**4. Discussion: Can We Reconstructing a Philistine Religion?**

The evidence so far indicates that temple or official cult in Iron Age Philistia shows stronger links to the local Canaanite culture continuing from the LB II through the Iron Age. In particular, this is evidenced in the ground plan of the temples known so far from Qasile, Gath, and Patish. Notably, these are mostly peripheral sites in Philistia, and a public Iron Age I temple from the main Philistine cities was not yet excavated. While these sites may not be considered originally Philistine sine (as the five main cities), they are located in the geographic region of Philistia, which was likely under influence from the Philistine material culture by late Iron Age I. The finds from these temples (including

the Yavneh Favissa) also indicate a continuity of Canaanite iconography in motifs, yet the style and decoration is often in the Philistine Bichrome style. On the other hand, especially during Iron Age I, evidence of household cult in Philistia, including the main Philistine cities, shows meaningful links with contemporary household cult in the Aegean and Cyprus (Ben-Shlomo 2014). In particular, this is evidenced by the figurines showing Aegean affinities in the main Philistine cities, while no traditional Canaanite figurines appear in Philistia during Iron Age I. This changes during Iron Age II, as Aegean affinities of household cult are fewer and the Canaanite and local-style figurines appear. This change could be due to a certain assimilation or acculturation of the Philistine population, intermarriages, etc., or a decrease in the motivation of this population to 'resist' local cultic practices.

Various modern examples show how immigrants are more faithful to their homeland practices in their private domain and confirm more with the host culture in the public domain (see, e.g., Ostergren 1988, pp. 199–203; Burmeister 2000, p. 542). The differences between household–temple and Iron Age I–Iron Age II Philistine cultic assemblages were summarized in Table 1 and seem to strengthen the immigrant nature of the Iron Age I Philistine phenomenon.

The issue of the actual contents and nature of the Philistine religion itself, as the identity of the gods worshipped, however, is still relatively obscure. This is due to the lack of texts and the fact that no major temple from the main Philistine cities was excavated during Iron Age I–IIA. Moreover, no temple was discovered dating to the initial stage of the Philistine settlement. Nevertheless, one may attempt to reconstruct at least segments of this religion according to the archaeological evidence from Philistia, the few short biblical references, and iconographic and textual references, though few and sometimes indirect, from contemporary Near Eastern sources.

The Aegean-style female figurines in Philistia could be interpreted in various ways. They can be seen as representing goddesses, priestesses, devotees, or votives. Concerning the identification of the seated figurines (Figure 15:3), it has been suggested that they depict an Aegean goddesses seated on a throne ('the enthroned goddess', see, Yasur-Landau 2001, 2008), in line with various Aegean depictions of a similar type of goddess (Figure 15:1, depicted on a seal from Mycenaean Tiryns; see, Nilsson 1968, pp. 350–51; Rehak 1995, pp. 106, 116–17). Similar seated figures appear on a cylinder seal from Ashdod (Figure 15:4), and possibly on a krater from Ashkelon (Figure 15:2; as suggested by Yasur-Landau 2008), there, holding a drinking vessel. The Ashdoda figurines have been interpreted as goddesses in several studies dealing with Philistine cult and religion (Singer 1992; Schmitt 1999, pp. 635–43; Mazar 2000; Yasur-Landau 2001), although the identity of this goddess has not been agreed upon: while (Dothan 1982, p. 234, Mazar 2000, p. 223), and (Yasur-Landau 2001, 2008) have stressed its Aegean identity, Brug proposed a Canaanite origin (Brug 1985, p. 186) and Sherratt suggested a connection with the cult of sailors and merchants of the eastern (Mediterranean, Sherratt 1998, pp. 306–8). Singer, meanwhile, suggested a connection to the Anatolian Kybele/Kubaba (Singer 1992).



\* Note: 'domestic' is defined as all nonpublic/cultic contexts; cultic (\*; possibly cultic—#) is defined as cultic corners, temples, and public buildings. Note also that the evidence from many of these contexts is not extensively published (Ekron-all contexts, N. Patish and Gath) and is thus provisional.

Given the iconographic depiction—a seated and clothed figure—the Aegean identity is most probable, and is likely to be related to the important or even principal role the seated female image (an 'enthroned goddess', queen goddess or 'mother goddess') played within the Aegean society and cult (Rehak 1995). Therefore, there is good reason to conclude that the deity worshiped by the dwellers of at least some of the households in the main Philistine sites during Iron Age I was depicted by these Ashdoda figures (and also possibly the Psi figurines), linking it with an Aegean or Mycenaean goddess.

Interestingly, there might be a late Iron Age II (8th century BCE) reference to this Philistine goddess (see also Ziffer and Kletter 2007, p. 29). A group of deity statues is seen on a depiction of a procession of god statues looted from captured cities from the Tiglath-pileser III southwest palace of Nimrud (Figure 15:5; Barnett and Falkner 1962). There is a good possibility that these gods come from Gaza in relation to the rebellion of king *Hanun* (Uehlinger 2002, p. 115, and references therein). In the procession, the female seated goddess on the far right (Figure 15:5, far right) seems to be depicted holding a conical cup (a kylix[?], similar to the Ashkelon depiction in Figure 15:2) (see also Ziffer and Kletter 2007, p. 29, though, the item held is interpreted there as a flower or a ring and sheaves of grain, linking it with the Anatolian goddess Kubaba). If so, it would be a depiction somewhat similar to Aegean depictions of the seated goddesses (see above). The other goddess in Figure 15:5 holds a ring and may not be clearly identified (as well as another small-sized standing god/goddess), while the male god depicted on the left resembles the Mesopotamian/Levantine weather god (e.g., Uehlinger 1997, p. 127). This Assyrian depiction could have thus indicated that the major official temples in the Philistine cities did have life-size (probably composite) statues depicting their gods in them.

**Figure 15.** The 'enthroned goddess' motif (Ben-Shlomo 2014: Figure 9). 1. A seal from Mycenaean Tiryns, Greece (after Yasur-Landau 2008: Figure 3:3). 2. A pictorial krater from Ashkelon (Stager et al. 2008: Figure 15.40; courtesy of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon). 3. The Ashdoda figurine (Dothan 1971: Figure 91:1). 4. A cylinder seal from Iron Age I Ashdod (Dothan and Ben-Shlomo 2005: Figure 3.66). 5. A procession with statues of gods looted from Gaza(?), from the Tiglath-pileser III southwest palace of Nimrud (after Barnett and Falkner 1962: pl. 92).

As noted, the royal inscription from 7th century Ekron (see above Figure 7) also mentions a goddess of a probable Aegean name: *Ptgyh*, king Ikausu's 'lady' (note, *Potnia* in the Mycenaean world = lady). *Ptgyh* has been associated with the sanctuary at Delphi known as *Pytho*, the shrine of Gaia, the Mycenaean Mother Goddess (e.g., Schäfer-Lichtenberger 2000; Gitin 2003, p. 286; Berlant 2008). This goddess is mentioned as the local king's 'lady' in the royal inscription found in the very cela of the large temple complex of Iron Age IIC Ekron (e.g., Gitin and Naveh 1997; Schäfer-Lichtenberger 2000). This is indeed the 'smoking gun' indicated by (Gitin 2003, p. 286) in regards to evidence of late Iron Age Philistine religion, probably linking it with the western origin of the immigrants, arriving at the Levantine coast some 600 years earlier.

On the other hand, the god Ba'al is mentioned in an inscription from the Temple Complex at Ekron ('*to ba'al and Padi*' *ʩʣʴʬʥʬʲʡʬ,*, Gitin and Coogan 1999; Stern 2001, pp. 120–29; Gitin 2003, p. 288, Figure 5). The cult of Asherah could fit the usage of Canaanite female figurines during Iron Age II, which could have been linked to the Asherah cult. Asherah is also mentioned in ostraca from the Ekron Temple Complex 650 ('*to Asherat*' *ʺʸʹʠʬ*, Gitin 2003, p. 289, Figure 8:4), and may also be depicted by the only figurine found in its cela (Figure 7:1; Gitin 2003). Gitin also links this goddess with the Phoenician culture and its influence in this period (Gitin 2003, p. 288).

Both the evidence from Ekron and the Assyrian depiction may indicate a late Philistine cult combining Aegean and Canaanite gods. This 'pantheon' includes two or three goddesses (a Levantine one, maybe *Ashera* and an Aegean goddess, maybe *Ptgyh*), and one male Levantine god (a weather god, maybe Ba'al). The cult of a Near-Eastern male god by the Philistines is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, either in regards to Dagon of Ashdod or Ba'al *Zebub* of Ekron (see above). Thus, while in the household religion as well as at town temples at Yavneh the *Asherah* cult was probably practiced in some way, the main 'state' official temples also acknowledged the 'old time' Aegean goddess as well as a local male god (conceived by the bible and Near-Eastern tradition as the 'main god', see Schäfer-Lichtenberger 2000, p. 88). The Aegean deities or later variants thereof may have not been forgotten, and wereworshipped in a more locally Levantine manner.

Thus, from the evidence we have so far (biblical narrative, Assyrian reliefs and texts, and inscriptions and figurative representations from Philistia, see above), it seems that during the 8th–7th centuries BCE the Philistines worshipped a combination of deities with some Aegean background and the common Canaanite deities as Ba'al and 'Asherah (see for Ekron see, Dothan and Gitin 1993, p. 1058; Gitin 1993; Gitin and Coogan 1999; Stern 2001, pp.120–29; Gitin 2003). While it is still very difficult to reconstruct the details of the Philistine religion during the entire Iron Age, we have evidence of the existence of distinctive household religious practices of some sort. These practices seem to reflect the special origin and nature of the immigrant population of Philistia during the initial stage of the Iron Age. Later on, during Iron Age II, there is a fusion with the local religious traditions as both textual and material remains of Iron Age II in Philistia more explicitly indicate.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.

#### **Captions:**


Figure 9. Undecorated animal figurines from Iron Age I Ekron (Ben-Shlomo 2014: Figure 2).

