Eventlist

Lecturer: Dr Louise Hitchcock
Entry: FREE

Synopsis

To be a ‘Philistine’ has entered our language to mean uncouth or barbaric, a perception deeply situated in biblical texts.

Just as the Greeks described non-Greek neighbours as ‘Barbarians,’ so too did the biblical writers describe people settled along the southern coast of the Levant in derogatory terms.

This talk will discuss the Aegean and Cypriot cultural linkages with the Philistines, who were reputed to be among the Sea People wreaking havoc in the Mediterranean at the end of the Bronze Age (ca. 1177 BCE).

Dr Hitchcock will present recent results from my ten years of archaeological excavations at the Philistine site at Tell es-Safi/Gath (Israel), the city associated with Goliath in the Bible.

The archaeological remains of the Philistines reveal them to be a socially and economically advanced, technologically innovative (iron production), artistically sophisticated (decorated Mycenaean-Greek style pottery), and cosmopolitan culture that positively influenced and spread Greek culture to the surrounding region.

Bio

Louise Hitchcock is Associate Professor of Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology in the Classics and Archaeology Program at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of Minoan Architecture: A Contextual Analysis, Theory for Classics, Aegean Art and Architecture (co authored with Donald Preziosi), and is the co-editor of DAIS: The Aegean Feast, Aegaeum 29 as well as the author of over 60 articles dealing with Aegean, Cypriot, and Philistine archaeology, architecture, theory, gender, and space.

Her current research is engaged with piracy, Aegean, Cypriot, and Philistine identities, interconnections, and entanglements. She has done fieldwork in California, Cyprus, Crete, Greece, and Syria. The Australian Research Council and INSTAP have funded her current excavations at the Philistine site of Tell es-Safi/Gath, where she is an area supervisor.

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