Egyptians and Philistines in Southern Coastal Canaan: Contemporaneous Rivals or Successive Hegemons?
Tristan Barako

In the absence of chronological anchors for the twelfth century BC in southern Canaan, scholars have often relied on two interrelated geopolitical events which affected the region at this time: 1) the migration and settlement of the Philistines; and 2) the withdrawal of the Egyptian hegemonic presence. According to the traditional paradigm, the Philistines wrested control of southern coastal Canaan from Egypt ca. 1175 BC. Recent revisionist theories, however, hold that the Philistines arrived after the Egyptian withdrawal ca. 1130 BC. At the heart of the matter lies the following question: Did the Philistines and Egyptians coexist? An examination of sites possessing either the Philistine or Egyptianized material culture may provide an answer. A reanalysis of the excavations at Tel Mor, a small Egyptian outpost located close to the Philistine city of Ashdod, is an especially important case study in this regard.