The Philistines and Acculturation: Culture Change and Ethnic Continuity in the Iron Age

Pottery production at Tell es-Safi/Gath: a Longue Durée perspective

“…BCE). While there are some gaps in time between some of the sampled groups (e.g., between the IB and MB IIB and between the MB IIB and LB IIB pottery), a sufficient amount of ''snapshots'' (e.g., Stone, 1995) representing the sequence of almost two millennia history of pottery production are presented here, so as to represent a picture of the trends in pottery production over time.…”

The Development Process of Philistine Material Culture: Assimilation, Acculturation and Everything in between

“…Although this culture has been widely studied for several decades (e.g., T. Dothan 1982), the existence of a Philistine material culture that continued to exist until the NeoBabylonian conquest has only relatively recently been acknowledged (e.g., Stone 1995;Gitin 1998). The development of this material culture was defined as a process of acculturation, with the interaction between the Philistines and other groups resulting in changes in the original culture, while the group continued to exist as a separate entity (e.g., Stone 1995;Gitin 2000;Maeir 2001).…”

“…Although this culture has been widely studied for several decades (e.g., T. Dothan 1982), the existence of a Philistine material culture that continued to exist until the NeoBabylonian conquest has only relatively recently been acknowledged (e.g., Stone 1995;Gitin 1998). The development of this material culture was defined as a process of acculturation, with the interaction between the Philistines and other groups resulting in changes in the original culture, while the group continued to exist as a separate entity (e.g., Stone 1995;Gitin 2000;Maeir 2001). The growing information available for the study of the Philistines and the region in which they settled has shed new light on the course of events that involved the Philistines and the subsequent changes to their culture (e.g., T. Dothan 1982;Bunimovitz 1990;Stone 1995;Gitin 1998;Maeir 2001;forthcoming).…”

“…The development of this material culture was defined as a process of acculturation, with the interaction between the Philistines and other groups resulting in changes in the original culture, while the group continued to exist as a separate entity (e.g., Stone 1995;Gitin 2000;Maeir 2001). The growing information available for the study of the Philistines and the region in which they settled has shed new light on the course of events that involved the Philistines and the subsequent changes to their culture (e.g., T. Dothan 1982;Bunimovitz 1990;Stone 1995;Gitin 1998;Maeir 2001;forthcoming). In reviewing the currently available evidence, it seems that the acculturation model which is widely accepted today is inadequate for explaining the changes that occurred in the Philistine material culture throughout their existence.…”

“…While the definition of acculturation is broad (Redfield, Linton, and Herskovitz 1935, 229-230), allowing for its application in many cases, the way it has thus far been used as a model for the changes in Philistine culture (e.g., Stone 1995) no longer seems appropriate. The "snapshots" Stone (1995) uses only reflect the very beginning and end of Philistine culture in Canaan.…”