Abstract

The paper surveys and discusses the updated archaeological evidence for Philistine cult and religion, and cult and religion in Philistia during the Iron Age. The evidence can be related to public or official cult, represented in temple and shrine structures, and to that coming from households, representing possibly more popular religion. The evidence of public cult, so far mostly from peripheral sites, includes largely cultural elements linked with the local Canaanite cult and religion. Yet, within households at the Philistine cities there is more evidence for cultic elements of Aegean affinity during Iron Age I. In particular, figurines and ceramic figurative vessels and objects will be discussed. It seems that the Philistine religion may have retained certain distinctive elements also during Iron Age II. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to reconstruct the details of the nature of the Philistine religion due to the limited amount of evidence and lack of textual records.

Highlights

  • The evidence regarding Philistine cult and religion includes several biblical and extra-biblical references, but mainly archaeological evidence from excavation in sites of Iron Age Philistia (Figure 1).The Philistine material culture can be considered to be one of the most typical examples where a distinct material culture appears in a limited geographical and chronological context (Dothan 1982).This culture reflects the arrival of new population from the West to the southern coast of Israel as it includes components which are not found in the Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age local cultures of the southern Levant, showing links to the Aegean region and Cyprus; probably indicating the arrival of immigrant population during the beginning of the 12th century BCE (e.g., Dothan1982; Yasur-Landau 2010; Ben-Shlomo 2010, 2014)

  • There is more evidence on temples in Philistia with the excavation of Area D at Gath (Dagan et al 2018) and the very rich favissa from Yavneh (Kletter et al 2010), which is located in the heart of Philistia; this adds to the excavation of the temple at late Iron Age Ekron (Complex 650)

  • The evidence so far indicates that temple or official cult in Iron Age Philistia shows stronger links to the local Canaanite culture continuing from the LB II through the Iron Age

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Summary

Introduction

The evidence regarding Philistine cult and religion includes several biblical and extra-biblical references, but mainly archaeological evidence from excavation in sites of Iron Age Philistia (Figure 1). There is more evidence on temples in Philistia with the excavation of Area D at Gath (Dagan et al 2018) and the very rich favissa from Yavneh (Kletter et al 2010), which is located in the heart of Philistia ( not in one of the main cities); this adds to the excavation of the temple at late Iron Age Ekron (Complex 650). 31–33), including 200 astragali; notably very few figurines were found To this building, rooms with additional cult-oriented finds were located, and to the East of the temple, an area with evidence of metal production may be related to the cultic function in this area (see Eliyahu-Behar and Workman 2018). 650, sized structure of Stratum IC dated to the 7th century BCE at Ekron

Figures and
Household
5: Vessel in the shape a donkey
12. Various
Discussion
A Nimrud procession with statues gods looted
TellTemple
Complex
Undecorated animal figurines from
30. Göttingen
12. Jerusalem
Full Text
Paper version not known

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