Philistia’s History Will Be Described in Lecture

Seymour Gitin, director of the Albright Institute in Jerusalem, will lecture on the history of Philistia to the Orange County Society of the Archeological Institute of America on April 25. The lecture, illustrated by slides, will be at 2:30 p.m. at Southern California College in Costa Mesa.

Philistia, the nation of the Philistines in what is now southwestern Israel, fought many battles with the Israelites beginning in the 11th century before Christ. Its people later were defeated by the Israelites under King David.

Gitin, the institute’s Norton lecturer, has led excavations at Ekron, a city in the former Philistia, since 1981. He will discuss Ekron’s temple complex with its royal dedicatory inscription and incense altars that attest to a wide range of cultural influences.

The lecture is free for the society’s more than 270 members and Southern California College students. Nonmembers are asked to pay $5 and students not affiliated with the college, $2.