Riddle of the Ages Solved: Where Did the Philistines Come From? - Archaeology - Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/life/archaeology/1.676943
Until now, the “Sea Peoples Invasion” theory postulated that the Philistines arose and swept over the region from a base in the Aegean. But recent discoveries at a remote archaeological site in southeast Turkey indicate that the Philistines were already there as the great civilizations collapsed. Amidst the thunderous implosion around them, the Philistines somehow thrived – and supplanted the Hittite rule in that area, apparently making it their home base.
This unexpected conclusion is supported by new explanations of anomalies found at Tel Tayinat, an archaeological site in the Amuq plain, which spans the border of modern Syria and Turkey.
Not the Sea People we thought
Tel Tayinat contains the ruins of a city going back thousands of years. Evidence found at the site proves that its ancient name was Kunulua (or Calno).
Until recently, it was assumed that the site was Hittite because of its location, and that after their empire collapsed its residents evolved into the “neo-Hittite” culture which continued using the ancient names, artistic styles and symbols of the Hittites. Who exactly the “neo-Hittites” of Kunulua were remained a mystery – until now. They were, archaeologists are starting to believe, the Philistines.
Tell Tayinat is located about 25 kilometers inland, not where the capital of the sea-faring Philistines was expected to be located.
Credit: Google Maps, elaboration by Haaretz
Luwian hieroglyphics on a stele found in Sultanhan, Turkey
Credit: Georges Jansoone, Wikimedia Commons