2009.04.16, 1050  Y^әrushâlayim Time

Dark Age / King Solomon Era (B.C.E. 10-9th Century) Turkish-Philistine (Greek) Temple

University of Toronto archeologists have uncovered a Philistine temple in western Turkey, near Antakya, thought to be constructed in the centuries B.C.E. 10-9^th — around the time of Sh^әlom′ oh ha-Më′ lëkh (begun ca. B.C.E. 987).

UT article states that "the discovery casts doubt upon the traditional view that the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age was violent, sudden and culturally disruptive" but I'll be interested in how they reasoned non-violent and not culturally disruptive from their findings, which they described as "Its floor was badly burned…The collapse above the floor contained burnt brick debris… Though heavily burned, and damaged…"

2008 Univ. of Toronto Archeo­log­i­cal Excavation in Turkey: Dark Ages – Solomon Era (B.C.E. 10th-9th century) Tayinat Citadel (photo Tim Harrison). "The discovery casts doubt upon the traditional view that the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age was violent, sudden and culturally disruptive."

The context they provide is also interesting: "Tayinat was destroyed by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in B.C.E. 738. Biblical scholars have long speculated that the reference to Calneh in Y^әsha•yâh′ u's oracle against Assyria alludes to Tiglath-pileser's devastation of Kunulua (ie, Tayinat). However, contrary to their assertion, in comparison to the Egyptian temple of Khât-shepꞋset, built centuries earlier, perhaps by Mosh•ëh′ , the architecture of this Hellenist Philistine temple is virtually irrelevant to the architecture of the Beit ha-Mi•q^әdâsh′  of Sh^әlom′ oh ha-Më′ lëkh.

As they have properly observed in their Implications and future research, "The early Iron Age settlement at Tayinat exhibits strong cultural ties to the Aegean world, the traditional homeland of the Sea Peoples famously depicted at Medinet Habu, the mortuary complex of Ramesses III in Egypt. the land of Palastin, meanwhile, appears to have linguistic, and possibly historical, ties to the Peleset, one of the Sea Peoples recorded at Medinet Habu, and almost certainly the forbears of the biblical Philistines."

Scholars have only recently "discovered" what I have published for many years: that the Philistines were Greeks—aka Aegeans, the Sea Peoples, Hellenists—from Pilos, Mycenaea; not Arabs. These Mycenaeans established colonies they named Pilos, as a result of which they—and, subsequently, their colonies—came to be called Pilostin (corrupted to Palastin). They colonized primarily in three areas: [1] Pilos in the Sinai, adjacent to the Nile Delta, [2] in present-day Gaza and [3] in the present-day coastal region of the northeastern tip of the Mediterranean Sea—Antakya (Antioch) / Tayinat. These are the Mycenaean Hellenist—Greek, not Arab—colonies to which the Assyrian emperor, Sargon II, referred as Palashtu in his Annals and Greek historian and geographer, Herodotus (B.C.E. 5 century) referred as Παλαιστινη (Palaistinæ).

The earliest and sole native (as opposed to Egyptian) nomenclature, previous to being conquered by Israel, was כנען (K^әna•an′ ).

Given the relationship of the Israelis (under Egyptian enslavement) to Mosh•ëh′ , his likely relationship to Khât-shepꞋset and his likely design and construction of the Khât-shepꞋset temple before leaving Egypt (cf. The Mirrored Sphinxes, from www.schuellerhouse.com), discovery of this pagan Philistine temple sheds little, if any, new light.