Ashdod, according to Joshua 15:45-47, was allotted to Judah, but Ashdod is missing from the list in Judges 1:18 (except in the Septuagint) of the Philistine cities that Judah captured. Instead, Ashdod was probably one of the cities referred to in verse 19: "but [Judah] could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had chariots of iron." In any event, Israel could not effectively control any of the Philistine territories for very long, according to Judges 3:1, 3: "Now these are the nations that the Lord left to test all those in Israel . . . ; the five lords of the Philistines. . . ."

Ashdod was on the trade and military route to and from Egypt that also went through Ashkelon and Gaza. The city was not mentioned in Pharaoh Merneptah's inscription on the Israel Stele about his attack on Ashkelon, Gezer, and Yano`am. This may indicate that it, like Gaza (which was Egypt's headquarters for the area), remained loyal to Egypt; indeed, Ashdod's last Late Bronze stratum indicates that it was a Canaanite-Egyptian fortress at the time. Its Late Bronze city held local Canaanite pottery forms, imported Mycenaean IIIB and Cypriot pottery, a Ramesses II scarab and cartouches, and a stone doorpost with a hieroglyphic inscription possibly dating to the Ramesses II period or earlier. This Late Bronze stratum of the mound suffered destruction circa 1200 B.C., most likely due to the Sea Peoples; the destruction debris was up to 40 inches deep in places. Only parts of the mound were immediately resettled; other parts remained abandoned. At Ashdod the classic scenario for sites connected with the Sea Peoples -- in this case, perhaps, the ones we will be naming the Philistines -- is evident. Its Late Bronze inhabitants used imported Mycenaean IIIB pottery, which was replaced by locally made Mycenaean IIIC:1b pottery, which, in turn, was followed by the classic Philistine pottery.

The sequence is the same as cited earlier for Ashkelon, but the Ashdod excavator has a basic disagreement with the excavator of Ashkelon in interpreting the presence of Mycenaean IIIC:1b pottery. The excavator of Ashdod, Moshe Dothan, believes that, on the basis of the cultic artifacts, the pottery and its decorative styles, and the architecture, there were clearly two waves of migrating Sea Peoples: the first arriving circa 1200 B.C., after Pharaoh Ramesses II but before Ramesses III, and using locally made Mycenaean IIIC:1b pottery; and the second wave during the days of Ramesses III and using the classic Philistine pottery. Remember that Stager confirms the same pottery sequence at Ashkelon, but believes that no Sea Peoples/Philistines arrived at the site before the time of Ramesses III (ca. 1175 B.C.). I am convinced that Stager's conclusions about the four battle reliefs and Merneptah's stele are correct concerning the chronology of events -- for Ashkelon, that is.

Before proceeding with the Ashdod site material, note the importance of what has been presented thus far in the verses from Joshua and Judges about the Philistines. According to Joshua 15 and Judges 1, the coastal plain was to belong to Israel, but if Israel ever conquered the Philistines there, it governed the area only for a short period of time. Remember, too, that, using the available archaeological data, we have seen that the Sea Peoples did not appear on the southern seacoast of Canaan until the twelfth century B.C. or, at the earliest, the very end of the thirteenth century.

At Ashdod, the transition from the people of the Late Bronze Age (imported Myc. IIIB pottery) to the Sea Peoples (locally made Myc. IIIC:1b pottery) was not a smooth one, as the deep destruction layer displays. However, the transition from the Sea Peoples with the Mycenaean IIIC:1b pottery to the people making the classic Philistine bichrome does appear to have been a smooth one, although the materials in the two strata reflect distinct cultural differences between the peoples whose possessions are contained therein. Whereas Stager attributes the transition at Ashkelon to assimilation to local Canaanite and Egyptian influences, Moshe Dothan believes that there are enough distinct cultural differences in the two Ashdod strata to indicate two waves of Sea People migration. The first Sea Peoples to arrive were the vanguard for those who would come later (M. Dothan 1979, 131; 1989, 67). The second wave, arriving in Canaan during the reign of Ramesses III, included the Philistines who had been defeated by him and, as he describes it, had been settled "in strongholds, bound in my name. Their military classes were as numerous as hundred-thousands. I assigned portions for them all with clothing and provisions from the treasuries and granaries every year" (ANET, 262).

For Moshe Dothan the most distinctive element illustrating cultural differences between the two waves is the figurine known today as the "Ashdoda," which is representative of a ceramic motif introduced into Canaan during the Philistine period. Moshe Dothan believes that this seated clay figurine links the Philistine world with the Mycenaean world through their shared mother goddess, and he also points to other examples of Mycenaean influence. The Ashdoda figurine is unique among all those of its type in that it was found in such fine condition, but the Ashdod excavations have also come up with numerous fragments of similar figurines. These finds, along with other artifacts such as jewelry, metal, gold objects, faience, scarabs, a stamp seal bearing an inscription, and ivory, reflect Aegean and Egyptian origins for this second wave of Sea Peoples. One specific indicator of the connection between Egypt and this second wave is that Philistine bichrome pottery makers had by then adopted an Egyptian jug form as one of their own, adapting it by using their white slip with bichrome paint but using Egyptian motifs such as the lotus flower. For Moshe Dothan, it was this second wave of immigration bringing the Philistines that "established the foundation of a long-lasting political and cultural entity at Ashdod" (M. Dothan 1989, 67).

Stager believes that during Pharaoh Merneptah's military campaign into Canaan Ashkelon was Canaanite, and I believe Stager is correct. But Pharaoh Merneptah did record his battles with the Sea Peoples, and it is logical to assume, on the basis of the artifacts at Ashdod as well as the extensive corpus of ceramics and other artifacts at Ekron, that some of the Sea Peoples on the pharaoh's list had settled in other parts of the southern coast of Canaan during his time or shortly thereafter -- perhaps at Ashdod and Ekron, for example. It is also logical to assume that, since Ashkelon was a large seaport city (more than 150 acres) serving the entire Eastern Mediterranean, it would have had among its polyglot population some Aegeans (with Myc. IIIC:1b pottery). Ashkelon, however, remained under Canaanite control at least until the time of Ramesses III.

Checking various excavations along the coast of Canaan, Syria, and Cyprus to determine when Mycenaean IIIB pottery ended and IIIC:1b began, one learns that this break occurred some time during the reigns of Merneptah and Tausert and before the reign of Ramesses III. Ugarit, Tell Abu Hawam (near Haifa), Tell Deir Alla, and other Syro-Palestinian sites show clear signs of attack and destruction in the levels corresponding to the days of Merneptah or some time before Ramesses III. Artifacts dated to the pharaohs just prior to Ramesses III have also been recovered from these levels (M. Dothan 1979, 125-34; 1989, 67-68; T. Dothan 1982a, 289-96; 1985, 166). I believe that the evidence from Cyprus and the Mediterranean coast along Syria, as well as from a few other sites in Canaan (some still to be discussed in this chapter), clearly demonstrates an initial settlement, or wave, of Sea Peoples in Canaan before the attack on Egypt by a second wave during the time of Ramesses III. It was this second movement of Sea Peoples -- of which the Philistines were a part -- that became a dominant force in the history of Canaan.

As was already mentioned, when the Late Bronze fortress of Ashdod was destroyed by the first wave of Sea People, only parts of the mound were resettled and rebuilt. But during the Philistine bichrome days the city became a thriving, fortified metropolis, which flourished until the mid-eleventh century B.C. The archaeological evidence does, then, reflect the situation recorded in Joshua 15 and especially in Judges 1 and 3. The Sea Peoples' presence at Ashdod at the end of the thirteenth century was not very strong, not until the time of Ramesses III early in the twelfth century when the Philistines moved in.