Greek Philistines

The Philistines were not Arabian but Greek. The “Sea Peoples” originated as an immigrant group from the Aegean that settled in Canaan (Gaza) circa 1175 BC, during the Late Bronze Age collapse. Over time, they gradually assimilated elements of the indigenous Semitic Levantine societies while preserving their own unique culture. In 604 BC, the Philistine polity, after having already been subjugated for centuries by the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), was finally destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. After becoming part of his empire and its successor, the Persian Empire, the Philistines lost their distinct ethnic identity and disappeared as a people from the historical and archaeological record by the late 5th century BC. The Greek “Sea Peoples” (Philistines) had origins in the greater Southern European and West Asian area, including western Asia Minor, the Aegean, and the islands of the East Mediterranean. Also, Ramesses III allegedly relocated a number of the “pwr s tj” to southern Canaan, as recorded in an inscription from his funerary temple in Medinet Habu, and the Great Harris Papyrus. The Philistine name comes from the Egyptian and Hebrew consonant string plst, which referred to the Sea People group that settled on the southern coast of modern Israel.