Aspects of Cultic Ritual within early Philistia: Who are you calling a Philistine?

Abstract

The origins of the people of Philistia, often equated with the biblical ‘Philistines’, has been a dominant interest in Palestinian archaeology, with much archaeological investigation being structured around the various issues associated with material culture and ethnicity. While the archaeological record has been used to support various hypotheses of cultural contact and development, there has been little attempt to understand the archaeological record of cult. Here the archaeological, and briefly the textual, data is examined in an effort to illuminate the cultic ritual practiced within Philistia during the early Iron Age.