Philistines and Phokaians: comparative hinterlands and Middle Grounds

Greek colonization implies a ship-to-shore, or a coast-to-hinterland, perspective. Inevitably, due to lack of non-Greek literary evidence and the limits of interpretation of material evidence, we tend to follow this perspective when studying interactions with peoples of the hinterland. However, we do not always know what questions to ask. I suggest that by analyzing an analogous situation we may get a richer understanding of the spectrum of issues involved. In this article I study the cycle of Samson in the Book of Judges, since it provides us with a reverse situation: a hinterland perspective on “Aegean colonists” who established city-states on the coast (Gaza, Ascalon and Ashdod) and kept advancing to the hinterland (Ekron, Gath, Timna). Several points of comparison to the colonial situation in southern France are made. Finally, the case of the Philistines, who did not become Greek, indicates the contrast with other migrants: the Ionians, for example, similarly settling on narrow coastlands in Asia Minor, eventually became “Greek” through the pull of maritime networks from which the Philistines became separated.