Mysterious Philistines: They Migrated Across Mediterranean – DNA Testing Shows

Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - The Philistines - known for their biblical conflict with the Israelites - were an ancient people who were lived in south cost of Canaan between the 12th century BC to 604 BC when they exiled by Nebuchadnezzar II to Mesopotamia. Several theories are given about the Philistines' mysterious origin.

For the first time, scientists performed DNA testing of ancient genomes from people who lived during the Bronze and Iron Age (~3,600-2,800 years ago) in the ancient port city of Ashkelon, one of the core Philistine cities during the Iron Age.

Peleset (Philistines), captives of the Egyptians, from a graphic wall relief at Medinet Habu, in about 1185-52 BC, during the reign of Ramesses III. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. - G. Maspero - ed. A.H. Sayce - trad. M.L. McClure, History of Egypt Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, VI.C, London, 1903-1904. Public Domanin

This city was one of the major Philistine cities during the Iron Age.

An international team, led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Leon Levy Expedition, found that a European derived ancestry was introduced in Ashkelon around the time of the Philistines’ estimated arrival, suggesting that ancestors of the Philistines migrated across the Mediterranean, reaching Ashkelon by the early Iron Age.

This European related genetic component was subsequently diluted by the local Levantine gene pool over the succeeding centuries, suggesting intensive admixture between local and foreign populations.

The Philistines are well-known for their role in the Hebrew Bible as the enemies of the Israelites. However, the ancient texts tell little about the Philistine origins other than a later memory that the Philistines came from “Caphtor” (a Bronze Age name for Crete; Amos 9:7).

Over a century ago, Egyptologists suggested  that a group called the Peleset in texts from the late twelfth century BCE were the same group as the Biblical Philistines. The researchers proposed that the Peleset traveled from “the islands,” and attacked what is now Cyprus and the Turkish and Syrian coasts, ultimately attempting to invade Egypt.

Reconstruction of a Philistine House from the 12th Century B.C.E. Artist: Balage Balogh. Courtesy Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon

Then from 1985 to 2016, the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, a project of the Harvard Semitic Museum, initiated the search for the origin of the Philistines at Ashkelon – one of the five Philistine cities according to the Hebrew Bible. They discovered considerable changes in ways of life during the 12th century BCE which they connected to the arrival of the Philistines.

However, many scholars argued that these cultural changes were merely the result of trade or a local imitation of foreign styles and not the result of a substantial movement of people.

This new study concludes that the advent of the Philistines in the southern Levant involved a movement of people from the west during the Bronze to Iron Age transition.

To determine this, the researchers recovered genomic data from the remains of 10 individuals who lived in Ashkelon during the Bronze and Iron Age, which allowed them to compare the DNA of the Bronze and Iron Age people of Ashkelon to figure out how they were related.

Excavation of the Philistine Cemetery at Ashkelon. Credit: Melissa Aja, Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon

Their findings show that individuals across all time periods derived most of their ancestry from the local Levantine gene pool. However, those who lived in early Iron Age Ashkelon had a European derived ancestral component that was not found in their Bronze Age predecessors.

“This genetic distinction is due to European-related gene flow introduced in Ashkelon during either the end of the Bronze Age or the beginning of the Iron Age. This timing is in accord with estimates of the Philistines arrival to the coast of the Levant, based on archaeological and textual records,” leading author of the study Michal Feldman of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, said in a press release.

“While our modelling suggests a southern European gene pool as a plausible source, future sampling could identify more precisely the populations introducing the European-related component to Ashkelon.”

When they analyzed the genomes of later Iron Age individuals from Ashkelon, the research team found that the European related component could no longer be traced.

“Within no more than two centuries, this genetic footprint introduced during the early Iron Age is no longer detectable and seems to be diluted by a local Levantine related gene pool,” explains corresponding author Choongwon Jeong of the Max Planck Institute of the Science of Human History.

“This data begins to fill a temporal gap in the genetic map of the southern Levant,” explains senior author Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

“At the same time, by the zoomed-in comparative analysis of the Ashkelon genetic time transect, we find that the unique cultural features in the early Iron Age are mirrored by a distinct genetic composition of the early Iron Age people.”

Written by Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer