Biblical Archaeology Review

Now there was no smith to be found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, ‘Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears’; but every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe or his sickle; and the charge was a pim for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads” (I Samuel 13:19–21).

See James D. Muhly, “How Iron Technology Changed the Ancient World and Gave the Philistines a Military Edge,” BAR 08:06.

See Robert R. Stieglitz, “Did the Philistines Write?” BAR 08:04.

“And Joshua came at that time, and wiped out the A’lakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, Eom Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel; only in Gaza, in Gath and in Ashdod, did some remain” (Joshua 11:21–22).

See Bryant G. Wood, “The Philistines Enter Canaan: Were They Egyptian Lackeys or Invading Conquerors?” BAR 17:06; and Itamar Singer, “How Did the Philistines Enter Canaan? A Rejoinder,” BAR 18:06.

For more on Ekron, see Trude Dothan and Seymour Gitin,“Ekron of the Philistines,” BAR 16:01 and “Part II,” BAR 16:02. For the Philistines in general see Trude Dothan, “What We Know About the Philistines,” BAR 08:04.

Trude Dothan and Moshe Dothan, People of the Sea (New York Macmillan, 1992). See review by Jane Waldbaum in Books in Brief, BAR 19:03, and “1993 BAS Publication Awards,” in this issue.

See Dan Bahat, “Does the Holy Sepulchre Church Mark the Burial Place of Jesus?” BAR 12:03.