It was just announced yesterday that an archaeological team discovered a 3,000 year old cemetery in Askelon National Park in Israel that contains the skeletons of 200 Philistines. (Askelon was a major Philistine city with an important harbor on the Mediterranean coast.) This discovery was made by the Leon Levy Expedition at Ashkelon. It is a team of archaeologists from Harvard University, Boston College, Wheaton College in Illinois, and Troy College in Alabama. This elite group, led by archaeologist Dr. Lawrence Stager of Harvard, just finished their thirty-year dig of the site. Dr. Daniel Master had later joined Stager as co-director. I have been following this work since 2011.
But this team did not find the 200 Philistine skeletons until three years ago. It’s because they had to dig down ten feet to find them. During the era of the Roman Empire, a vineyard had been built on top of this cemetery. In archaeological digs, people meticulously excavate dirt with spoons to sift through it and analyze their findings. The whole process usually takes several, if not many, years. So, it took them twenty-seven years to get down to these skeletons.
But why did the team delay announcement of this discovery of Philistine skeletons for three years? It’s because Orthodox Israeli Jews often demonstrate at archaeological sites if skeletons have been found in Israel. They claim it is against their halakah laws to dig up, and thus to disturb, Jewish bodily remains because they think it could have a negative effect on God’s future resurrection of them. But these remains were Philistine, not Jews. Nevertheless, the archaeological team delayed their announcement until now to avoid any possible deterrence caused by the Jewish Orthodox community in Israel.
I have been waiting for about thirty years for a significant discovery of Philistine remains. Why? I wrote a book on the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict entitled Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia. It was published in 1990. (I post often about this conflict and how it relates to the proposal in my book for solving this conflict.) In this book, I provide some history about the ancient Philistines and suggest there is a significant genetic link between them and modern Palestinians. A few years after this book was published, I became more convinced of such a genetic link. Thus, I have believed if some Philistine skeletons were ever discovered that were not too corrupted, so that it would be possible to extract DNA from them, this DNA could be compared to the DNA of a mix of present Palestinian people, and the result might affirm that Palestinians do indeed have a stronger genetic link to the ancient Philistines than to any other people group.
Why did I think of this? I specialize in the study of biblical prophecies. In my book, Palestine Is Coming, I show that there are at least two prophecies of the Hebrew prophets–Isaiah (11.14) and Zechariah (9.6)–which indicate that “Philistines” and their nation “Philistia” will exist in the latter days prior to the end of this present age. Here is a quotation of this book from p. 187 in which the first sentence appears in bold for emphasis, “Just as the Bible predicted the reestablishment of Israel, it also indicates the revival of other ancient countries in the Middle East, one of these being Philistia. Perhaps as many as seven prophetic scriptures in the Hebrew Bible indicate a rebirth of Israel’s ancient arch rival–Philistia. Two passages which clearly signify the reestablishment of Philistia are Isaiah 11.14 and Zechariah 9.5-8.
Also, I have nine articles on my website kermitzarley.com that I have published there over the past fifteen years that represent updates to the proposal in my book compared to events that have happened in the region. Here is an excerpt from one of those articles entitled “Time Changes Things” etc., that was published in 2013. It begins with its subhead, “Comparing DNA from Philistine Skeletons with that of Palestinians. Archaeologists have discovered Philistine corpses. I would like to see DNA of these corpses compared with DNA of modern Palestinians to see if they have any significant genetic link to ancient Philistines. If that happens, and there is a noticeable genetic link between these peoples, that would give Palestinians more of a right to claim ‘the land of the Philistines’ as their ancestral land.”
So, I interpret from these prophecies that Palestinians will establish their own state someday in the coastal plain as a very expanded Gaza Strip that will approximate “the land of the Philistines” or “Philistia” that we read in the Bible. And I also interpret that Israel will annex all of the West Bank in exchange for forfeiting land north and east of the Gaza Strip that has been part of modern Israel since its inception, but was part of Philistia during antiquity.
In recent years there have been other discoveries of Philistine skeletons, but they provided too small of a sample to draw any conclusions about the origin of the Philistines, which has been the primary goal of such discoveries. Some members of the Leon Levy Expedition team are now working with DNA samples extracted from these Philistine skeletons discovered at Ashkelon. I think DNA from them should be compared with DNA of present Palestinians to see if there is a reasonable match. If this is done and there is a match, that will create even more excitement about this very important archaeological discovery of so many Philistine remains.
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