Site details

Tel Ashkelon

PK	C6489
TITLE	Tel Ashkelon
WGS84	31.661865° N, 34.545164° E
Accuracy	Exact

LAT/LON	31.661865, 34.545164
LON/LAT	34.545164, 31.661865

DMS

31° 39' 42.714" N

34° 32' 42.5904" E

W3W	synthetic, stitch, refers
UTM	36 R, 646490, 3503994
EGSA87	1502081, 3551417

Elevation m	22
Elevation feet	72.2
Region	Levant

GENERAL SITE TYPE Settlement

TYPE

1.    Pottery.   van Wijngaarden [1999], 525    'Sites in the Mediterranean with Mycenaean pottery'
2.    Settlement.   Feldman et al. [2019],     Feldman et al. [2019] treat Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Ekron (Tell Miqne) together. 'The early Iron Age population was distinct in its high genetic affinity to European-derived populations and in the high variation of that affinity, suggesting that a gene flow from a European-related gene pool entered Ashkelon either at the end of the Bronze Age or at the beginning of the Iron Age.'

PERIOD (High Chronology)

1. LH IIIA2: (1375 BC - 1320 BC)
    a.    van Wijngaarden [1999]: 525, 'LHIIIA2: Yes'

2. LH IIIB: (1320 BC - 1190 BC)
    a.    van Wijngaarden [1999]: 525, 'LHIIIB: Yes'

3. LH IIIC: (1190 BC - 1060 BC)
    a.    Feldman et al. [2019]: , ' ... at the end of the Bronze Age or at the beginning of the Iron Age.'

NOTES

1.  Home site for the Leon Levy Ashkelon Expedition is here.

2.  The article by Feldman et al. [2019] suggests that enough people from the ' ... southern European gene pool ... ' lived in Ashkelon so as to temporarily skew the genetic affinity of the local population. I suggest that that qualifies Ashkelon, for part of this time, to be described as, at least in part, a Mycenaean community.

3.  For a popular (and more accessible) treatment of the DNA results see Megan Gannon, 'Ancient DNA sheds new light on the biblical Philistines' in Smithsonian.com here.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Feldman et al. [2019]: Feldman, Michal with Daniel M. Master, Raffaela A. Bianco, Marta Burri, Philipp W. Stockhammer, Alissa Mittnik, Adam J.. Aja, Choongwon Jeong, Johannes Krause. ‘Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines’, Science Advances (5:7) July 03, 2019., 'Introduction', Online here.

2. van Wijngaarden [1999]: van Wijngaarden, Gert Jan. Use and Appreciation of Mycenaean Pottery outside Greece; Contexts of LHI - LHIIIB finds in the Levant, Cyprus and Italy. Amsterdam. 1999., ''217 Ashkelon'', pg. 525. Online here.