Beyond Creolization and Hybridity: Entangled and Transcultural Identities in Philistia

Despite thirty years of new discoveries and scores of new publications onthe Philistines, for the most part the narrative about them has not altered substantially. 1 To a large extent, the appearance, definition and transformation of the Philistine culture of the Iron Age southern Levant ('Philistia') has been seen as part of the incursions of the so-called'Sea Peoples', which took place at the transition between the Late Bronze and Iron Ages (fig. 1). 2 The Philistines were largely portrayed as an intrusive,