Philistia
Philistia (Hebrew: פְּלֶשֶׁת, romanized: Pəlešeṯ; Koine Greek (LXX): Γῆ τῶν Φυλιστιείμ, romanized: gê tôn Phulistieím) was a confederation of five main cities or pentapolis in the Southwest Levant, made up of principally Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath, and for a time, Jaffa.
Philistia | |||||||||
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| 1175 BC–604 BC | |||||||||
Philistia in red, and neighbouring polities, circa 830 BC, after the Hebrew conquest of Jaffa, and before its recapture by the Philistines circa 730 BC. | |||||||||
| Common languages | Philistine Canaanite Aramaic (from the 6th c. BC) | ||||||||
| Religion | Canaanite religion | ||||||||
| Demonym(s) | Philistine | ||||||||
| Government | Confederation | ||||||||
| Historical era | Iron Age | ||||||||
| 1175 BC | |||||||||
• Babylonian conquest of the Levant | 604 BC | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Israel Palestine Egypt | ||||||||
| History of Israel |
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| Israel portal |
| History of Palestine |
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Scholars believe the Philistines were made up of people of an Aegean background that from roughly 1200 BC onwards settled in the area and mixed with the local Canaanite population, and came to be known as Peleset, or Philistines. At its maximum territorial expansion, its territory may have stretched along the Canaanite coast from Arish in the Sinai (today's Egypt) to the Yarkon River (today's Tel Aviv), and as far inland as Ekron and Gath. Nebuchadnezzar II invaded Philistia in 604 BC, burned Ashkelon, and incorporated the territory in the Neo-Babylonian Empire; Philistia and its native population the Philistines disappear from the historic record after that year.