Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: King Taita and His "Palistin": Philistine State or Neo-Hittite Kingdom?The end of the Hittite Empire and the destruction and abandonment of Alalakh represents a cultural break between the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in the 'Amuq Valley.In the Iron I, a population with clear ties to the greater Aegean world, perhaps related to the Philistines of southern Canaan, established an agro-pastoral settlement at Tell Ta'yinat and the surrounding area.This occupation, marked by Field Phases 6-3 at Ta'yinat, was both materially and chronologically ephemeral, and should be viewed as a cultural outlier sandwiched between the Hittite-controlled LBA and later Iron I.This intrusive population lived alongside the indigenous inhabitants of the 'Amuq, bequeathing to the region a toponym-Palistin-that would far outlast their own relevance and archaeological visibility.By the First Building Period at Tell Ta'yinat, which followed the Aegean-related phases, the site was home to a dynasty overseeing a typical Neo-Hittite state, with its toponym all that remained of the "Sea Peoples" presence that occupied it at the beginning of the Iron Age.
Author: Emanuel, Jeffrey P.
Institution: Harvard University
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology (arts and humanities)
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Harvard University
OpenAlex ID: W2592839111