Palestine A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha

The international trade between Palestine and Egypt dates back to the Chalcolithic period (4000‒3200 BC), during which Palestine exported copper to Egypt. Also, a large amount of Palestinian (‘Canaanite’) pottery from this period was discovered in Egypt – pots manufactured in Palestine and transported to Egypt presumably as containers of wine and olive oil (Grainger 2016: 27).

However, the name Palestine first occurs in Egyptian sources from the Late Bronze Age in relation to the Egyptian struggle to control the Philistines during the reigns of Ramesses II and III and of Merneptah (1276‒1178

BC). In fact, the name Palestine originally derives from the 3200-year-old documented name Peleset, used to refer to the people in southern Levant, allies of the ‘Libyans’,3 who are mentioned in Egyptian inscriptions, including the Merneptah Stele, which celebrates the Egyptian victory over Libya. These allies of the Libyans include a number of peoples besides the Peleset, some of whose names are identifiable. These names include the Shardana (Sardinia), the Ekwesh, the Teresh, the Tjekker, the Lukka, the Kheta (Hatti = Hittite), the Amor (Amurru), the Shasw (Bedouin in the Sinai), including possibly the Asher or Israel of the Merneptah Stele.

Following the integration of the Philistines with other population, the name Peleset succeeded the name Djahi as the dominant toponym for the region as a whole.

From the Late Bronze Age onwards, it should be stressed, the names used for the region of the southern Levant, such as Djahi, Retenu and Cana’an, all gave way to Palestine, the name most commonly used in 8th and 7th century Assyrian inscriptions. Using a ‘part for the whole’ designation, Palestine came to refer to the greater region (Palashtu, Piliste (or Philistia), literally the ‘land of the Peleset’ (Greek: Γη των Φυλιστιειμ), of the southern Levant. This wider conception included not only the wellknown cities of Philistia: Gaza, Ekron, Gath,4 Ashdod, Ascalon, Timnah5

and Tantur, but served also for the interior of the country and gradually as a wider designation for the whole area from Lebanon to Egypt.

Interestingly also, almost all the toponyms of the cities of Philistia: Gaza (Ghazzah), Askelon (‘Asqalan), Ashdod (Isdud6), Tantur (Tantura), Gath (Jat), Ekron (‘Aqir) survived into the modern era and were preserved in the modern Palestinian Arabic names and were mostly depopulated by Israel in 1948.