PROOF POSITIVE. In collaboration with Professor Seymour Gitin, Dothan began excavating the Philistine site of Tel Miqne in 1981. Although both had long suspected the large site in the Shephelah plain was Biblical Ekron (one of the five cities of the Philistine pentapolis named in the Bible [Joshua 13:3]), it wasn’t until their final season of excavation in 1996 that they found concrete proof of the site’s ancient name. In this royal inscription recovered from the main sanctuary at Tel Miqne, the author identifies himself as “Ikausi son of Padi, ruler of Ekron.”