It's been online for years, and appeared in print once before; that edition is gone, but there's a new edition in print with a new foreword.The Origins of the Philistines: The Plague on the PhilistinesThe area around Mount Sipylus was probably part of Arzawa, with the Carians and Lycians to the south. The Greek geographer Strabo (late first century B.C. to early first century A.D.) quotes the Greek poet Kallinos, who claimed that Troy was colonized by Cretans. Smintheus may be a Cretan word, though it has also been identified as western Anatolian (Mysian) (Leaf 1923, 240; R. Miller 1939, 35; M. Wood 1986, 180). The nth sound of Smintheus, according to A. R. Burn, is characteristic of Cretan, Carian, and southern Aegean (1930, 89). Whether the movement of culture and language was from Crete to western Anatolia or vice versa cannot be determined, and places in both regions sharing similar names are common and widespread. For example, Mount Ida in the Troad shares its name with the sacred mountain in Crete.
by Neal Bierling
Philistines: Giving Goliath His Due
Marco Polo Monographs, No. 7.
by Neal Bierling
foreword by Joe E. Seger
