Disir
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As a schoolgirl in Israel, Michal Feldman learned that the ancient Philistines, who lived between present-day Tel Aviv and Gaza during the Iron Age, were "the bad guys." In the Bible, they were the archenemies of the Israelites, who fought Samson's armies and sent Goliath into battle against David. "Philistine" is still a slur for an uncivilized barbarian.
Now a Ph.D. student in Germany, Feldman has found a new way to understand the Philistines. By analyzing DNA from 12th century B.C.E burials in the Philistines's renowned city of Ashkelon, her team has found that they were interlopers in the ancient Middle East. Their closest known kin were from southern Europe, the team reports this week in Science Advances.
The DNA data suggest a kernel of truth to Greek and Middle Eastern legends that describe survivors who moved south after the catastrophic collapse of great Bronze Age civilizations of the Mediterranean in the late 13th and early 12th centuries B.C.E. "This [DNA] story of migration is tantalizingly close to those memories," says co-author Daniel Master of Wheaton College in Illinois, who leads excavations in Ashkelon, Israel. "This is about real people who are moving from real troubles, finding new families in a new home," adds Assaf Yasur-Landau, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa in Israel who was not part of the study. "It's the most basic human story."
Biblical Philistines—archenemies of ancient Israelites—hailed from Europe, DNA reveals
That's interesting too.
Now a Ph.D. student in Germany, Feldman has found a new way to understand the Philistines. By analyzing DNA from 12th century B.C.E burials in the Philistines's renowned city of Ashkelon, her team has found that they were interlopers in the ancient Middle East. Their closest known kin were from southern Europe, the team reports this week in Science Advances.
The DNA data suggest a kernel of truth to Greek and Middle Eastern legends that describe survivors who moved south after the catastrophic collapse of great Bronze Age civilizations of the Mediterranean in the late 13th and early 12th centuries B.C.E. "This [DNA] story of migration is tantalizingly close to those memories," says co-author Daniel Master of Wheaton College in Illinois, who leads excavations in Ashkelon, Israel. "This is about real people who are moving from real troubles, finding new families in a new home," adds Assaf Yasur-Landau, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa in Israel who was not part of the study. "It's the most basic human story."
Biblical Philistines—archenemies of ancient Israelites—hailed from Europe, DNA reveals
That's interesting too.
