Ekron

The city of Ekron (Hebrew: עֶקְרוֹן ʿeqrōn, also transliterated Accaron), was one of the five cities of the famed Philistine pentapolis, located in southwestern Canaan.

Following the 1996 discovery of the Ekron inscription, Ekron was positively identified with the mound of Tel Miqne (Hebrew) or Khirbet el-Muqanna (Arabic). The tell lies 35 kilometers west of Jerusalem, and 18 kilometers north of Tell es-Safi, the almost certain site of the Philistine city of Gath, on the grounds of Kibbutz Revadim on the eastern edge of Israel's coastal plain.

Location

Numerous locations have been suggested for Ekron, including Aqir, Qatra, Zikrin and Caesarea Maritima.

Jerome wrote that Ekron was to the east of Azotus and Iamnia (consistent with the modern interpretation), however he mentioned also that some equated the city with Straton's Tower at Caesarea Maritima. This may be a reference to Rabbi Abbahu's identification of Ekron with Caesarea in Megillah (Talmud).

Robinson first identified the Arab village of Aqir as the site of Ekron in 1838, and this was accepted until it was contested by Macalister in 1913, who suggested Khirbet Dikerin, and Albright in 1922, who suggested Qatra.

Sea Peoples

The Sea Peoples were conjectured groups of seafaring raiders, usually thought to originate from either western Anatolia or from southern Europe, specifically from a region of the Aegean Sea. They are conjectured to have sailed around the eastern Mediterranean and invaded Anatolia, Syria, Canaan, Cyprus, and Egypt toward the end of the Bronze Age.

French Egyptologist Emmanuel de Rougé first used the term peuples de la mer (literally "peoples of the sea") in 1855 in a description of reliefs at Medinet Habu documenting year 8 of Ramesses III.Gaston Maspero, de Rougé's successor at the Collège de France, subsequently popularized the term "Sea Peoples" - and an associated migration-theory - in the late 19th century.

The historical narrative stems primarily from seven Ancient Egyptian sources, and although in these inscriptions the designation "of the sea" appears in relation to only three groups of people (the Sherden, Shekelesh, and Eqwesh), the term "Sea Peoples" is commonly used to refer to the following nine peoples, in alphabetical order: