Nama-nama tempat yang paling tradisional dan paling awal bagi kawasan yang dikenali dalam zaman klasik sebagai ‘Palestin’ tidak berkaitan dengan Kan‘an.

The most traditional and earliest toponyms for the area which became known in classical Antiquity as ‘Palestine’ were not related to Cana’an.

Mereka ialah nama tempat Retenu dan Djahi, yang mungkin dianggap sebagai nama tradisional, sebagaimana digunakan dalam kisah Sinuhe Mesir pada abad ke-14 SM.1 Retenu digunakan untuk merujuk kawasan di sepanjang pantai timur Laut Mediterranean dan dibahagikan kepada tiga sub-wilayah: Amurru, di utara; Lubnan (kadangkala dirujuk sebagai 'Retenu Atas'), yang terletak di selatan Amurru dan di utara Sungai Litani; dan Djahi, bahagian paling selatan Retenu, yang merujuk kawasan di selatan Sungai Litani hingga Ascalon ('Asqalan, atau mungkin Gaza) dan sejauh Lembah Retak di timur.

They were the toponyms of Retenu and Djahi, which might be seen as traditional names, as used in the 14th century BC Egyptian story of Sinuhe.1 Retenu was used to refer to the regions along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and was divided into three sub-regions: Amurru, in the north, Lebanon (sometimes referred to as ‘Upper Retenu’), which lay south of Amurru and north of the Litani river, and Djahi, the southernmost part of Retenu, which referred to the regions south of the Litani to Ascalon (‘Asqalan, or perhaps Gaza) and as far as the Rift Valley to the east.

Pendekatan tradisional terhadap orang Filistin, 'Peleset' dan Palestin purba telah dibentuk melalui pandangan penjajah peneroka. Penemuan arkeologi baharu dan bukti epigrafik boleh membantu kita membaca sejarah Palestin melalui pandangan penduduk asli. Penemuan arkeologi baharu di Palestin/Israel dan bukti epigrafik mengenai Palestin purba – yang diukir pada dinding, kuil, tugu peringatan, batu nisan, syiling dan perkuburan Filistin yang baru ditemui di Ascalon, yang berusia kira-kira 3000 tahun (Ariel 2017) – telah mengubah pemahaman kita tentang sejarah purba Palestin dan menghasilkan paradigma baharu yang merevolusikan pengetahuan ilmiah kita tentang Palestin. Satu kata seakar dengan nama Palestin, 'Peleset', ditemui pada lima batu bertulis yang merujuk kepada penempatan satu kaum pelayar di sepanjang pantai selatan Palestin sejak pertengahan abad ke-12 SM, semasa pemerintahan Ramesses II2 dan III dari dinasti Mesir kesembilan belas. Dokumen berusia 3200 tahun daripada Ramesses III, termasuk satu batu bertulis bertarikh kira-kira 1150 SM, di Kuil Mortuari Ramesses III di Kuil Medinat Habu di Luxor – salah satu kuil Mesir yang paling terpelihara – menyebut Peleset antara mereka yang berperang menentang Ramesses III (Breasted 2001: 24; juga Bruyère 1929‒1930), yang memerintah dari 1186 hingga 1155 SM. Peperangan Ramesses III menentang yang dipanggil 'kaum laut' (1181‒1175

The traditional approaches to the Philistines, ‘Peleset’ and ancient Palestine have been constructed through the eyes of settler-colonisers. New archaeological discoveries and epigraphical evidence can help us read the history of Palestine through the eyes of the indigenous. New archaeological discoveries in Palestine/Israel and epigraphic evidence on ancient Palestine – carved on walls, temples, memorials, gravestones, coins and Philistine graveyards uncovered recently in Ascalon, dating to about 3000 years ago (Ariel 2017) – have all transformed our understanding of the ancient history of Palestine and have resulted in new paradigms which revolutionised our scholarly knowledge on Palestine. A cognate of the name Palestine, ‘Peleset’, is found on five inscriptions as referring to the settlement of a seafaring people along the southern Palestinian coast from the mid-12th century BC during the reigns of Ramesses II2 and III of the nineteenth Egyptian dynasty. The 3200-year-old documents from Ramesses III, including an inscription dated c. 1150 BC, at the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III at the Medinat Habu Temple in Luxor – one of the best-preserved temples of Egypt – refers to the Peleset among those who fought against Ramesses III (Breasted 2001: 24; also Bruyère 1929‒1930), who reigned from 1186 to 1155 BC. Ramesses III’s war against the so-called ‘sea peoples’ (1181‒1175

BC) meletakkan Peleset, dari segi geografi, di tanah Djahi, iaitu Palestin.

BC) placed Peleset, geographically, in the land of Djahi, that is Palestine.

Malah, penemuan arkeologi baharu dari sebuah perkuburan Filistin berusia 3000 tahun di Ascalon telah menghasilkan paradigma baharu mengenai asal-usul orang Filistin, dengan kukuh mencadangkan bahawa mereka bukanlah penceroboh Aegean yang merempuh selatan Levant atau "bangsa laut" yang muncul di Palestin pada hujung Zaman Gangsa Lewat, sebaliknya penduduk asli Timur Dekat (Evian 2017; David 2017). Sejak abad ke-19, sarjana Orientalis Bible telah mengaitkan inskripsi Mesir Peleset yang seakar dengan "orang Filistin" dalam Bible. Inskripsi Assyria dari abad ke-8 dan ke-7 merujuk kawasan pesisir selatan ini sebagai "Palashtu" atau "Pilistu".

In fact, new archaeological discoveries from a 3000-year-old Philistine graveyard in Ascalon have resulted in a new paradigm on the origins of the Philistines, firmly suggesting that they were not marauding Aegean invaders of the southern Levant or ‘sea peoples’ that appeared in Palestine in the course of the Late Bronze Age, but an indigenous population of the Near East (Evian 2017; David 2017). Since the 19th century biblical Orientalist scholars have linked the Egyptian cognate Peleset inscriptions with the ‘biblical Philistines’. Assyrian inscriptions from the 8th and 7th century refer to this southern coastal region as ‘Palashtu’ or ‘Pilistu’.

Bukti epigrafi berbahasa Arab dari Palestin di timur Sungai Jordan sangat banyak, dengan sebahagian inskripsi Arab berasal dari zaman Rom dan seawal tahun 150 Masihi. Malah, Palestin amat kaya dengan inskripsi Arab, yang kebanyakannya berasal dari zaman Islam awal dan zaman Umayyah. Sejak awal Islam lagi, Palestin telah memperoleh kepentingan agama, ekonomi dan strategik yang tersendiri. Kepentingan sejarah Filastin ditunjukkan dalam ratusan inskripsi Arab Palestin yang meliputi pelbagai topik yang luas: seni bina, endowmen agama Islam (waqf), epitaf, pembinaan, pasar, dedikasi, teks al-Quran, doa dan permohonan. Koleksi besar inskripsi tersebut dihimpunkan dalam Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestina yang terdiri daripada beberapa jilid (Sharon 1997‒2013; van Berchem 1894).

Arabic-language epigraphic evidence from Palestine east of the Jordan River is extensive, with some Arabic inscriptions dating from the Roman era and as early as 150 AD. In fact, Palestine is extremely rich in Arabic inscriptions, most of which date from the early Islamic and Umayyad periods. Already in early Islam Palestine acquired particular religious, economic and strategic importance. The historical importance of Filastin is shown in the hundreds of Palestine Arabic inscriptions which cover a huge variety of topics: architecture, Islamic religious (waqf) endowments, epitaphs, construction, markets, dedication, Quranic texts, prayers and invocations. A large collection of the inscriptions is assembled in the multivolume Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestina (Sharon 1997‒2013; van Berchem 1894).