Prophets Looked at Past First : Archeology: Experts say that prediction of Philistine demise was based on understanding of world politics.

A piece of wire found protruding from the dirt this summer has turned out to be a 2,600-year-old golden headband in the shape of a cobra, once affixed to a statuette of an Egyptian goddess.

It has offered a rare glimpse into the final days of the ancient Philistine city of Ekron. During that period, the city had close cultural and commercial ties with Egypt. But when the Babylonians swept in to conquer the region, the Egyptian pharaohs ignored pleas for help from the Philistine kings. Defeat was overwhelming and the Philistines were dragged off into slavery.

Archeologists excavating the area this summer found burned storehouses, a plundered administrative center and the remnants of a multistory palace, its columns toppled, pottery smashed and upper floor collapsed.

Experts say the discoveries at Ekron confirm scriptural accounts of the Philistine demise, and the Israelite prophets Zephaniah and Zechariah, who foretold the destruction, likely based their predictions on their understanding of political events of the time.

The Philistines were wealthy, sophisticated and aggressive rivals of the Israelites. They gave us such biblical characters as the seductive Delilah, who robbed Samson of his powers, and the giant Goliath, who took on the shepherd David.

In their glory days in the 7th century B.C., the Philistines were dominated by the Assyrians, an ancient superpower based in what is now Syria and northern Iraq. But as the power of the Assyrian empire faded toward the end of the century, the Philistines strengthened their alliances with Egypt.

Then, in the late 7th century, the Babylonians from southern Iraq threw off their Assyrian shackles and launched a successful military campaign in which they defeated Egypt and took control of Syria and Palestine. Ekron was destroyed in 603 B.C. by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, who went on to conquer the Israelites and carried them off to exile.

Predictions of that destruction by the Israelite prophets were recorded in Scripture: Zephaniah warned that Ekron “shall be uprooted” (Zephaniah 2:5), and Zechariah’s said its “hopes are confounded” (Zechariah 9:5).

“They [could] see the destruction coming,” said Seymour Gitin, director of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archeological Research in Jerusalem. “They cursed the Philistines and their own people for abandoning God. They could see the Babylonians were coming to punish them. They were very good observers and understood the historical events.”

Some of the relics excavated on the recent archeological dig show that not only were the prophets aware of an impending crisis, but the Philistines themselves could feel the end coming.

At the time, Ekron was the region’s largest supplier of olive oil, which was widely used to heat and light homes, make cosmetics and anoint the body. More than 115 stone olive presses have been recovered from the Ekron ruins.

In addition, there was evidence that olive presses had been stored away, to protect them during an invasion and preserve the economic lifeblood of the city.

“Suddenly we find olive oil equipment, like 90 kilo weights [for pressing olives] that were commonly put to use, stored away in buildings,” said Gitin, who has been heading excavations at Tel Miqne for 11 years.

“We can now see that the oracles of the Hebrew prophets predicting destruction of the Philistine cities were based on a perceptive analysis of the superpower struggles . . . not only prophetic intuition,” said Gitin.

One thing that has eluded the archeologists are Philistine writings. Hebrew University archeology Professor Trude Dothan, co-director of the dig, believes the Philistines were literate and there may have been a library at Ekron.

The 85-acre excavation site, the largest biblical-era dig in Israel, is about 12 1/2 miles inland from the modern port of Ashdod. The Philistines lived in Philistia, which stretched along the Mediterranean Sea from modern-day Tel Aviv to the Gaza Strip.

The golden cobra headband was found in the last days of the dig by volunteer Tanya McCullough, a 24-year-old archeology student from the University of Toronto.

“We were sweeping the room to be photographed when suddenly one of the girls says, ‘Look, a piece of wire.’ She pulled it out and said, ‘Wow! A gold snake,’ ”