Bible Archeology Discoveries

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Philistine Cemetery at Ashkelon
Discovered: Outside the ancient city of Ashkelon, southern Mediterranean coast, Israel
From: (c. Iron Age II, especially tenth–ninth centuries BC)

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Between 2013 and 2016, the Leon Levy Expedition excavated a large cemetery beside ancient Ashkelon. More than 200 individuals were found in simple burial pits, built tombs, and cremation burials. These graves provide unusually detailed evidence about how people in a Philistine city treated their dead.

Researchers also studied ancient DNA from individuals excavated at Ashkelon across the Bronze and Iron Ages. The results suggest that some newcomers with European-related ancestry arrived around the beginning of the Iron Age, but that this genetic signal became less distinct in later generations. The cemetery and DNA study are related parts of a larger investigation, not proof of a single origin for every Philistine community.

Judges 1:18; 1 Samuel 6:17; Jeremiah 25:20; Amos 1:8 (references to Ashkelon and the Philistines, not to these burials).

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Notable Finds

Much of what is described in Bible text is lost to history, requiring readers to assume the historicity of the scriptures.

However, many of the places and events described in the Old and New Testaments are periodically corroborated by archeological finds.

Some finds simply help us to better understand things from the ancient world. However, others provide important evidence as to the truth of scripture regarding things about which there had previously been skepticism.

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