Excavating in Samson Country—Philistines and Israelites at Tel Batash

Home > Magazines > BAR > January/February 1989

The period from the time of the Judges to the end of the Israelite monarchy is known in archaeological terms as the Iron Age. It is subdivided into Iron I, the time of the Judges from about 1200 to 1000 B.C., and Iron II, the United and Divided Monarchy, from about 1000 to 586 B.C., when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. Throughout the Iron Age, Palestine was inhabited by several different ethnic groups who controlled shifting areas of the country. Although the Israelites inhabited most of the country, other peoples dominated certain regions and enclaves. These other peoples included the […]

Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.

Join the BAS Library!

Already a library member? Log in here.

Institution user? Log in with your IP address or Username

Footnotes

By commonly accepted convention, “tell” is the spelling of the Arabic word, and “tel” (as in Tel Aviv) is the spelling of the same Hebrew word, meaning mound, an artificial hill formed by successive occupation levels of an ancient settlement.

Harold Brodsky, “Bible Lands: The Shephelah—Guardian of Judea,” Bible Review, Winter 1987.

Timnah in the Shephelah should not be confused with the copper mines of Timna, north of Eilat. The former has an h at the end, the latter an ayin. The name Timna appears as a place name in Edom (Genesis 36:40) and in modern times was tentatively given to the valley north of Eilat on the basis of phonetic resemblance to the Arabic name of the valley (Meneieh).

This same Biblical passage notes that “the territory of the Danites slipped from their grasp.” So the Danites migrated to the north, captured Leshem (called Laish in Judges 18:7ff), and renamed it Dan (Joshua 19:47).

Ian W. J. Hopkins; “The “Daughters of Judah” Are Really Rural Satellites of an Urban Center,” BAR 06:05.

Trude Dothan, “What We Know About the Philistines,” BAR 08:04.

This of course is a subject for an article in itself. Regrettably scholars have still not found any clear evidence of the language the Philistines used, nor have they succeeded in deciphering the two or three extremely short inscriptions that have been tentatively identified as Philistine. See Robert R. Stieglitz, “Did the Philistines Write?” BAR 08:04.

Endnotes

The archaeological project at Tel Batash (Timnah) was sponsored from 1977 to 1979 by the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (with additional funding from Mississippi College and Louisiana College) and since 1981 by the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at Fort Worth, Texas, both in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. George L. Kelm is expedition director and Amihai Mazar is archaeological field director. The permanent core staff included Osnat Misch-Brandl (1977–1979); Baruch Brandl (1982–1987), Thomas V. Brisco (1982–1984), Daniel Browning (1984–1986); Merilyn Copland (1983–1987), Moises Fleitman (1982–1987), Linda L. Kelm (recruitment and restoration) and Leen Ritmeyer (architect).

A permanent exhibit on the history and material culture of Timnah is housed in the Charles D. Tandy Archaeological Museum on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.

For further reading, see: George L. Kelm and Amihai Mazar, “Three Seasons of Excavations at Tel Batash-Biblical Timnah,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR) 237 (1982), pp. 1–36; Kelm and Mazar, “Tel Batash (Timnah) Excavations, Second Preliminary Report (1981–1983),” in BASOR Supplement 23 (1985), ed. Walter E. Rast, pp. 93–120.

David Ussishkin, “Answers at Lachish,” BAR 05:06.

For Tel Miqne (Ekron), see: Trude Dothan and Seymour Gitin, “The Rise and Fall of Ekron of the Philistines,” Biblical Archaeologist 50 (1987), pp. 197–222.