Wednesday, 20th April 2005
Prof David Ussishkin (Tel Aviv University)
LACHISH, MEGIDDO AND THE PHILISTINE SETTLEMENT IN THE COASTAL PLAIN
Prof Ussishkin will discuss the settlement of the Philistines in the Coastal Plain of Canaan during the twelfth century BCE. The Philistines were part of the "Sea Peoples" who tried to invade Egypt by sea and land during the reign of Ramesses III, as portrayed in the Egyptian reliefs. The Philistines settled in the main in five central cities and used characteristic painted pottery with Mycenaean affinities.
Analysis of the excavations in two of the central Philistine cities, Ashdod and Tel Miqne (Ekron), and data uncovered in Lachish and Megiddo, two of the most important Canaanite cities, enable us to review afresh the nature of the Philistine invasion, to lower the date of the Philistine settlement to after 1130 BCE, and to consider afresh the question of early Philistine fortifications.
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