Philistines

DBA of the Day

Another cupboard find ... a half finished Philistine Army for DBA.

Whats in the box ?

... A Philistine DBA Army !

So who exactly were the Philistines ?

Popular culture uses the term 'Philistine' to describe a set of attitudes that despises or undervalues art, beauty, spirituality, or intellectualism.

Being called a 'Philistine' is a derogatory term of the worst order !

The great writer, Goethe had several comments on the type. "The Philistine not only ignores all conditions of life which are not his own but also demands that the rest of mankind should fashion its mode of existence after his own".

An all too familiar archetype these days.

So how did these unfortunate people of the Philistine civilization earn such a poor reputation ?

The Philistine idea comes to us from the Old Testament .. where the Hebews descended out of the deserts and liberated the land from these horrible people. If one considers that the Old Testament is something of an After Action Report ... written by the Victors in this conflict ... then possibly there may be just a wee bit of spin involved in the story telling.

Well, unfortunately for the Old Testament ... the majority of archeological finds in modern day Israel reveal that reality was somewhat different.

In fact, not only were the Philistines highly cultured peoples, they were in fact several generations ahead of their neighbours at the time - the Canaanites. Let alone the bronze-age Hebrews. The Philistines also enjoyed favorable trade for this reason, as they were well into manufacturing tools of iron and selling them to their lessor bronze wielding neighbours at a hefty profit.

Before long, they were wiped off the map, and their legacy is to leave behind the linguistic oxymoron that the word 'Philistine' should come to mean 'Backward'.

Not so ....

Hence the painting of the internals of the Philistine DBA box in silver - as a nod to their advanced use of metals amongst other things.

On to the troops :

Cant recall who I got the figures off for this project, but it was a good few years back. I do remember looking around on the net and finding a supplier in Australia that sold a small range of obscure biblical period figures in 15mm. I will keep looking around and see if I can't find who it was .. be good to get some more one day.

** UPDATE - 27 Oct 2011 **

I found them ! - they are from Hall of Ancient Warriors.

Chariot mounted General, and supporting Chariots.

Heavy infantry spears. With spears in DBA, the 2nd rank can add to the combat factor of the unit in the front row.

Philistine Auxillia

Philistine Psiloi (Skirmishers)

Double ranked spears again - different angle.

Chariots again - shot from the front. Being from a somewhat obscure manufacturer, these figures definitely have a unique look and feel to them. Should make them rare enough to be worth hanging on to.

The whole Philistine army arrayed for battle. Maybe if they put less energy into cultural and scientific acheivements ... and more energy into the 'Philistine' art of war, then we may today be remembering them differently. How that small irony may reflect on our modern world .. I will leave to the reader. :)