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Document Details :

Title: The Role of Cyprus in Philistine Settlement
Author(s): ZUKERMAN, Alexander
Journal: Ancient West & East
Volume: 12    Date: 2013   
Pages: 17-46
DOI: 10.2143/AWE.12.0.2994442

Abstract :
This study presents a critical evaluation of the existing theories concerning the emergence of Philistine culture, with special reference to the role of Cyprus in this process. To this end, an updated comparative analysis of Philistine pottery is presented and functional as well as symbolic aspects of this assemblage are explored. It is suggested that during the first decades of Philistine settlement a crystallisation of the new ethnic identity took place among the immigrants, and the material culture of 12th-century BC Cyprus was consciously rejected as a differentiating strategy. Therefore, although most of the settlers originated from the Aegean and not from Cyprus, the island played a central role in Philistine ethnogenesis.

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