THE PHILISTINES WERE AGEANS ie: the minoan relocation theory is true. —“The an

THE PHILISTINES WERE AGEANS
ie: the minoan relocation theory is true.

—“The ancient Mediterranean port city of Ashkelon, identified as “Philistine” during the Iron Age, underwent a marked cultural change between the Late Bronze and the early Iron Age. It has been long debated whether this change was driven by a substantial movement of people, possibly linked to a larger migration of the so-called “Sea Peoples.” Here, we report genome-wide data of 10 Bronze and Iron Age individuals from Ashkelon. We find that the early Iron Age population was genetically distinct due to a European-related admixture. This genetic signal is no longer detectible in the later Iron Age population. Our results support that a migration event occurred during the Bronze to Iron Age transition in Ashkelon but did not leave a long-lasting genetic signature.

The most likely scenario has long been that the Biblical Philistines were a composition population, made of Aegean folk who mixed with the local Canaanite substrate. These results confirm that.”—