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History of Palestine

About 1200 BC, one eastern Mediterranean civilization after another crumbled before the advance of the so-called 'Sea Peoples'. Ramses III of Egypt tells us: 'No country could stand before their arms… inscriptions set up in Egypt by Pharaoh Ramses III tell of assaults by the Sea Peoples against Egypt and the Canaanite cities; and that the Canaanite princes and their charioteers joined the Egyptian commanders in resisting the Sea Peoples.

The Sea Peoples attacked by sea and by land, and it look only a few years for Greece, the Hittite Empire, Cyprus and Palestine to crumble into total disarray, and Egypt almost collapsed under their attacks. How did such catastrophes occur with civilizations that had withstood countless upheavals in the past? Who were these Sea Peoples, and where did they come from.

Nobody has any definite answers, but they apparently originated from the island of Crete and consisted of five groups: the Pelesets (the Philistines), Shardanas, Denyens, and the Shekeleshs. What seems to have given them their fighting edge was their advanced iron weaponry, the manufacturing process of which they so jealously guarded.

They swiftly annihilated Mycenae, the most advanced and powerful of the ancient Greek kingdoms, and Greece was thrown into a Dark Age that lasted some 400 years. Troy was destroyed at about the same time. Hattusa, the Hittite capital in Asia Minor, was massively fortified and only an army with advanced technical skills could have breached its walls. The Sea Peoples breached it, and the Hittites were forever wiped out of history.

The prosperous Canaanite coastal cities were totally destroyed. Letters found in Ugarite, which may well date from this time of crisis, tell of looting and burning while the inhabitants of Sidon fled to Tyre.

After devastating the Canaanite cities, a great number of these Sea Peoples settled the southern coastline of Palestine, building their own cities over the ruins. They rebuilt the five towns of Gaza, Ashdod, Ascalone, Ekron and Gath. One group, the Pelesets, became known as the 'Philistines', and the Sea Peoples in Palestine became known by this name.

Their territory, the southern coastline, became known as 'Philistia'. Later, Herodotus and other Greek and Latin writers were to derive the name Palestine from Philistia, and gradually the name Palestine replaced that of Canaan.

In 1183 BC, the Sea Peoples attacked Egypt by sea and by land. The Egyptian navy, under Pharaoh Ramses III, repulsed their naval attack off the Nile Delta, while the Egyptian army fought off their attack along the Egyptian-Palestine border.

The Philistines are represented in Egyptian reliefs as fighting in ships; some manned by warriors with feathered helmets, while others show warriors with low, horned helmets. They sport a pointed kilt decorated with tassels and many have a medallion hanging on a cord around their necks. They carry a pair of spears, sometimes a full-sized rapier sword, and around shield with a handle. Their ships are powered by sail only, with a prow ending in a duck's head. In scenes of land fighting, all the warriors wear feathered helmets and they fight from a chariot with crews of three, while their families follow in wooden ox-drawn carts.

The Philistines became the most powerful group in Palestine and remained so for approximately two centuries (c. 1200-975 BC). They were governed by five 'lords' meeting in council, who co-ordinated the policies of their confederation.