Image Details

COURTESY AREN MAIER/TELL ES-SAFI/GATH ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT

BLENDED STYLES. Excavations at Philistine sites in the Shephelah and the coastal plain have yielded impressive collections of ceramics painted with beautiful floral, figurative, and geometric designs, such as this assortment of Philistine pottery sherds from Gath. Although some of this decorated pottery resembles types well known from the Aegean world of the early 12th century BCE, a closer look shows the pottery to be a mix of both foreign and local elements, incorporating Canaanite styles and forms with Aegean-inspired decoration.