Since 1996 he has directed the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project, excavating the ancient site of Tell es-Safi, which is identified as Canaanite and Philistine Gath (one of the five cities of the Philistines mentioned in the Bible, the home of Goliath).
Between 734 and 727 Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria conducted almost annual campaigns in Palestine, reducing Israel, Judah and the Philistine cities to vassalage, receiving tribute from Ammon, Moab and Edom, and absorbing Damascus (the kingdom of Aram) into the Assyrian empire.
From the Medici in Florence in 1601 came an over-lifesize marble of Samson and a Philistine by Giovanni da Bologna, presented as a diplomatic gift.
In 1911 Meyrink with his family relocated to the little Bavarian town Starnberg, and in 1913 the book Des deutschen Spießers Wunderhorn (The German Philistine's Horn) was published in Munich.
The Egyptians attempted to gain a foothold in the Near East (then controlled by the Assyrian Empire) by entering the region and stirring up Assyria's vassal Israelite, Judaean, Philistine, Canaanite and Samaritan subjects against Assyria, but were defeated and driven out by Shalmaneser V.
Weldon Kees discussed the issue of the open letter further in the June 5 edition of The Nation, calling director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Francis Henry Taylor a philistine.
From the Philistine Plain, the Way continues north through the Sharon.