SCIENCE
DNA AND THE BIBLE AGREE ON THE ORIGIN OF THE PHILISTINES A genetic study of the remains of an old cemetery confirms their Mediterranean origin, as the Old Testament says. (*)
The first DNA study recovered from an ancient Philistine site, has provided unique genetic information about the origins of one of the most famous Old Testament people. The Philistines have a very strong presence in the Bible. They were one of the neighboring nations of Israel during the time of the Judges and Kings of Israel and Judah. Archaeologists agree that the Philistines were different from their neighbors: their arrival on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, at the beginning of the 12th century BC, is marked by a pottery which is so similar to the one of Ancient Greece, the use of an Aegean alphabet - instead of the Semitic -, and the consumption of pork. A study published in the journal Science Advances, prompted by the unprecedented discovery of a cemetery in the ancient Philistine city of Ashkelon on the southern coast of Israel in 2016, provides data on the genetic origins and legacy of the Philistines. The investigation seems to support its foreign origin, as mentioned in the Bible, but it also reveals that they soon married people from local populations. The study analyzed the DNA of ten sets of human remains recovered from Ashkelon, which belong to three different time periods: a Middle/Late Age Bronze cemetery (between 1650 and 1200 BC), prior to the Philistine presence in the area; children’s burials from the late 12th century BC, after the arrival of the Philistines in the early Iron Age; and the people buried in the Philistine cemetery at the end of the Iron Age (10th and 9th centuries BC).
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The Philistines have a very strong presence in the Bible. They were one of the neighboring nations of Israel during the time of the Judges and Kings of Israel and Judah.
The researchers explained that four DNA samples from the early Iron Age, all from children buried under the floors of Philistine houses, proportionally include more “additional European ancestry” in their genetic signatures (almost 14%) than the pre-Philistine samples
