I. Introduction
Dāgôn, the Philistines, and the Ultimate ‘Other’
The twelfth and eleventh centuries BC (the Iron Age I) made up a critical formative period both for the Israelites (T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994; Machinist, 2000) and for the Philistines (Machinist, 2000; Stone, 1995), one of a number of invading tribes of “Sea Peoples” (Pritchard, 1974, p. 262) who came to the Levant (Figure 1) from elsewhere in the Mediterranean world.[1] At this time, the Philistines were arriving in the coastal plain of southern Canaan and establishing the cities of their Pentapolis in the area that bears their name to this day (Stager, 1995), while the Israelites were settling in the highlands above the Philistine plain (Dever, 1998) and looking toward the coast in hopes of one day dominating the entirety of the region they viewed as their Promised Land (Joshua 1:2-4). Both groups were striving for autonomy over their respective geographic areas and the people within them, while struggling to maintain their own distinctive cultures (Machinist, 2000; Stone, 1995).
It was at this time that the conflict raged between these two cultures that would feed centuries of negative biblical portrayals of the Philistines, a people who to the Israelites represented ultimate “otherness” (Machinist, 2000, p. 69). Throughout the Hebrew Bible, the Philistines are represented by various authors as the principal example of the anti-Israelite “other,” guilty of virtually every quality, trait, and action that the Israelites find unsettlingly different or abhorrent, including (inter alia) paganism, idol worship, lack of circumcision, eating pork, and consuming the blood of animals. Some of the biblical authors’ accusations were true of the Philistines, some were not, and some were characteristic of far more people in and around Canaan than just this single group of immigrants. However, the biblical effort to paint every counter-Israelite trait onto this “ideological foe” (Gordon, 2004, p. 22), was so thoroughly and completely accomplished that the term “Philistine” is still used to this day to refer to an uncultured or uneducated individual or population. The portrayal of the Philistines as “the ultimate ‘other’” (T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994) can be seen in multiple micronarratives within the biblical text, including the portion of the “Ark Narrative”[2] presented in 1 Samuel 4:1b-7:1, which tells of the capture and return of the sacred Ark of the Covenant by the pagan Philistines.
This paper will examine the archaeological record to determine whether existing evidence supports the biblical picture of Philistine religion as Ashdod- and Dāgôn-centric in the Iron Age I, as it is portrayed in the portion of the Ark Narrative contained in 1 Sam. 5:1-5.
The Ark Narrative
Dāgôn, whom the Bible portrays as a major Philistine god (Judg. 16:23; 1 Sam. 5:1-8) – perhaps even the chief deity of a Philistine amphictyony (Hedley, 1929; Machinist, 2000; McCarter, 1980; Rahtjen, 1965; Singer, 1992) – plays a key role in the Ark Narrative account, as does his temple at the southern Levantine city of Ashdod, one of the five that made up the Philistine Pentapolis (Josh. 13:2-3). 1 Sam. 5:1-8 tells of the events that befall both god and city after the Philistines rout the Israelites in battle, capture the Ark[3], and set it up in Dāgôn’s temple.[4] The priests of Dāgôn arrive at the temple the morning after the Ark’s placement there to find (the cult image of) their god prostrate before this symbol of YHWH, and the next morning to find Dāgôn’s head and hands broken off[5] and lying on the temple threshold, and his body again on the floor (vv. 3-4). Following this, plagues break out in Ashdod, spurring the people to “summon [their] lords” in an effort to save their city from YHWH’s vengeance, which is “hard upon [the Ashdodites] and upon Dāgôn, [their] god” (vv. 7-8). Finally, the Ark is transferred from Ashdod in accordance with the wishes of the Philistine serenim and of the people of Gath, who willingly receive this vessel of YHWH and go on to become the Israelite God’s next victims (vv. 8-9).
Background
The Philistines settled on the southern Levantine coast at the end of the Late Bronze Age (Stager, 1995; Ussishkin, 1998), building complex cultural and commercial centers on the ashes of the Canaanite cities they conquered (Barako, 2000; Cross & Stager, 2006; T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994; Stager, 1995).[6] One such Canaanite city that was destroyed and re-founded by the Philistines was Ashdod, a center of international trade in the Late Bronze Age (T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994; Doumas, 1998) and at one point a key Egyptian stronghold in Canaan (M. Dothan & Porath, 1993). Philistine inhabitation of Ashdod at this time is attested by contemporary literary sources, such as the Egyptian Onomasticon of Amenope (Gardiner, 1947), as well as by architectural, ceramic, and other material evidence, including faunal remains showing the Philistine introduction of pork and beef into the Levantine diet (T. Dothan, 1982, 1992, 1998; Finkelstein, 1995; A. Mazar, 1985b; Stager, 1995, 2006). Excavations have revealed detailed evidence of mud-brick fortifications constructed in the twelfth century BC (T. Dothan 1982; T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994), planned growth in the eleventh century (T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994; M. Dothan & Porath, 1993), and tenth century destruction (T. Dothan, 1982) in the phases of the city dating to the Iron Age I (represented archaeologically by strata XIIIb-X; Figure 2). Between the first phase of Philistine settlement and the city’s destruction at the end of the Iron Age I, Ashdod thrived as an urban center that, like the other cities of the Pentapolis, was home to “a diverse community of warriors, farmers, sailors, merchants, rulers, shamans, priests, artisans, and architects” (Stager, 1995, p. 345).
Despite possessing this information on Philistine Ashdod in the Iron Age I, we have very little specific information about Philistine culture during this time, either in Ashdod or in the remaining four cities – Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza – which combined to make up the Philistine Pentapolis, outside of the “meager” (Singer, 1992, p. 435) information provided in the Bible (T. Dothan, 1982; Machinist, personal communication, Feb. 24, 2010). This extends in large part to the objects, locations, and practices of their cult, which is portrayed in the Ark Narrative as being centered on Dāgôn. Though clear documentation of this key aspect of Philistine culture is lacking, however, the archaeological record does contain some clues to cultic practices in Iron I Ashdod, as well as some vocal silences.
Previous Scholarship
Philistine culture has been the subject of numerous twentieth and twenty-first century works of evidence-based archaeological scholarship. When addressing the topic of Philistine cult within this genre, though, a striking number of scholars cite the biblical authors’ accounts in the books of Judg., 1 Sam., and 1 Chronicles as the sole factor in their acceptance of the existence of a prominent cult of Dāgôn among the Philistines.[7] This is based in part on the assumption that, as a part of the process of acculturation, the immigrant Philistines adopted a handful of Semitic gods from the myriad present in the Canaanite pantheon, of whom they made Dāgôn their chief god, as the biblical account appears to suggest. A chief exception to this line of thought is A. Mazar (2000), who acknowledges that the Bible’s only direct references to Philistine cult are “embedded in…extensively redacted legendary and saga-like narratives…, making their reliability most questionable” (pp. 228-9), and who comments on the clear lack of a “satisfactory explanation” (p. 233) for the disparity between the archaeological record and the biblical account of Philistine cult.
II. The Biblical Account and the Archaeological Record
Dāgôn and Dāgān
In the Hebrew Bible, the god Dāgôn is associated exclusively with the Philistines (Judg. 16:22; 1 Sam. 5:2-5, 7; 1 Chron. 10:10). In fact, as Machinist (2000) points out, the passages in which this god appears are written in such a way as to “make it clear that Dāgôn is not to be associated with any other group but the Philistines” (p. 59). However, this portrayal does not reflect historical reality. In fact, Dāgôn, or “its linguistically earlier and more widespread form, Dāgān” (Machinist, 2000, p. 59) was an established deity in the Ancient Near East long before the Philistines’ arrival in the Levant. A father (along, contradictorily, with El) of the storm god Bacal in Ugaritic mythology, Dāgān was present in various pantheons in the Middle and Upper Euphrates regions as early as the reign of Sargon I of Akkad in the late third millennium BC (Gelb, 1935; Luckenbill, 1926a; Montalbano, 1951). His presence in West Semitic lands in 1400 BC is attested by stelai bearing the god’s name, which were found on the ruins of the acropolis of ancient Ugarit (modern Tell Ras Shamra, in Syria) near a monumental temple that may have been dedicated to Dāgān himself (Artzi, 1968; Dussaud, 1935; Yon, 1992).
With the cult of Dāgān having been so widespread by the time of their arrival, it is perhaps no surprise that scholars have expressed the expectation that the interloping Philistines would have accepted this Semitic god as the tenured lord of the land they came to occupy (Ahlström, 1983-4). However, this expectation is undermined by the fact that there are currently no known Bronze Age sources which mention Dāgān in relation to the southern Canaanite territory that would become the home of the Philistines (Artzi, 1968; A. Mazar, 2000; Singer, 1992). Further, extrabiblical evidence – including material remains – connecting the Philistines with the male god Dāgān is, to date, entirely absent from the archaeological record (M. Dothan & Dothan, 1992; A. Mazar, 2000). Instead, all available archaeological evidence points to Philistine cult in the Iron I as being centered on a very different deity than Semitic Dāgān, father of Bacal.
‘Ashdoda’ and the Great Mother Goddess
The most common cultic find in Philistia is a terra cotta representation of a female whose body is integrated into a chair, and who is sometimes portrayed holding an infant (A. Mazar, 1986). Pieces of these schematic figurines have been found at Tell Miqne (ancient Ekron), Aphek, and Tell Qasîle (A. Mazar, 1985b, 2000; Vanschoonwinkel, 1999). However, the best of these finds, in terms of both density and stratification, have been made at Ashdod (T. Dothan, 1982). The finds at Ashdod include numerous body fragments and three- and four-legged statuette bases resembling miniature offering tables (M. Dothan & Freeman, 1967), as well as the lone complete figure found to date (T. Dothan, 1982). The birdlike heads, elongated necks, and spreading poloi of these figures are Mycenaean in character (T. Dothan, 1982; Vanschoonwinkel, 1999). In some cases, features like eyes, nose, and ears formed of small clay pellets have been applied to the heads (M. Dothan & Dothan, 1992; A. Mazar, 1986). Their stylization suggests that Philistine design and coloration were used to present a Mycenaean concept in material form, but with significant enough alterations – particularly in the integration of body and seat (A. Mazar, 2000) – so as to make this style of figure uniquely reflective of the culture responsible for its creation (Vanschoonwinkel, 1999).
The one complete figurine discovered to date, a 17 cm high, anatomically-decorated, schematic statuette of brown clay nicknamed “Ashdoda” by M. Dothan, the excavator who discovered it (M. Dothan & Dothan, 1992; Figures 3 & 4), was found in stratum XII (twelfth century BC) of Area H (Figure 5) at Ashdod (M. Dothan, 1971). The figurine is covered in a white slip, over which is painted a design of alternating horizontal bands and vertical triangles. The triangles are a stylization of the Egyptian lotus flower motif (T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994); further, between its appliquéd breasts is painted a necklace from which a lotus flower pendant is suspended (M. Dothan & Dothan, 1992; T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994). Also found in the vicinity of Ashdoda (in stratum XI) was a cylinder seal bearing, along with cryptic linear symbols that may be an example of elusive Philistine writing (M. Dothan & Ben-Shlomo, 2005; M. Dothan & Dothan, 1992; A. Mazar, 1985b), an anthropomorphic stick-figure design which features an integration of legs and seat that is reminiscent of the Ashdoda figurine (M. Dothan & Ben-Shlomo, 2005).
The combination of this female deity’s ubiquity (it has been found throughout, though rarely outside of, the Philistine Pentapolis) and her Mycenaean attributes (M. Dothan, 1988; T. Dothan, 1982; A. Mazar, 2000; Vanschoonwinkel, 1999) support the theory that she represents a form of the Mycenaean Great Mother goddess which the Philistines brought with them from their place of origin (M. Dothan, 1971; Singer, 1992), and which was previously unknown in Canaan (T. Dothan, 1982). Whatever its source, Ashdoda is the first – and, to date, still the only – archaeological evidence of any Philistine deity (M. Dothan, 1971; T. Dothan, 1982; A. Mazar, 2000) in the Iron Age I. Her presence in the archaeological record shows that, whatever other deities may have been in their pantheon, the Philistines were still worshipping a goddess of Mycenaean origin at this time (M. Dothan, 1971; T. Dothan, 1982). Further, archaeological finds in late Iron Age Ashdod have provided evidence of significant cult continuity (M. Dothan & Freedman, 1967; Hachlili, 1971). This cross-stratigraphic occurrence of Ashdoda-style objects (Hachlili, 1971; M. Dothan & Dothan, 1992; A. Mazar, 1986) suggests that the cult surrounding this deity, which began in Ashdod in the twelfth century BC, continued there until the end of the eighth century, when the city was conquered by Sargon II of Assyria in 712 BC (M. Dothan, 1971; Luckenbill, 1926b).
The Samson Saga and the Temple at Tell Qasîle
The Bible mentions two temples of Dāgôn, but it only offers a physical description of one: the temple at the Philistine city of Gaza, which is featured in the Samson saga. The temple of at Ashdod, first mentioned in the Bible at 1 Sam. 5:1, is held in biblical tradition to have survived in some form from the early Iron Age into the late Hellenistic period, when it was burned to the ground by Jonathan Maccabeus (1 Macc. 10:84). However, few details are provided about this temple in the biblical narrative; we are simply told that it housed (the cult statue) of Dāgôn which sat on a raised platform, before or beside which the Ark was placed after its capture (1 Sam. 5:2-3). As a result, if detailed information on a Philistine temple of Dāgôn is to be found within the pages of the Hebrew Bible – which is, to date, the only source that mentions the existence of such a structure – we must look to the Samson saga. In the book of Judges, the Deuteronomistic historian describes the temple of Dāgôn at Gaza as being supported by two pillars (16:26), and says that, at the time of Samson’s last stand, the temple was full of men, women, and the Philistines’ political leaders, and that an additional 3,000 people were standing on the roof of the structure (v. 27). It is by pushing these pillars down that Samson fells the building, killing the thousands of Philistine people on and in the temple – “more than he ever killed in life” (v. 30) – along with himself (vv. 29-30).
This description of a Philistine temple whose roof was supported by two pillars calls to mind a temple at Tell Qasîle, a city founded by the Philistines in the late twelfth century BC (A. Mazar, 2000). Like the Bible’s temple of Dāgôn at Gaza, this cultic structure, discovered in 1972 by A. Mazar, had a roof that was supported by two columns (A. Mazar, 1973). Further, despite incorporating multiple styles including Canaanite and Egyptian elements (T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994; A. Mazar, 1980), this temple was Mycenaean in character in two key ways. First, it was built into the city plan and bounded on multiple sides by other buildings, rather than being a free-standing construction in the Canaanite tradition (A. Mazar, 1980, 2000). Second, at 8 x 14.5 m., it was of modest size, unlike its monumental Canaanite counterparts (A. Mazar, 1980, 2000). This latter fact poses a problem when attempting to apply the Tell Qasîle temple to the Samson story, as 116 m2 is obviously insufficient space for three thousand people. Of course, numerative exaggeration is not uncommon in the Bible. Two examples in the Ark Narrative itself are the claim of thirty thousand Israelite soldiers being killed by the Philistines at the battle of Aphek (1 Sam. 4:10), and the gloss (McCarter, 1980) of “fifty thousand men” dying before the Ark upon its return from Philistia (6:19). Explanations of battle figures, such as those in the former example, have been proposed that would alter the status of the term “thousand” from a numeric figure to the designator of a group of certain size, perhaps 5 to 14 men (McCarter, 1980; Mendenhall, 1958). However, in the case of the Samson saga, this explanation does not appear to fit the narrative. The biblical claim that Samson’s death brought about the deaths of more Philistines than this hero had ever killed in life (Judg. 16:30) seems to make it unlikely that the specificity of the number and character of the Philistines present at the temple at the time of Samson’s last stand was unintentional, or that it was given with an ulterior meaning intended. However, numerative exaggeration in v. 27 cannot be ruled out, so the temple at Tell Qasîle cannot be altogether discounted as an archaeological blueprint for the one temple of Dāgôn for which a biblical description exists, nor of the other, for which no such description is offered.
In Search of a Temple at Ashdod
Archaeologists lack any blueprint for temple of Dāgôn at Ashdod of the sort that the book of Judges provides for the structure at Gaza. As a result, any search for a temple of Dāgôn in this city must be conducted without literary guidance, though to date that dearth of detail has proved to be largely immaterial. For, like the cult of this Semitic god, the archaeological record also lacks evidence for a temple of Dāgôn in any form at Ashdod in the Iron Age I.
Extensive structures from this period have been uncovered over the course of several years of excavations. However, only one building complex that appears to have had a cultic function (T. Dothan, 1982) has been unearthed thus far. Like the Ashdoda figurine, this complex, the main area of which is composed of a structure remnant designated Building 5233 (M. Dothan & Ben-Shlomo, 1995; Figure 6), was found in area H of Ashdod. It dates to the twelfth century (stratum XII) and contains a “quasi-apsidal structure, built above a regular substructure” (T. Dothan, 1982, p. 41; M. Dothan, 1971) on its southern end. B5233 is bounded on the northern end by a complex made up of two rows of rooms, which straddle a court or central hall that features a double floor of crushed lime and kurkar and two round stone bases for columns. Attached to the western column base is a 1.75 by 1.30 m. kurkar brick structure faced with white plaster-coated bricks (M. Dothan & Ben-Shlomo, 2005; T. Dothan, 1982). This seems to have been an Aegean-style free-standing hearth and central hall (M. Dothan & Ben-Shlomo, 2005). Though the columns, like those at Tell Qasîle, are reminiscent of the biblical temple of Dāgôn at Gaza, and though T. Dothan and Cohn (1994) refer to the kurkar structure as an altar for offerings, M. Dothan and Ben-Shlomo (2005) see this hearth complex, designated Building 5337, as being a residential building which is of common – if relatively upscale – design in Ashdod, particularly in this stratum, across multiple areas of the city (M. Dothan & Ben-Shlomo, 2005; M. Dothan & Porath, 1993). Further, though B5233, with its apsidal southern end, and B5337, with its columns and hearth, are adjacent to each other, no doorway or other route of access between the two structures has been located. Rather, they appear “to be two separate buildings, built back to back” (M. Dothan & Ben-Shlomo, 2005, p. 30), with an 8 m. wall separating the two structures.
The proximity of B5233 to building 5032, the location where the complete Ashdoda figurine was discovered (M. Dothan, 1971; Figure 7), has naturally led to the theory that this apsidal building may have had a role in the cult of the female deity, despite the fact no other temples with apses are known in Canaan from this time (T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994). Unfortunately, a lack of diagnostic finds has so far made it impossible to conclusively determine the purpose of this complex, or of its unique apsidal southern end (M. Dothan & Ben-Shlomo, 2005; T. Dothan, 1982). Further, the residential nature of the structure in which the complete Ashdoda was discovered, and the similar circumstances in which several other figurine fragments have been found, suggest that the deity may have had a domestic, rather than public, function (A. Mazar, 2000). This theory is further supported by the goddess’s conspicuous absence from buildings which are known to be Philistine temples, such as those in Tell Qasîle and Tell Miqne/Ekron Field IV (M. Dothan & Ben-Shlomo, 2005; A. Mazar, 1980, 2000). The potential domestic function of Ashdoda may mean that B5233 had no cultic function at all. A third option is that B5233 served as the temple of a deity for which evidence has not yet been discovered.
III. Making Sense of the Existing Evidence
Exposure and Acculturation
Despite the imposition of newly-constructed Philistine cities on the ashes of their Canaanite predecessors, it is clear that a sizable population of Canaanites remained in Philistia after the initial building period. The actual ratio of Philistines to Canaanites in Iron I is a matter of debate. Stager (1991, 1995), for example, argues for a Philistine emigration to the Levant so massive that it made the members of this “Sea Peoples” tribe an overwhelming majority in Philistia. This theory is apparently supported by the presence of noncombatants, including women and children riding in ox-drawn carts, in Ramesses III’s relief at Medinet Habu of the great land battle between the Egyptians and the Sea Peoples (T. Dothan, 1982; Pritchard, 1969; Stone, 1995). Conversely, A. Mazar (1985a) and Bunimovitz (1998) cite ceramic and cultural continuity from the Late Bronze Age as evidence for their claim that the Philistines served as a ruling minority within the land they controlled (Stone 1995). The former is borne out at Ashdod, where Strata XIII and XII, which represent the Iron Age IA and IB, contain greater deposits of Canaanite pottery than that in the Mycenaean IIIC:1, Aegean, and Philistine Bichrome styles (M. Dothan & Freedman, 1967; M. Dothan, 1971; M. Dothan & Ben-Shlomo, 2005). It is only in the Iron IB, in fact, that the combination of Mediterranean and Philistine styles surpasses Canaanite pottery as a majority of ceramic remains at Ashdod (M. Dothan & Ben-Shlomo, 2005).
Whatever its size, it stands to reason that the existence of a Canaanite population in these newly-established (or, more correctly, reestablished) Philistine cities, combined with a lack of Philistine contact with their cultural point of origin (Stone, 1995), should have acted as an accelerant on the acculturation process for this Mediterranean people. However, despite living among, and having constant contact with, the indigenous Semites, ceramic evidence may suggest that the Philistines made an effort to resist acculturation for the first century or two of their occupation (Stone, 1995). If there is a “golden age” of Philistine culture and influence to be spoken of, it is the Iron I – the time in which the biblical narratives, including the Ark Narrative, are set (M. Dothan & Freedman, 1967; A. Mazar, 1985b). It was in the second half of this phase, in the late twelfth and the eleventh centuries, that the Philistines reached their peak in economic and political power, as a result of controlling both coastal and inland trade routes. It was also during this time, which has been called the “Pax Philistea” by B. Mazar (1974, p. 158), that the Philistines’ cities grew to their largest sizes, and that new cities, such as Tell Qasîle, were founded (A. Mazar, 1985b, 2000; Stager, 1995).
By the Iron II, beginning ca. ninth century BC, the situation had changed: the Philistines’ influence had waned to such a degree that they were no longer a leading power within the Levant. With that waning, more outside influences were drawn into its cultural and material practices (Gitin, 1992; Stone, 1995), though the centuries-long continuity of the Ashdoda cult suggests that resistance to acculturation continued to a greater degree and for a longer period than many have maintained (Deger-Jalkotzy, 1998; Stone, 1995). Eventually, though, the Philistines did lose both identity and autonomy (Bunimovitz, 1990; Gitin, 1992; T. Dothan, 1998), as Philistia was first subsumed into the Assyrian empire in the eighth century (T. Dothan, 1982; Luckenbill, 1926b), and then conquered by the Neo-Babylonians at the end of the seventh century BC (Cross & Stager, 2006; Wiseman, 1956).
Dāgān and the Philistines
The fact that a temple and cult of Dāgān was present at Ugarit, where merchants from Canaanite Ashdod were active during the Late Bronze Age (M. Dothan, 1971), makes it seem logical that the Philistine would have come into contact with that cult upon their arrival in the Levant. However, as mentioned above, despite the Ashdodites’ extensive contact with the people of this city in modern-day Syria – some traders even lived in the city proper or in its nearby harbor town (M. Dothan, 1971) – as well as with Mesopotamia (T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994), no Bronze Age sources referencing Dāgān’s presence in southern Canaan are known (A. Mazar, 2000; Singer, 1992), and the extensive excavations that have been carried out at Ashdod (Dever, 1973) have failed to discover evidence of a temple or cult of Dāgôn in the remains of the Iron I Philistine city. Further, despite the strong assertions in Judg., 1 Sam., and 1 Chron. that Dāgôn was a Philistine deity, the Bible is not entirely free of internal confusion on the subject of Philistine cult. Machinist (2000) points out, “Judg. 10:6 suggests that their pantheon was distinctive among the peoples of ancient Palestine. Yet the three deities specifically mentioned [Dāgôn, Ashtaroth, and Bacal-Zebub] all have, it appears, West Semitic names and all are known elsewhere in the West Semitic world contemporary with and earlier than the period of ancient Israel” (p. 59). I. Singer (1992) parses this verse to come up with the explanation that Bacal and Ashtaroth were intended to be associated with the Canaanites, while the Philistine pantheon was meant to be separate.
As also mentioned above, though, current archaeological evidence appears to point to a female fertility deity having been central to Iron I Philistine culture (A. Mazar, 2000), with little evidence of other cults having been present at this time. Attempts have been made to reconcile this record with the biblical account of the male Dāgôn as god of the Philistines. M. Dothan (1971) has proposed a Philistine suppression of the cult of Dāgān on the southern coast of Canaan in the first century of occupation, during which worship of the Great Mother goddess, represented by Ashdoda, was established and enforced. He suggests that by the eleventh century, the Philistines’ cultural ties with their Canaanite neighbors may have improved enough to result in and ending of the suppression of this Semitic cult, and the construction of a temple of Dāgôn in Ashdod.
Singer (1992), on the other hand, has suggested that the Mycenaean goddess may actually have served as the forerunner of Philistine Dāgôn, positing that the function of the Middle and Upper Euphratean god Dāgān was so closely matched to the function of the Philistines’ own chief deity that the difference in sex between the Semitic god and the Mycenaean Great Mother goddess was a syncretistic nonfactor. He arrives at this conclusion in part through a comparison of the genealogies of Greek gods with those of the pantheons of Ugarit and Phoenicia, in which Dāgān is named as a father of the storm god Bacal, therefore making him the pseudo-equivalent of the Cretan Rhea, wife of Kronos and mother of Zeus (or of a deity made up of Kronos and Rhea merged into one). Singer’s proposal also derives from the assumption that lion(ess)-headed cups in the style of Mycenaean or northern Canaanite libation vessels found elsewhere in Philistia are related to the cult of the Great Mother goddess, who in turn can be equated with Dāgān. These “head cups” (Maeir, 2006, p. 338, n. 1), sometimes described as rhyta (A. Mazar, 2000), make up the bulk of non-Ashdoda cultic objects found in Iron I Philistia. They have been found, among other locations, at Ashdod (Dothan and Dothan 1992), Megiddo, Tell Miqne/Ekron, Tell Qasîle, and Zeror (Maeir, 2006; A. Mazar, 2000), though the greatest number has been found at Tell es-Safi/Gath (Maeir, 2006), a site Dāgôn is not specifically affiliated with in the biblical narrative. A. Mazar (2000, p. 223) calls Singer’s proposal that the lion-head cups are affiliated with the cult of the Great Mother goddess “unsubstantiated.” However, Maeir (2006) finds the likelihood that these “head cups” do depict lionesses to be a point in Singer’s favor, making his suggestion “acceptable” – though he does provide the caveat that this “is not contingent upon identifying Dāgôn specifically as this goddess” (p. 341). As A. Mazar (1980, p. 133, n. 15) points out, “the lion motif was popular in all branches of Near Eastern and Aegean art, and thus no particular statement should be made concerning its role in the…Philistine cult” at all, let alone that associated with Ashdoda. Further, these “head cups” do not match the Ashdoda-style figurines’ cross-stratigraphic occurrence; instead, they are only found in association with twelfth through tenth century Philistine culture (Maeir, 2006).
In defense of his theory that Semitic Dāgān and the Mycenaean goddess Rhea (or her Anatolian counterpart, Kybele) merged into a single male deity – Dāgôn – in the Philistine pantheon, Singer suggests that such syncretic gender transformation has widespread precedent in the ancient world. However, while there are examples of similar deities taking on male and female gender roles in different cultures, such as the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash and his Canaanite equivalent, the sun goddess Shapash (Machinist, personal communication, Feb. 23, 2010), this argument is not supported by the archaeological record, which to date contains little or no evidence of such a syncretic shift.[8] In fact, Singer himself admits that his proposal would require the Philistines, for a time, to have worshipped “their chief deity as a goddess, despite her equation with [male] Dāgôn” (p. 445), before swapping genders yet again and making their chied goddess a male. I personally like to refer to this unlikely theory of transgendered worship as “the emasculation of Philistine Dāgôn,” and find Singer’s argument, though intriguing and well thought out, to be unpersuasive.
IV. Archaeological Silence and the Question of Historicity
The biblical portrayal of the Philistines as the Israelites’ ultimate ideological and martial foe makes the former the ideal antagonist for a story like the Ark Narrative, with its triumphant tale of YHWH meting out humiliation and defeat on a pagan people and their chief deity, all of whom lack a proper respect for the one true God. Some of the details presented in the narrative, including those having to do with Philistine culture, may reflect historical reality,[9] though the narrator’s accounts of events that take place within Philistia, such as conversations between Philistine individuals and the nocturnal goings-on in the temple of Dāgôn, are almost certainly not historically accurate. This naturally begs the question of just what within the portion of the Ark Narrative presented in 1 Sam. 5:1-8 actually is an accurate depiction of historical fact – and whether that definition applies to author’s claim of a Dāgôn-centric cult at Ashdod.
Based solely on material remains and extant inscriptions, the biblical claim of a cult and temple of Dāgôn at Ashdod during the Iron I, the time in which the events of the Ark Narrative are set, appears to be unsubstantiated. This is not to declare that Philistine Dāgôn and his temple at Ashdod were figments of a Deuteronomistic historian’s imagination, or that the Ark Narrative’s portrayal of Philistine culture is unquestionably wrong. However, the possibility that accounts such as this may be less than accurate in both large and small details must be considered, particularly given the age of the events their authors claim to be recounting, as well as the Israelite penchant for assigning faults and traits alike to the Philistines that are not necessarily supported by the archeological and historical records. In such a case as the Ark Narrative, where no archaeological evidence has been found to corroborate the biblical description of Philistine cult, the next step is not to discount the story as a worthless piece of fiction, but to consider why the author told the story the way he did, if it was not simply to recount a factual series of events.[10]
Even Singer (1992, p. 435) acknowledges that “the historicity of some of these [biblical] passages…is quite doubtful,” though he summarily dismisses any “doubts concerning the credibility of [the] scarce information provided by the Israelite sources,” declaring that “there is no reason to assume any author in any period would deliberately misquote the name of the Philistines’ main deity.” However, this is not necessarily the case. Historiographical conveyance of true fact, as we understand history today, has not always been the purpose of pseudo-historical texts – a statement which is particularly accurate when applied to the pre-modern world (Stager, 2006; Urton, personal communication, March 3, 2010; Zender, personal communication, Dec. 16, 2009). The Ark Narrative’s power and purpose are not lessened by a lack of historical accuracy any more than the points of the Exodus or of Noah’s flood are lessened by their questionable historicity. In fact, depending on the author’s purpose in writing such an account, portrayal of historical fact may or may not have been his intention at all. Further, any mythohistorical account, be it a biblical story like the Ark Narrative or the Samson saga, or the product of another culture like the Iliad, is bound to incorporate certain measures of inadvertent inaccuracy and artistic license (A. Mazar, 2000), both of which are likely to grow – thereby reducing the detailed accuracy of the narrative (A. Mazar, 1985b) – in the telling.
V. Conclusion
Arguments from “archaeological silence” must be undertaken delicately, as proving a negative through material remains – particularly those which, if they are to be located, recovered, and interpreted, must have survived multiple millennia under ever-increasing layers of destruction, debris, and new building – is something which can rarely be done either effectively or convincingly. Therefore, drawing accurate, permanent, and unquestioned conclusions based on the absence of evidence, be they concerning the record of a long-deceased king or the temple and cult of an ancient god, is a task which borders on the impossible. After all, despite some who would claim the contrary (Steiner, 1998) an absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. Further, when the lack of something is held out to prove one’s case, the standard for disproving that conclusion is very low indeed. In the case of Dāgôn and Ashdod, the discovery, for example, of a single inscription or stele of the type found at Tell Ras Shamra/Ugarit could negate centuries of archaeological silence, and cast the Iron Age I Philistine religion, as well as the historicity of a portion of the Bible’s Deuteronomic History, in a brand new light.
However, the preponderance of archaeological evidence available at this point suggests that the cult of the Semitic god Dāgān/Dāgôn had not yet reached Ashdod by the Iron Age I. The only cultic evidence that has been found to date in that Philistine city is small female statuary in the mold of M. Dothan’s “Ashdoda.” Despite the efforts of some scholars to equate this deity with Dāgôn in some fashion (Singer 1992), or to explain her exclusive presence in the Iron I record as a brief hiatus in the ongoing worship of Dāgôn in Canaan (M. Dothan, 1971), archaeological evidence for either of these proposals is nonexistent. Similarly, despite the Ark Narrative’s placement of the temple of Dāgôn in Ashdod in the Iron I, the only structural remains of possible cultic association dating to this period lack any visible connection to this god. It is still possible that the biblical portrayal of Philistine cult at this time is, in fact, accurate. However, given the lack of evidence for a temple or cult of Dāgôn at Ashdod in the Iron I, as well as the Israelite penchant for painting the enemy Philistines with traits and beliefs that do not appear to actually have applied to them, the possibility that this account represents something other than an accurate portrayal this coastal people’s religious beliefs, locations, and practices is something that should be considered by scholars engaging in future study of this topic.
Figure 1. Coast of the Southern Levant at the end of the Iron Age I (10th century BC), from Gaza in the South to Tell Qasîle in the North.[11]
| Stratum | Period | Century (BC) | ||
| I | Byzantine-Arabic | |||
| II | Early Roman | 1st | ||
| III | Hellenistic | 3rd-2nd | ||
| IV | Hellenistic | 3rd-2nd | ||
| Vc-a | Persian | 6th-4th | ||
| VI | Iron IIC | Late 7th | ||
| VII | Iron IIC | 7th | ||
| VIII | Iron IIB | Late 9th-8th | ||
| IX | Iron IIB | Late 9th-8th | ||
| X | Iron I-II | 10th-9th | ||
| XIb-a | Iron IB | 11th | ||
| XII | Iron IB | 12th | ||
| XIIIb-a | Iron IA | Early 12th | ||
| XIV | Late Bronze IIB | 13th | ||
| XVI-XV | Late Bronze II | 14th-13th |
Figure 2. Chart depicting the stratigraphy of Ashdod, along with the date range that each stratum represents and the archaeological phase(s) each stratum contains.[12]
Figure 3. “Ashdoda” figurine from Stratum XII, Area H at Ashdod.[13]
Figure 4. “Ashdoda” figurine from Stratum XII, Area H at Ashdod.[14]
Figure 5. Map of Tell Ashdod’s archaeological zones. Building 5233 and the complete Ashdoda figurine were both discovered in Area H, at top left.[15]
Figure 6. Map of Ashdod, Area H, Stratum XII. [16] Building 5233, the structure featuring an apsidal construction that may have cultic significance, is located in grid R-7. B5337, featuring two column bases and a kurkar hearth, is in grids S-10 and T-10.
Figure 7. Area H, Strata 4-1 (Equivalent to Strata XI-VI; cf. Figure 2).[17] The building where the complete Ashdoda was discovered is Building 5032, a polygonal structure located in grid R-6. The southern end of B5233, the apsidal structure, is just north of B5032 in R-7.
Reference List
Ahlström, G. W. (1983-4). An Archaeological Picture of Iron Age Religions in Ancient Palestine. Studia Orientalia, 55(3), 117-144.
Ahlström, G. W. (1984). The Travels of the Ark: A Religio-Political Composition. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 43(2), 141-149.
Albright, W. F. (1922). The Excavations at Ascalon. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 6.
Albright, W. F. (1961). The Role of the Canaanites in the History of Civilization. In G. E. Wright (Ed.), The Bible and the Ancient Near East: Essays in Honor of W.F. Albright. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday.
Albright, W. F. (1975). Syria, the Philistines, and Phoenicia. The Cambridge Ancient History II, 3rd Edition (vol. 2, pp. 507-536). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Albright, W. F. (1985). The Archaeology of Palestine. Baltimore, MD: Penguin.
Artzi, P. (1968). Some Unrecognized Syrian Amarna Letters (EA 260, 317, 318). Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 27(3), 163-171.
Barako, T. J. (2000). The Philistine Settlement as Mercantile Phenomenon? American Journal of Archaeology, 104(3), 513-530.
Batten, L. W. (1906). The Religion of Israel to Samuel. The Biblical World, 28(6), 400-411.
Begg, C. (1998). The Return of the Ark According to Josephus. Bulletin for Biblical Research, 8, 15-37.
Ben-Shlomo, D., Shai, I., & Maeir, A. M. (2004). Late Philistine Decorated Ware (“Ashdod Ware”): Typology, Chronology, and Production Centers. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 335, 1-35.
Benson, J. L. (1961). A Problem in Orientalizing Cretan Birds: Mycenaean or Philistine Prototypes? Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 20(2), 73-84.
Bentzen, A. (1948). The Cultic Use of the Story of the Ark in Samuel. Journal of Biblical Literature, 67(1), 37-53.
Berlin, A., & Brettler, M. Z. (Ed.). (2004). The Jewish Study Bible. New York, NY: Oxford.
Bietak, M. (1993). The Sea Peoples and the End of the Egyptian Administration in Canaan. In A. Biran and J. Aviram (Eds.), Biblical Archaeology Today, 1990: Proceedings of the Second International Congress on Biblical Archaeology. Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. 292-306.
Bloch-Smith, E. (2003). Israelite Ethnicity in Iron I: Archaeology Preserves What is Remembered and What is Forgotten in Israel’s History. Journal of Biblical Literature, 122(3), 401-425.
Bloch-Smith, E., & Nakhai, B. A. (1999). A Landscape Comes to Life: The Iron Age I. Near Eastern Archaeology, 32(2), 62-92.
Bonfante, G. (1946). Who Were the Philistines? American Journal of Archaeology 50(2), 251-262.
Bunimovitz, S. (1990). Problems in the ‘Ethnic’ Identification of the Philistine Material Culture. Tel Aviv, 17, 217-219.
Bunimovitz, S. (1998). Sea Peoples in Cyprus and Israel. In S. Gitin, A. Mazar, and E. Stern (Eds.), Mediterranean Peoples in Transition, Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE. Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Exploration Society.
Caubet, A. (2000). Ras Shamra-Ugarit Before the Sea Peoples. In E. D. Oren (Ed.), The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment (pp. 35-52). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Museum.
Cross, F. M., & Stager, L. E. (2006). Cypro-Minoan Inscriptions Found in Ashkelon. Israel Exploration Journal, 56(2), 129-159.
Deger-Jalkotzy, S. (1998). Sea Peoples in Cyprus and Israel: A Comparative Study of Immigration Processes. In S. Gitin, A. Mazar, and E. Stern (Eds.), Mediterranean Peoples in Transition, Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE. Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Exploration Society.
Dever, W. G. (1973). Excavation Reports on Palestinian Archaeology: Some Review Notices. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 212, 32.
Dever, W. G. (1998). Israelite Origins and the ‘Nomadic Ideal’: Can Archaeology Separate Fact from Fiction? In S. Gitin, A. Mazar, and E. Stern (Eds.), Mediterranean Peoples in Transition, Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE. Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Exploration Society.
Dothan, M. (1971). Ashdod II-III: The Second and Third Seasons of Excavations 1963, 1965, soundings in 1967 [Monograph]. ‘Atiqot English Series, 9-10.
Dothan, M. (1993). Ashdod. The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (Vol. 1, pp. 93-102). Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Exploration Society.
Dothan, M., & Ben-Shlomo, D. (2005). Ashdod VI: The Excavation of Areas H and K (1968-1969). Israel Antiquities Authority Reports, 24.
Dothan, M., & Dothan, T. (1992). People of the Sea: the Search for the Philistines. New York, NY: Macmillan.
Dothan, M., & Freedman, D. N. (1967). Ashdod I: The First Season of Excavations [Monograph]. ‘Atiqot English Series, 7.
Dothan, M., & Porath, Y. (1982) Ashdod IV: The Excavation of Area M [Monograph].. ‘Atiqot English Series, 15.
Dothan, M., & Porath, Y. (1993) Ashdod V: The Excavation of Area G [Monograph].. ‘Atiqot English Series, 23.
Dothan. T. (1957) Archaeological Reflections on the Philistine Problem. Antiquity and Survival, 2(2/3).
Dothan, T. (1958). Philistine Civilization in the Light of Archaeological Finds in Palestine and Egypt. Eretz Israel, 5.
Dothan, T. (1982). Philistine Material Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Dothan, T. (1992). Social Distortion and Cultural Change in the 12th Century B.C.E. In W.A. Ward and M.S. Joukowsky (Eds.), The Crisis Years: The Twelfth Century B. C., From Beyond the Danube to the Tigris. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt.
Dothan, T. (1994). Tel Miqne/Ekron: The Aegean Affinities of the Sea Peoples’ (Philistines’) Settlement in Canaan in Iron Age I. In S. Gitin (Ed.), Recent Excavations in Israel: A View to the West. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt. 41-56.
Dothan, T. (1998). Initial Philistine Settlement: From Migration to Coexistence. In S. Gitin, A. Mazar, and E. Stern (Eds.), Mediterranean Peoples in Transition, Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE. Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Exploration Society.
Dothan, T., & Cohn, R. L. (1994). The Philistines as Other: Biblical Rhetoric and Reality. In L. J. Silberstein & R. L. Cohn (Eds.), The Other in Jewish Thoughts and History: Constructions of Jewish Culture and Identity. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Doumas, C. G. (1998). Aegeans in the Levant: Myth and Reality. In S. Gitin, A. Mazar, and E. Stern (Eds.), Mediterranean Peoples in Transition, Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE. Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Exploration Society.
Dussaud, R. (1935). Deux Stèles de Ras Shamra Portant Une Dédicace au Dieu Dagon. Syria, 16(2), 179-180.
Edgerton, W. F., & Wilson, J.A. (1936). Historical Records of Ramses III: The Texts in Medinet Habu Volumes I & II. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, 12.
Feliu, L. (2003). The God Dagan in Bronze Age Syria. (W. G. E. Watson, Trans.). Boston, MA: Brill. (2000).
Finkelstein, I. (1995). The Date of the Settlement of the Philistines in Canaan. Tel Aviv, 22.
Finkelstein, I. (1998). Philistine Chronology: High, Middle, or Low? In S. Gitin, A. Mazar, and E. Stern (Eds.), Mediterranean Peoples in Transition, Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE. Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Exploration Society.
Freedman, D. N. (1963). The Second Season at Ancient Ashdod. The Biblical Archaeologist, 26(4), 134-139.
Gardiner, A. H. (1947). Ancient Egyptian Onomastica. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. 190-200.
Gelb, I. J. (1935). Inscriptions from Alishar and Vicinity. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Gitay, Y. (1992). Reflections on the Poetics of the Samuel Narrative: the Question of the Ark Narrative. Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 54(2), 221-230.
Gitin, S. (1992). Last Days of the Philistines. Archaeology, 45(3), 26-31.
Gordon, R. P. (2004). The Ideological Foe: The Philistines in the Old Testament. In K. J. Cathcart, C. McCarthy & J. F. Healey (Eds.), Biblical and Near Eastern Essays: Studies in Honour of Kevin J. Cathcart. New York, NY: Continuum.
Habachi, L. (1961). A Statue of a ‘Triton’ from Gaza. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 20(1), 49.
Hachlili, R. (1971). Figures and Kernoi (Areas D, H, Trench C 1). In M. Dothan (Ed.), Ashdod II-III: The Second and Third Seasons of Excavations 1963, 1965, soundings in 1967 [Monograph]. ‘Atiqot English Series, 9-10, 125-135.
Hedley, G. P. (1929). The ‘Temple of Dagon’ at Beth-Shan. American Journal of Archaeology, 33(1), 34-36.
Herbig, R. (1940). Philister und Dorier. Jarbuch des Deutschen Archälogischen Institutes, 55, 58-89.
Herr, L. G. (1997). Archaeological Sources for the History of Palestine: The Iron Age II Period: Emerging Nations. The Biblical Archaeologist, 60(3), 114-183.
Heurtley, W. A. (1936). The Relationship Between ‘Philistine’ and Mykenaean Pottery. Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine, 5.
Hrouda, B. (1964). Die Einwanderung der Philister in Palästina: Eine Studie zur Seevölkerbewegung des 12 Jahrhunderts. In K. Bittel (Ed.), Vorderasiatische Archälogie: Studien und Aufsätze A. Moortgat zum Fünfundsechzigsten Geburtstag Gewidmet. Berlin, Germany: Gebr.
Jones, A. H. (1972). The Philistines and the Hearth: Their Journey to the Levant. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 31(4), 343-350.
Kang, S.-M. (1989). Divine War in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East. Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter.
Kassis, H. E. (1965). Gath and the Structure of the ‘Philistine’ Society. Journal of Biblical Literature, 84(3), 259-271.
Liverani, M. (1963). Introduzione alla Storia dell’ Asia Anteriore Antica. Rome, Italy: Centro di Studi Semitici.
Luckenbill, D. D. (1910). The Excavations in Palestine II. The Biblical World, 35(2), 97-105.
Luckenbill, D. D. (Ed.). (1926a). Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia (Vol. 1). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Luckenbill, D. D. (Ed.). (1926b). Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia (Vol. 2). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Macalister, R. A. S. (1914). The Philistines: Their History and Civilization London, United Kingdom: British Academy.
Machinist, P. (2000). Biblical Traditions: The Philistines and Israelite History. In E. D. Oren (Ed.), The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment (pp. 53-83). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Museum.
Maeir, A. M. (2006). A Philistine ‘Head Cup’ from Tell es-Safi/Gath. In A. M. Maeir & P. D. Miroschedji (Eds.), I Will Speak the Riddles of Ancient Times: Archaeological and Historical Studies in Honor of Amihai Mazar on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday (Vol. 1, pp. 335-345). Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
Manassa, C. (2003). The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the 13th Century BC. New Haven, CT: Yale Egyptological Seminar.
Mazar, A. (1973). A Philistine Temple at Tell Qasîle. The Biblical Archaeologist, 36(2), 42-48.
Mazar, A. (1977). Additional Philistine Temples at Tell Qasile. The Biblical Archaeologist, 40(2), 82-87.
Mazar, A. (1980). Excavations at Tell Qasile Part One: The Philistine Sanctuary: Architecture and Cult Objects [Monograph]. Qedem, 12, 119.
Mazar, A. (1985a). The Emergence of the Philistine Material Culture. Israel Exploration Journal, 35, 95-107.
Mazar, A. (1985b). Excavations at Tell Qasile Part Two: The Philistine Sanctuary: Various Finds, the Pottery, Conclusions, Appendixes [Monograph]. Qedem, 20, 119.
Mazar, A. (1986). Excavations at Tell Qasîle, 1982-1984: Preliminary Report. Israel Exploration Journal, 36, 12.
Mazar, A. (1988). Some Aspects of the ‘Sea Peoples’ Settlement. In M. Helter and E. Lipinski (Eds.), Society and Economy in the Eastern Mediterranean (c. 1500-1000 B.C.). Leuven, Belgium: Peeters. 252-269.
Mazar, A. (2000). The Temples and Cult of the Philistines. In E. D. Oren (Ed.), The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment (pp. 213-232). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Museum.
Mazar, B. (1974). The Philistines and the Rise of Israel and Tyre. In Canaan and Israel, Historical Essays. Jerusalem, Israel: Bialik Institute and Israel Exploration Society.
Mazar, B. (1992). The Philistines. In S. Ahituv (Ed.), Biblical Israel: State and People (pp. 22-46, 118). Jerusalem, Israel: Magnes.
McCarter, P. K. (Ed.). (1980). I Samuel (Vol. 8). New York, NY: Doubleday.
Mellaart, J. (1984). Troy VIIA in Anatolian Perspective. In J. K. Davies and L. Foxhall (Eds.), The Trojan War: Its Historicity and Context: Papers of the First Greenbank Colloquium, Liverpool, 1981. Bristol, CT: Bristol Classical Press.
Mendenhall, G.E. (1958). The Census Lists of Numbers 1 and 26. Journal of Biblical Literature, 77, 52-66.
Mertens, P. (1960). Les Peuples de la Mer. Chronique d’Égypte, 35, 65-88.
Miller, P. D. (1973). The Divine Warrior in Early Israel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Montalbano, F. J. (1951). Canaanite Dagon: Origin, Nature. Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 13, 381-397.
Niemeier, W-D. (1998). The Mycenaeans in Western Anatolia and the Problem of the Origins of the Sea Peoples. In S. Gitin, A. Mazar, and E. Stern (Eds.), Mediterranean Peoples in Transition, Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE. Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Exploration Society.
Pritchard, J. B. (Ed.). (1969). The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament (2 ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Pritchard, J. B. (Ed.). (1974). Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (2 ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Raban, A. (1991). The Philistines in the Western Jezreel Valley. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 284, 17-27.
Rahtjen, B. D. (1965). Philistine and Hebrew Amphictyonies. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 24(1/2), 100-104.
Redford, D. B. (2000). Egypt and Western Asia in the Late New Kingdom: An Overview. In E. D. Oren (Ed.), The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment (pp. 53-83). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Museum.
Roberts, J. J. M. (1971). The Hand of Yahweh. Vetus Testamentum, 21(2), 244-252.
Rost, L. (1965). Die Uberlieferung von der Thronnach folge Davids. Das Kleine Credo und Andere Studien zum Alten Testament. Heidelberg, Germany: Quelle & Meyer.
Sasson, J. M. (Ed.). (1995). Civilizations of the Ancient Near East (Vol. 2). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Schaeffer, C. L. (1935). Les Fouilles de Ras Shamra/Ugarit, Sixiéme Campagne. Syria, 16, 155-156.
Schaeffer, C. F. A. (1939). The Cuneiform Texts of Ras Shamra/Ugarit. London, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Schniedewind, W. M. (1998). The Geopolitical History of Philistine Gath. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 309, 69-77.
Segal, M. H. (1965). The Composition of the Books of Samuel. The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, 55(4), 318-339.
Shai, I. (2006). The Political Organization of the Philistines. In A. M. Maeir & P. D. Miroschedji (Eds.), I Will Speak the Riddles of Ancient Times: Archaeological and Historical Studies in Honor of Amihai Mazar on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday (Vol. 1, pp. 347-359). Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
Singer, I. (1988). The Origin of the Sea Peoples and Their Settlement on the Coast of Canaan. In M. Helter and E. Lipinski (Eds.), Society and Economy in the Eastern Mediterranean (c. 1500-1000 B.C.). Leuven, Belgium: Peeters. 239-250.
Singer, I. (1992). Towards the Image of Dagon the God of the Philistines. Syria, 69(3/4), 431-450.
Stager, L. E. (1995). The Impact of the Sea Peoples in Canaan (1185-1050 BCE). In T. Levy (Ed.), The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land. London, United Kingdom: Facts on File.
Stager, L. E. (1998). Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel.” In M. D. Coogan (Ed.), The Oxford History of the Biblical World. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 123-75.
Stager, L. E. (2006). Biblical Philistines: A Hellenistic Literary Creation? In A. M. Maeir & P. D. Miroschedji (Eds.), I Will Speak the Riddles of Ancient Times: Archaeological and Historical Studies in Honor of Amihai Mazar on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday (Vol. 1, pp. 375-384). Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
Steiner, M. (1998). David’s Jerusalem: Fiction or Reality? It’s Not There: Archaeology Proves a Negative. Biblical Archaeology Review, 24(4).
Stern, E. (1998). The Relations Between the Sea Peoples and the Phoenicians in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries BCE. In S. Gitin, A. Mazar, and E. Stern (Eds.), Mediterranean Peoples in Transition, Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE. Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Exploration Society.
Stiebing, W. H. (1970). Another Look at the Origins of the Philistine Tombs at Tell el-Far’ah (S). American Journal of Archaeology, 74(2), 143.
Stirrup, A. (2000). ‘Why Has Yahweh Defeated us Today Before the Philistines?’ The Question of the Ark Narrative. Tyndale Bulletin, 51(1), 81-100.
Stone, B. J. (1995). The Philistines and Acculturation: Culture Change and Ethnic Continuity in the Iron Age. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 298, 7-32.
Ussishkin, D. (1998). The Destruction of Megiddo at the End of the Late Bronze Age and its Historical Significance. In S. Gitin, A. Mazar, and E. Stern (Eds.), Mediterranean Peoples in Transition, Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE. Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Exploration Society.
Vanschoonwinkel, J. (1999). Between the Aegean and the Levant: The Philistines. In G. R. Tsetskhladze (Ed.), Ancient Greeks West and East (pp. 91). Köln, Germany: Brill.
Waldbaum, J. C. (1966). Philistine Tombs at Tell Fara and Their Aegean Prototypes. American Journal of Archaeology, 70(4), 331-340.
Waldbaum, J. C. (1997). Greeks in the East or Greeks and the East? Problems in the Definition and Recognition of Presence. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 305, 1-17.
Willis, J. T. (1971). An Anti-Elide Narrative Tradition from a Prophetic Circle at the Ramah Sanctuary. Journal of Biblical Literature, 90(3), 288-308.
Wiseman, D. J. (1956). Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings (626-556 B.C.) in the British Museum. London, United Kingdom: Trustees of the British Museum.
Wright, G. E. (1959). Philistine Coffins and Mercenaries. The Biblical Archaeologist, 22(3), 54-66.
Yadin, Y. (1963). The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands in Light of Archaeological Study (Vol. 2). Jerusalem, Israel: International Publishing.
Yon, M. (1992). Ugarit. The Anchor Bible Dictionary (Vol. 6, pp. 702-3). New York, NY: Doubleday.
Zangger, E. (1995). Who Were the Sea Peoples? Aramco World, 46(3), 21-31.
Notes
[1] Theories abound on where the “Sea Peoples” as a whole, and the Philistines specifically, originated from. These theories include southwestern or western Anatolia (Albright, 1975; Mellaart, 1984; Singer, 1988, 1992; Zangger, 1995), the Illyrian coast of the northern Balkans (Bonfante, 1946; Herbig, 1940; Liverani, 1963; Mertens, 1960), and the “world of the Mycenaean Greeks” (Stager, 2006, p. 378), which was made up of the Greek mainland, the Aegean islands, and Crete (Barako, 2000; Barnett, 1975 Bunimovitz, 1998; M. Dothan & Dothan, 1992; T. Dothan, 1982; Drews, 1993; Heurtley, 1936; Hrouda, 1964; Jones, 1972; A. Mazar, 2000; Stager, 1995, 2006; Waldbaum, 1966). Based on the prevalence of Mycenaean ceramics and other elements of material culture, as well as physical representations of ritual and ideology, present at Ashdod, Ekron, and Ashkelon in the first phase (twelfth century BC) of Philistine settlement (T. Dothan, 1982, 1994; A. Mazar, 1988; Stager, 1995), the correct answer appears to be a Mycenaean cultural center on the Greek mainland or elsewhere in the nearby Aegean world (Niemeier, 1998).
[2] The term “Ark Narrative” refers to the story of the Ark of the Covenant’s transfer from Shiloh under the Elide priesthood to Jerusalem under the Davidic monarchy (1 Sam. 4:1-7:1 & 2 Sam. 6:1-19). It was coined by Leonhard Rost (1965), who saw this as a cohesive narrative predating the surrounding portions of the book of Samuel.
[3] The Ark Narrative is rife with standard Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) motifs, of which this is a prominent example. Here, the Ark functions as the Israelites’ version of a divine cult image. Taking these images in battle was a common practice in the ANE, as their capture was seen as being akin to capturing those gods themselves. Some of the best examples of this motif in the Iron Age I and II come from Assyrian annals, such as prism inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser I (Luckenbill, 1926a). An example with a direct bearing on the Philistine world comes from the late eighth century annals of Sargon II at Dur-Sharrukia, which say, “Ashdod, Gath, and [Ashdod-by-the-sea], I besieged, I captured. The gods dwelling therein…I counted as spoil” (Luckenbill, 1926b, pp. 13-14).
[4] I Sam. 5:1-2. Captured cult images were routinely set up in the temples of the conquering deities in the ANE, either as gifts to the gods of the victors or as lesser deities to be worshipped alongside those already present in the conquerors’ pantheon. This is especially attested in Assyrian annals; see, inter alia, the prism inscription of Tiglath-Pileser and the quay-wall inscription of Adad-Nirari II (Luckenbill, 1926a).
[5] YHWH’s severing of Dāgôn’s hands reflects a combat motif common in ANE tradition (Kang, 1989). The practice of cutting off the hands of combat victims is attested over a broad period of time in the region. For examples, see, inter alia, the annals of Pharaoh Thutmose III at Karnak, in which “hands” are listed among the “plunder” taken by the pharaoh’s men after the ca. 1468 BC battle of Megiddo (Pritchard, 1974, p. 237), the mid-twelfth century reliefs of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu, which feature images of Egyptians counting the severed hands of slain enemies (Pritchard, 1969; Yadin, 1963), and the ninth century bronze reliefs on the Gates of Shalmaneser III at Balawat, which depict live victims’ hands and feet being severed (Yadin, 1963).
[6] The Philistines may also have served in small numbers as mercenary soldiers for the Egyptian pharaohs in their early years (Albright, 1975; T. Dothan, 1957, 1958, 1982; T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994; Singer, 1988, 1994; Wright, 1959). The opposing view holds that Ramesses III responded to the Philistine invasion of Canaan by retreating to established garrisons outside the borders of the land that would become Philistia, and that the Philistines established the five cities of their Pentapolis “at key positions along the perimeter” (Stager, 1995, p. 342; Bietak, 1993; Bunimovitz, 1998).
[7] The list of scholars and publications includes (but is far from limited to): Ahlström, 1983-4; Albright, 1922; M. Dothan & Dothan, 1992; T. Dothan, 1982; T. Dothan & Cohn, 1994; Habachi, 1961; Macalister, 1914; Rahtjen, 1965; Steibing, 1970. I. Singer (1992), on the other hand, agrees that Dāgôn was chief god of the Philistines, based on the biblical account, but does not accept that a cult of Dāgān existed in Canaan before the Philistines’ arrival. Instead, he argues that the Philistines introduced this god to the area they came to occupy, suggesting that the Philistines originally adopted this god in Syria as they were making their way down the Levantine coast, or adopted him later from the Phoenicians.
[8] By the Iron Age II, male figurines in the style of Ashdoda are present in the archaeological record, and by the ninth century they begin to outnumber female figures (T. Dothan, 1982). However, the continued presence of female figures (M. Dothan, 1971; T. Dothan, 1982; A. Mazar, 2000) makes it highly unlikely that a high-ranking female deity underwent a complete shift into male form, as Singer suggests happened with the Mycenaean Great Mother goddess and Dāgôn.
[9] General accuracy within the oral and early written traditions was certainly not unheard of at this time. Stager (1995, 2006) points out that the eighth and seventh century prophets Amos (9:7) and Jeremiah (47:4) recall Caphtor, or Crete, as the origin of the Philistines, a “tradition [which] conveys a certain amount of historical memory about their Mycenaean origins, some four centuries earlier” (1995, p. 332), and recognizes (2006) accurate details nestled within the biblical portrayal of Philistine cultural history. Bloch-Smith (2003) takes this a step further, saying, “Regarding Israelite-Philistine relations, the texts mirror the archaeological remains with only slight distortion” (p. 424) – a true statement when compared to the accuracy of textual representations of Philistine culture, but a significant generalization all the same.
[10] This, however, is another paper.
[11] From Bible History Online. http://www.bible-history.com/geography/maps/map_palestine_coastal_plain_south.html. Accessed April 19, 2010.
[12] After Dothan, M. (1971). Ashdod II-III: The Second and Third Seasons of Excavations 1963, 1965, soundings in 1967. ‘Atiqot English Series IX-X, 24; and Dothan, M., & Ben-Shlomo, D. (2005). Ashdod VI: The Excavation of Areas H and K (1968-1969). Israel Antiquities Authority Reports, 24, 9.
[13] From Dothan, M., & Dothan, T. (1992). People of the Sea: The Search for the Philistines. New York, NY: Macmillan, 155
[14] From Dothan, M. (1971). Ashdod II-III: The Second and Third Seasons of Excavations 1963, 1965, soundings in 1967. ‘Atiqot English Series IX-X, Plate LXXXII.
[15] From Dothan, M. (1993). Ashdod. The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (Vol. 1, p. 94). Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Exploration Society.
[16] From Dothan, M., & Ben-Shlomo, D. (2005). Ashdod VI: The Excavation of Areas H and K (1968-1969). Israel Antiquities Authority Reports, 24, 22. Cropped for size.
[17] From Dothan, M. (1971). Ashdod II-III: The Second and Third Seasons of Excavations 1963, 1965, soundings in 1967. ‘Atiqot English Series IX-X, 160.
{ 0 comments… add one now }