DNA Reveals the Origins of the Ancient Philistines

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DNA Reveals the Origins of the Ancient Philistines

By Trista - July 17, 2019

The ancient people referred to as the Philistines have long been an enigma. Not much is known about them beyond biblical stories. However, archaeogeneticist Michal Feldman and her colleagues were able to discover something never before known about the infamous people. New DNA evidence is emerging that is helping scientists and historians trace their origins and find out who exactly these people were.

In fact, 10 skeletons were buried at the ancient Philistine port city called Ashkelon, which is located in Israel. Three of skeletons were identified to be from the Late Bronze Age, which was around 3,600 years ago. Four of the remains were from infants of the Iron Age as well as the other three from a later period during the Iron Age. Keep reading to learn how this connection links the modern populations of the eastern Mediterranean to their ancient roots.

40. The Philistines are rarely mentioned outside the Bible.

DNA Reveals the Origins of the Ancient Philistines — An ancient Philistine engraving that has been studied for decades. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In the Old Testament of the Bible, the Philistines are frequently referenced as enemies of the nation of Israel. They occupied parts of Canaan, the land that became known as Israel after the Israelites conquered it. Outside of the Bible, however, very little is mentioned about them.

Although the dry, hot region of the Middle East is not ideal for preserving DNA, the skilled team could recover nuclear DNA, which comes from both parents. There is some archaeological evidence attributed to them, which scientists are now mining to learn more about them. Combined with DNA evidence, the archaeological evidence is telling a compelling story about a fascinating ancient people.

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39. There may be some references to the Philistines in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Well into the nineteenth century, pretty much all that scientists and historians knew about the Philistines came from the Bible. Even if the Philistines’ biblical record is accurate, it is, at best, incomplete and undoubtedly biased (understandable, given that most of the Bible were written by Jews, who were enemies of the Philistines).

In 1821, a researcher named Jean Francois Champollion decoded the Egyptian hieroglyphics for the war reliefs of Pharaoh Rameses III. The reliefs told of the “sea peoples,” among whom was the past. The mysterious past may have actually been the Philistines.

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38. Goliath was possibly the most notorious Philistine.

When the Philistines attempted to conquer Israel while it was under the rule of King Saul, they sent out their greatest warrior, a giant named Goliath. Goliath was said to be eight feet tall, with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.

You may know how the story goes – he was slain when the little shepherd boy David put a stone in his slingshot and knocked the giant unconscious. He then took Goliath’s sword and cut off his head, and the Israelites were delivered from being conquered. Based on this Bible story, the evil Goliath, who was a Philistine, was stopped by the brave Israelite. Nevertheless, why was Goliath so massive? Where his parents giants, too? DNA would be able to reveal the truth.

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37. Delilah was also a Philistine.

The Old Testament also tells Samson’s story, an Israelite whose parents pledged him to be under the Nazarene vow. As part of the Nazarene vow, he could not cut his hair, from which he derived superhuman strength. He insisted on taking a wife from the Philistines and chose a beautiful seductress, Delilah. She convinced him to tell her the secret of his power. When she learned that the secret was in his hair, she informed the Philistine army and then lulled him to sleep so they could cut his hair.

Like David and Goliath, the story of Samson and Delilah are well-known stories of right and wrong, good and evil. However, the ancestors and origins of the ancient Philistines were still mostly unknown until now.

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36. Archaeology in Palestine has uncovered more of the story of the Philistines.

Interestingly, the Arabic word for Palestine is Filistiin, seemingly a tribute to the Philistines who once lived there. The ancient Romans referred to the descendants of the Philistines as Palastinoi, from which we get the term Palestine.

In the twentieth century, archaeologists working in Palestine began uncovering Philistine cities, such as the most significant, Ashdod. These findings help tell the story of the Philistines on their own terms, in a way that complements (rather than negating) what the biblical writers said about them.

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35. Some Philistines may have settled in Egypt.

According to the hieroglyphics of Rameses III, the sea peoples invaded Egypt during his reign. His forces thoroughly defeated them, but he allowed them to settle in parts of Canaan — the land is also known as Palestine, which, at the time, was very much under Egyptian influence.

Some of the sea peoples may have settled in Egypt itself. They would have eventually intermarried and assimilated into the culture so much that both their DNA and culture became part of the tapestry of ancient Egypt. So are modern-day Egyptians part Philistine? Possibly. After all, ancient peoples didn’t die out; they got assimilated.

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34. Egyptian art depicts the sea peoples very distinctively.

Ancient art tends to represent people from different cultures by exaggerating certain features in a way that might seem caricaturist and even offensive by today’s standards. However, these same caricatures offer valuable insights to scientists and historians studying ancient peoples.

Depictions of battle scenes at Medinet Habu, where the war reliefs of Rameses III were found, seem to show the sea peoples-including their dress, their military tactics, their weaponry, and even their naval and chariot forces. The Egyptians seemed to think the sea peoples truly were a force to be reckoned with.

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33. Think of them as ancient Vikings.

The Vikings hailed from Scandinavia, where the harsh climate and rugged terrain made agriculture a challenge. With a growing population that the land could not support, at least not with primitive farming techniques, raiders set off in their infamous longboats to conquer new lands. They became feared far and wide for their ruthless marauding but eventually settled down somewhat peacefully in lands they had invaded, ultimately assimilating.

The Philistines and other sea peoples may have been similar, originating far away and invading lands on their journeys. Like the Vikings, they settled down in different places and assimilated.

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32. According to the Bible, the Philistines were polytheists.

Polytheism refers to the worship of many gods. After the Philistines captured Samson, they chained him to the pillars of the temple of Dagon, one of their gods.

Humiliated at being paraded before them as a prize, Samson prayed that his strength would return one last time. It did, and he knocked down the pillars to which he was chained. The entire temple collapsed, killing Samson and everyone inside. This story suggests that the Philistines were religious people and that their religion was polytheistic.

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31. The Philistines built several temples to honor Dagon.

In the ancient Near East, cities were often constructed around a temple that honored the city’s chief deity. While the city’s inhabitants often recognized more than one deity, they had a patron god or goddess who they believed protected them, as long as they worshipped and made offerings appropriately.

With Dagon as the head of the Philistine pantheon, several Philistine cities had a temple to honor him. Those cities included Ashdod and Gata, and possibly also Beth Shean. The biblical story of Samson suggests that he destroyed the temple of Dagon in Gaza.

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30. Many ancient peoples worshipped Dagon.

Ancient pantheons did not arise in isolation among disparate people groups. Instead, when different cultures encountered each other, they often exchanged gods, adding each other’s deities to their own pantheons. Consider that the Roman and Greek gods are almost exactly the same, only with different names.

Given that the Philistines were seafarers, one should not be surprised that their chief deity was quite ubiquitous in the ancient Near East. Ancient Sumerian (modern Iraq) sources speak of him, as well as Ugaritic sources from other parts of the Near East. Belief in him may have traveled along trade routes.

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29. Dagon was the mythical father of Baal.

Bible readers may be more familiar with the Canaanite god Baal, whose temple, Baalbek, in Lebanon can still be seen today. Like Dagon, Baal was worshipped across many different cultures in the ancient Near East. While Baal was known as a fertility god, Dagon was also a fertility god who invented the plow according to myth.

Dagon was also the god of vegetation, but many of his features came to be associated with Baal. We know much less about Dagon than we do about his Egyptian and Greek / Roman counterparts, one reason being the scarcity of written sources.

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28. Philistine religion may have originated in the Aegean.

The Aegean Sea surrounds Greece, as well as Crete, and has been home to thriving generations for millennia. Some scientists and historians believe that the Philistines and other sea peoples originated in this region before traveling to other lands. Many religious objects from the Philistine city of Ashdod resemble those found in Mycenaean Greece. They may have brought an early version of the Greek pantheon with them, and it assimilated into other pantheons in the region.

While this hypothesis is certainly plausible, we just don’t know much about the Philistine religion. More archaeological evidence is needed to piece together the story of who the Philistines were and where they came from.

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27. Other evidence also suggests a Greek origin of the Philistines.

Greek culture was flourishing in the ancient world when the Bible was written, and apparently, so was Philistine culture. Furthermore, Greece was experiencing political upheaval at about the same time that the Philistines entered the biblical narrative, around the thirteenth century BCE.

A Greek origin does not mean that the Philistines remained Greek. Their pantheon, pottery, and even DNA developed over the centuries to resemble aspects of Canaanite, Ugaritic, Sumerian, Egyptian, and other Near Eastern cultures. They became distinct people, separate from the Greeks and similar to, yet also specific from, the surrounding cultures.

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26. “Philistine” insultingly refers to someone as uncultured and uneducated.

Based on the biblical record of the Philistines, many people have quite an unfavorable view of them. They are seen as ferocious warmongers, who are the enemies of God and His people. Furthermore, people thought they would have their own distinct, flourishing culture that seems to run against everything that some believed about these ancient people. In fact, a common insult, particularly during the Victorian Age, was to refer to someone as a Philistine.

Yet much of how we understand the biblical narrative involves reading modern-day prejudices into the biblical text. While the Bible does not view the Philistines favorably, it does not depict them as dolts or as ruthless savages (at least not any more brutal than other ancient peoples may have been).

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25. Philistine strongholds included Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, Gath, and Ekron.

According to the Old Testament, these cities – which were located along the Mediterranean coast – in Canaan were part of Philistia, the dominion of the Philistines. There is an archaeological trail that implies this fact to be true. In the nineteenth century, archaeologists began excavating these sites and found remains and artifacts that suggested a people distinct from the Israelites lived there.

They had their own religion, culture, traditions, pottery, architecture, and everything necessary to distinguish them from the neighboring Israelites. Still, virtually all that we knew about them was what had been recorded in the Old Testament.

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24. Their pottery resembled that of Mycenaean Greece.

Seeing as these people settled along the coastline of Canaan, we should not be surprised that there would be some similarities between the artwork on their pottery and other Mediterranean peoples’ artwork. Still, the resemblance between Philistine pottery and Mycenaean Greek pottery is striking; Philistine pottery appears to be a direct descendant of Mycenaean Greek pottery.

Some scholars used this evidence to suggest that the Philistines of the Old Testament were actually the descendants of seafaring people from the Aegean who settled down along the coastal plain in Canaan. What new evidence is revealing is that this theory may be correct.

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23. They may have come from Crete.

The Old Testament mentions the Philistines as originating in Caphtor, an area that has been identified as the Aegean island of Crete. Crete was home to distinctive Mycenean Greek culture, but about the twelfth century BCE, the civilization began to collapse. This timeframe corresponds with the archaeological record of when the Philistines started to appear in Canaan.

Furthermore, the ancient Egyptians referred to the Philistines as one of the sea peoples, thereby strengthening the likelihood that they were a Mycenean Greek people who settled down in Canaan’s coastal plains.

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22. DNA suggests the earliest Philistines were from Southern Europe.

A series of skeletons uncovered at a Philistine cemetery was recently sequenced for DNA. Some of the individuals lived during the Bronze Age, when the migration from Crete and other parts of the Mediterranean would have begun, while others lived later, during the Iron Age.

Intriguingly, the DNA from the Bronze Age had the telltale genetic markers of Southern European people. The earliest Philistines probably did come from places like Greece, which, at the time, was undergoing a social collapse. They may have taken to the seas to try to escape political turmoil and perhaps large-scale persecution, not unlike refugees today.

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21. Their early burial practices are distinct from local cultures.

One way that archaeologists can distinguish between cultures is by looking at how individuals are buried. For example, if you go to a Jewish cemetery and then a Christian cemetery, you will find that the burial practices between the two are very different, even if those cemeteries are in the same city.

Now imagine that a community of immigrants from another continent built their own cemetery in their new country. It would probably look very different from the surrounding cemeteries. The burial practices from the earliest Philistine graves had telltale markers that were very different from those of the Canaanites, Egyptians, and other neighboring peoples. For example, some deceased Philistines were buried with perfume jars under their heads.

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20. Philistines soon intermarried with neighboring people in the Levant and the Middle East.

Perhaps even more interesting is that the DNA from Iron Age skeletons had few to none of the Southern European ancestry markers. One longstanding theory about the origin of the Philistines is that they descended from local tribes that may have migrated from places like Turkey and Syria.

This theory may also be correct – the seafarers who settled down along Canaan’s coastal plain soon began intermarrying with other peoples who were already in the area. They were quickly no longer Greek people but rather Levantine people who resembled other people groups.

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19. Philistine cities were well-planned and organized.

Philistine cities were remarkably well-developed. They had industrial centers on the outskirts of town, possibly so that waste products would not interfere with city life. Living quarters were separate from the downtown area, which was a thriving, bustling market.

The cities had administrative buildings, temples, and everything that might be expected of a well-organized, functioning society. They were hardly uncultured; for a while, they may have had one of the most vibrant, thriving cultures in the entire Levant (the Middle East region that includes Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan).

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18. Philistine artwork was exquisite.

Some Israeli historians suggest that the most breathtaking art from ancient Canaan came not from the Israelites but rather from the Philistines. Their pottery was heavily influenced by the famous artwork of Mycenean Greece, from whence they came, coupled with designs from places like Syria and Egypt.

They had sculptures, especially of their gods and goddesses, jewelry, some of which were made from gold, silver, precious stones, and other craftwork containing exquisite, intriguing patterns. The archaeology suggests that the Philistines were very skilled people who traded throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

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17. There are some other ancient sources about the Philistines.

Pharaoh Ramses III ruled Egypt from approximately 1184 until 1153 BCE, a timeframe that corresponds with the Philistines’ arrival into Canaan. As such, there is some likelihood that he may have encountered them. A text attributed to his claims that he engaged them in battle and pulverized them.

However, this text may be an exaggeration, especially since the Philistines frequently appear in Old Testament texts much later than the twelfth century BCE. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the Philistines did exist in the Middle East during the twelfth century.

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16. Assyrian chronicles also mention the Philistines.

Assyria was an empire that conquered much of the ancient Levant and Near East during the seventh and eighth centuries BCE. The Assyrian leaders Esarhaddon and Tiglath Pileser III mention the Philistines and particularly the city of Ashkelon.

The Assyrians saw the Philistines as unruly people, possibly because they didn’t take too kindly to being conquered by an outside army. Many of the Philistines were probably deported as part of the empire’s strategy of keeping its subjects from becoming too powerful.

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15. The Philistines are still mysterious despite years of archeological studies.

That several ancient sources attest to the existence of the Philistines doesn’t solve the mystery of who they were. We know that the earliest Philistine DNA is traced to Southern Europe, while later Philistine DNA contains hardly any markers of European ancestry.

This people group became so embedded in the Levantine culture that, though distinct, their DNA and parts of their culture were indistinguishable from those of the people around them. Still, questions remain about who they were and what their religion may have consisted of.

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14. They could be “Atlanteans.”

The Bible mentions the Philistines as being from Caphtor, a place now identified as Crete. This identification is consistent with modern DNA research, which places the earliest Philistines as being from Southern Europe, likely the Aegean.

Some theories about the lost continent of Atlantis put it as Crete or another Aegean civilization destroyed when the Santorini volcano blew its lid. If this idea about Atlantis is accurate and the Philistines actually are from the “island of Atlantis,” then the people mentioned so frequently in the Old Testament as Israel’s enemy could be descendants of Atlanteans! Perhaps future research will prove conclusive in this regard.

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13. Philistines may have initially arrived in Egypt.

While looking for a new place to make their home, the people that came to be known as the Philistines may have crossed the Mediterranean and gone to Egypt. Some archaeological evidence, including a temple in Thebes and some ancient Egyptian inscriptions, indicates that these seafaring people may have arrived there. They were then driven out of Egypt into the land of Canaan, where they were able to settle down on the coastal plains.

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12. There is evidence that they conquered Canaan in the twelfth century.

Philistine cities, such as Ekron, were already settlements long before they arrived about the twelfth century. Excavations in the town of Ekron show a massive fire around the twelfth century, indicating that the Philistines may have destroyed it as part of a military campaign before taking it for themselves.

Immediately following the massive fire is evidence of a Philistine settlement. Somebody set fire to the city of Ekron, and if that somebody wasn’t the Philistines, then archaeologists don’t know who would have.

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11. However, there may have already been Philistines in the area.

The patriarch Abraham lived several hundred years before the twelfth century, and the biblical narrative attests that he and his sons had contact with the Philistines.

There are several possible explanations for this discrepancy. One is that another people group was known as the Philistines, and the migrants from the Aegean who arrived in the twelfth century took on its moniker and called themselves Philistines. Another possible explanation is that there was a steady flow of migrants from the Aegean, all of whom were related and called themselves Philistines.

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10. Nebuchadnezzar conquered them.

Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon, an empire centered in what is now Iraq. The Babylonian military conquered much of the Middle East, including the Assyrians’ territory. If you are familiar with the Old Testament, you may know that the Babylonians conquered Judah’s southern kingdom.

During that military campaign, they also defeated the Philistines and destroyed Philistine cities, including Ashkelon. This event probably happened around 597 BCE, give or take a few years, as with ancient history, we can’t be precise about dates.

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9. After the sixth century BCE, the Philistines disappeared from the record.

Following the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t hear about the Philistines again. This notion is probably mostly because they were conquered by an empire and then re-conquered by another kingdom, which led to people groups becoming homogenized and losing their distinct cultures, including their languages and religions.

The process is not unlike when immigrant families come to the United States and have adapted so much to American culture as to be indistinguishable after a couple of generations. After the Babylonian conquest, the Philistines were probably deported to different parts of the empire, where they would have eventually assimilated into the local cultures.

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8. The Greek historian Herodotus labeled the land of Canaan as Philistia.

Around the fifth century BCE, after the Babylonian exile, a historian named Herodotus decided that the land previously known as Canaan, Israel, and Judah should become known as Philistia, after the Philistines.

When the Romans came in a couple of centuries later, they referred to Palestine, as a Romanized version of Philistia. The area was known as Palestine until 1948, when the United Nations recognized the new State of Israel. Many still refer to the land as Palestine.

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7. There is a renewed interest in understanding the Philistines.

Over the past century or so, scholars interested in understanding the Old Testament events have begun looking more to the nations that surrounded Israel. They started trying to uncover the Hittite Empire, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians.

Now, there is a renewed interest in understanding who the Philistines were and how we should understand them, both within and outside of the Old Testament narrative. This people group should be understood on their own terms, not only in terms of how they are described in the Bible.

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6. Understanding the Philistines is essential because of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

As previously mentioned, the name Palestine is directly related to the word Philistine. In fact, the Arabic word for Palestine is “Filistiin,” or Philistine. Some Zionists take this linguistic coincidence as evidence that Israel and Palestine’s current conflict is directly connected to animosity in the Old Testament.

However, nothing could be further from the truth. The people known as the Philistines completely assimilated into neighboring cultures during the Babylonian exile. The people known as the Palestinians have a completely different heritage and identity from the ancient Philistines.

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5. The Biblical conflict was not about territory.

The Old Testament depicts the Philistines and Israelites, with some exceptions, as not being on friendly terms. Given how some people like to transplant the current Palestine-Israel conflict onto the Old Testament narrative between the Philistines and Israelites, we need to reconsider why these two ancient nations were at odds with each other.

The question was not about whom had the right to live in the land, as there were plenty of resources to go around. The problem was about dominance, particularly in terms of religion. Specifically, the Israelites were not to follow the faith of the people around them.

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4. The Philistine religion was very different from the Israelite religion.

The Israelite religion was monotheistic (though there were many exceptions, as the Israelite people frequently drifted into polytheism or the worship of many gods). The Philistine religion was polytheistic, with many gods that represented different things. God commanded the Israelites to not follow after the gods of the Philistines, Egyptians, Canaanites, or other nations.

When Israelites like Samson married people from different countries (remember that he married a Philistine), they tended to assimilate into polytheistic religion. They neglected the worship of the One True God, hence the animosity between Israel and the surrounding nations.

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3. Modern Palestinians are very different from ancient Philistines.

Ancient Philistines were polytheistic. Nearly 100% of modern Palestinians are monotheistic, professing either Islam or Christianity. The ancient Philistines descended from the ancient Greeks, coupled with intermarriage from Levantine tribes.

Modern Palestinians descended from Arab Bedouin. Any claim suggesting that the contemporary conflict between Israel and Palestine is connected to the war in the Old Testament is not grounded in history or science.

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2. Uncovering ancient Philistine DNA is helping us discover our human heritage.

Learning more about ancient peoples, where they came from, and the cultures and nations they built helps us better understand why the world is the way it is today. Given that place names in the Middle East often resemble those of ancient peoples (the city of Amman is named after the ancient Ammonites, and as mentioned, the word “Palestine” is directly related to “Philistine”), we need to better understand who those ancient peoples were and how they assimilated into the surrounding cultures.

We are learning more about our heritage as human beings who inhabit the same planet as these ancient people that we previously knew so little about. We are learning about factors that shaped the ancient Middle East, thereby realizing more about the world we all share.

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1. We are learning more about who we are.

Who we are, in terms of DNA, is based on the people from whom we descended. The ancient Philistines, through the Babylonian deportation, became dispersed throughout the entire Middle East. Realizing that heritage helps us piece together the DNA of the modern world.

Understanding who we are as human beings requires us to take a closer look at ancient cultures and peoples that we previously ignored or even vilified. When we learn to understand them on their own terms, rather than just through the writings that other people made about them, we ultimately come to know ourselves and the human race better.

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