chiefly as the bad guys of the Hebrew Bible.

The city of Gath, where the annual digging season began this week, is helping scholars paint a more nuanced portrait of the Philistines, who appear in the biblical story as the perennial enemies of the Israelites.

Close to three millennia ago, Gath was on the frontier between the Philistines, who occupied the Mediterranean coastal plain, and the Israelites, who controlled the inland hills. The city's most famous resident, according to the Book of Samuel, was Goliath — the giant warrior improbably felled by the young shepherd David and his sling.

The Philistines "are the ultimate other, almost, in the biblical story," said Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University, the archaeologist in charge of the excavation.

The latest summer excavation season began this past week, with 100 diggers from Canada, South Korea, the United States and elsewhere, adding to the wealth of relics found at the site since Maier's project began in 1996.

In a square hole, several Philistine jugs nearly 3,000 years old were emerging from the soil. One painted shard just unearthed had a rust-red frame and a black spiral: a decoration common in ancient Greek art and a hint to the Philistines' origins in the Aegean.

The Philistines arrived by sea from the area of modern-day Greece around 1200 B.C. They went on to rule major ports at Ashkelon and Ashdod, now cities in Israel, and at Gaza, now part of the Palestinian territory known as the Gaza Strip.

[FrogMom]

Same story (as this http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2746260/posts), different source ping.

[harpu]

"Unearthing The Bible's Bad Guys"

Must have been a VERY DEEP dig assuming the bad guys were long gone to Hell !!

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Interesting. Coincidental since I’m currently reading Ann Killibrew’s review of the archaeology of the Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, and Philistines in the Holy Land between the 13th and 11th centuries BC.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

The Philistines arrived by sea from the area of modern-day Greece around 1200 B.C.

Possibly, but it seems more likely that they came from Cyprus or Cilicia in Asia Minor, both areas that were "Aegeanised" through trade and colonisation contacts with the Mycenaean world.

[Average Al]

Were they buried as@holes up? :-)

[Gothmog]

thanks

[SunkenCiv]

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