‘Philistine’ is a byword for boorish ignorance – but the real Philistines were cultured. Who were they?

Samson captured by the Philistines, Guercino, 1619. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA In modern times, the term “philistine” has generally been used by cultured or elite groups to describe an ignorant or uncultured person. The Philistines were, in fact, people from the Aegean region, perhaps Crete. They arrived on the shores of the south-eastern Mediterranean around 1200 BC, in an area later to be called Palestine. A cultured people, they were specialists in iron-making, advanced weaponry,…