Food or Drink? Pork or Wine? The Philistines and their ‘Ethnic’ Markers

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to review the value and usefulness of the ethnic-markers of ancient societies, based on the assumption that certain populations practice certain eating and drinking habits. In other words, the conviction that some food and drink habits may be used as reliable tools for determining the ethnicities of ancient societies will be questioned. This argument is applied to the case of the Philistines, a population of Aegean or Aegeo- Anatolian origin, who settled in Palestine in the early twelfth century BCE.