Early Iron Age Domestic Material Culture In Philistia And An Eastern Mediterranean Koiné

Abstract

This chapter examines certain aspects of the material culture of Philistia, Cyprus, and the Aegean. It suggests that, during the twelfth century BCE, multilateral contacts between populations in the Argolid and on Cyprus, the immigrants in the southern Levant, and possibly peoples in other regions in the eastern Mediterranean created a cultural koine. The author shows that this koine may be illustrated by certain aspects of material culture in the domestic domain of excavated Philistine households, and suggest that it may reflect the movement of both ideas and peoples within the eastern Mediterranean. The chapter deals primarily with the second subdivision of material culture, the category that includes mobile artifacts and installations found in dwellings. It focuses on the evidence related to household production, such as foodways and spools, and on evidence for domestic cult activities. Keywords: eastern Mediterranean koine; material culture; Philistia