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====The Origins of the Philistines====

Although the modern world has known about the Philistines for centuries through the Bible, their historical importance was not verified until the nineteenth century. In the decades after the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, interest in the peoples of the Bible and the biblical lands was kindled in scholars who wanted to prove or disprove, certain elements of the Bible, especially the Old Testament. Most nineteenth-century scholars were drawn to the older cultures of the Near Eastern region who had written languages and left behind monuments and architecture – such as the Canaanites, Egyptians, Hittites, and various peoples of Mesopotamia – but some of the specialists turned their attention to the more ephemeral biblical peoples.