On the Constitution and Transformation ofPhilistine Identity

Summary Recent discussion of the formation and alteration of P hilistine identity in the L evantine I ron A ge continues to reference primarily pottery styles and dietary practices. Such traditional narratives propose that the P hilistines comprised one group of the ‘Sea Peoples’ and that the cultural boundary markers that distinguished their society in the I ron A ge I (twelfth–eleventh century BC ) diminished in importance and disappeared suddenly in the early I ron A ge IIA (tenth century BC ), with the ascendancy of the Judahite kingdom. Based on data from the Levant (especially P hilistia), the A egean and Cyprus, we argue for a more complex understanding of the P hilistines who came to the region with an identity that drew on, and continued to engage with, a broad range of foreign artefact styles and cultural practices with non‐Levantine connections. Concurrently they incorporated local cultural attributes, at least until the late ninth century BC , a feature that we argue was unrelated to the supposed tenth century expansion of the Judahite kingdom.