In the Wake of the Sea Peoples, In the Footsteps of Goliath: Excavating the Philistine Site of Tell es-Safi/Gath
Australian Research Council Funded Discovery Project ID DP1093713 (2010-2013)
Researchers: Dr. Louise Hitchcock
This project will enhance the international reputation of Australian research by bringing it into current scholarly debate on Philistine archaeology, a quickly growing sub-discipline in Mediterranean archaeology. Marginalized in the Bible as decadent, recent research sees the Philistines as a cosmopolitan culture resulting from migration from Cyprus and the Aegean, and interaction with the local Canaanite population. The goals of the project are to:
- Work in collaboration with the project directory to identify local, regional, and foreign components in the Philistine material at Tell es-Safi/Gath.
- Compare these features to those at Canaanite, Cypriot, Aegean, and other Philistine sites.
- Document and analyze continuity and change in the earlier Late Bronze Age (14th-13th c BCE) and Iron Age I-II (between 1180 and 800 BCE).
- Consider the formation of Philistine culture as a product of interaction by a limited number of migrants from multiple neighboring regions in the Mediterranean
- Increase the presence of Australian scholarship in Near Eastern and Aegean archaeology
- Produce collaborative publications and workshops on the site of Tell es-Safi/Gath with other members of the team
- Funding to support up to 5 post-graduate excavation assistants and 20 undergraduate or post-graduate student trainees from the University of Melbourne to excavate at Tell es-Safi/Gath.
More information on the project can be read in The Australian newspaper online and The University of Melbourne VOICE web page.