So Many Books; So little Time

People of the Sea

People of the Sea: The Search for the Philistines

by Trude Dothan and Moshe Dothan

c. 1992

Trude and Moshe Dothan are Israeli archeologists who have spent their lives searching the coastal areas of Israel for the cities of the Philistines listed in the Old Testament, primarily the sections dealing with David and Samson. What they found surprised them just a bit. They expected to find warrior barbarians but instead found the farming homes and cities that the warriors left behind and went home to each night.

They went looking for where these peoples came from and how they came to settle in the area. In doing so they started with the assumption that they came from Cyprus and in looking at pottery, they could confirm that but they also found considerable Egyptian influence as well.

This book is well written with the authors writing in tandem concerning the areas they worked on. They looked at pottery, funeral jars, and wall motifs as well as the architecture of the buildings they were excavating. I would not recommend the work for children, however, due to the fact that the reader needs some background in archeology, primarily in how digs are run and types of pottery to adequately understand what is being described though the work is filled with many pictures and diagrams.

The authors refer specifically to scriptures in their writing and quote them directly which is a plus. They also refer to all religions as “cult practices” which is also a plus though they refer to Jewish beliefs in the same way the one time they are mentioned. Another plus for younger readers is that they never describe Philistine sacrifices but only refer to sacrificial altars and utinsils.

This is the beginning of a look at the common Philistine and not the warriors we read about in the Bible. This is a good work for background puposes but not an end-all work. No complete conclusions are reaches as is the case in most archeology. The Dothans end the book with more questions than answers though they do confirm many scriptures such as that Ekron would be uprooted. No city has been rebuilt on the sight of Ekron making it an easy site to excavate.

Biblically and historically based. This is a good archeological overview for the archeologically minded scholar.