The Philistines
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2023
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
Perhaps best known from the Biblical tale of David and Goliath, the Philistines were an ancient civilisation who lived on the south coast of Canaan. Despite living over a millennia ago, their name has been rebranded as a description of someone who disregards intellectual pursuits - but how, and why, was this connection made? Just who were the philistines, and what do we know about them?
In today's episode, Tristan is joined by archaeologist, and leading Philistine expert, Dr Aren Maeir, leader of excavations for several years at Gath, the ancient Philistine city. Looking at the archaeology, Aren is able to build a picture of how Philistine civilisation functioned, and what they were really like. So is it fair to use their culture as an insult, or have we been wrong this entire time?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Entrance on History Hit. |
| 0:12.3 | I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and in today's episode, well I'm super hyped for this |
| 0:16.8 | one because we're talking about another of these mysterious ancient civilizations that |
| 0:22.4 | you probably have heard the name of but might not know too much about who they actually |
| 0:27.7 | were. |
| 0:28.7 | Talking about a group of people who are mentioned in the Old Testament several times, often |
| 0:34.0 | infamously, do you remember the story of David versus Goliath? |
| 0:38.4 | Well Goliath was a member of these people. |
| 0:41.4 | Goliath was a Philistine and today we're talking about the Philistines. |
| 0:47.1 | What is the archaeology revealed about who these people were, how they lived, when they |
| 0:52.4 | lived, how much of the Old Testament portrayal of the Philistines can we really believe? |
| 0:59.7 | To explain all of this, I was delighted to interview only a few days back an Israeli archaeologist |
| 1:06.4 | who has been leading excavations at one of the most important Philistines sites in the |
| 1:11.8 | Near East. |
| 1:13.4 | His name is Dr. Aaron Maier and he has been excavating at the site of Tehles Safi, the |
| 1:19.2 | site that was the ancient biblical Philistine city of Gath. |
| 1:25.2 | This was such an incredible interview. |
| 1:28.4 | Aaron explains all he gives a lovely introduction and overview into who the Philistines were. |
| 1:33.8 | What we think are their origins, it's still quite murky water where they came from, how |
| 1:38.8 | they ended up in this eastern part of the Mediterranean, how much of the biblical accounts |
| 1:45.0 | we can believe and of course what the archaeology at Tehles Safi at Gath has revealed about |
| 1:53.2 | the Philistines. |
... |
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