Philistine fluted crown

67 Martin Bernal: "Black Athena - The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization", Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1987, Volume I, pages 445 bottom and 447 top, citing M.C. Astour: "Some recent works on Ancient Syria and the Sea People", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1972, 92.3, pages 447-59: "The helmet of the Philistine giant Goliath was called a 'qoba'". (...) "Astour has pointed out that this headgear was also worn by Saul, (...), and even Yahwe himself."

68 Felix Guirand, Ed.: "New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology", Crescent Books, New York, first printing 1959, edition consulted 1986, page 10 top left.

69 Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson: "A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians", first published 1853, edition consulted Crescent Books, New York, 1988, page 264 middle.

70 For a comparison of Bes with other solar heroes, from Gilga- mesh to Herakles and Samson, see Abram Smythe Palmer: "The Samson Saga and its Place in Comparative Religion", 1913, edition consulted Arno Press, New York, 1977, pages 226 to 232.

71 See above for a discussion of their probable origins.

72 N. K. Sandars: "The Sea Peoples - Warriors of the ancient Mediterranean", Thames and Hudson, London, 1978, page 202 bottom.

73 Redrawn from a picture in Trude Dothan and Moshe Dothan: People of the Sea - The Search for the Philistines", Macmillan Publishing, New York, 1992, page 95 top left.

74 Andrew Sherratt, ed.: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Archaeology, Crown Publishers/ Cambridge University Press, New York, 1980, see illustration 19.8 on page 142.

75 Nanno Marinatos: "Minoan Religion - Ritual, Image, and Symbol", University of South Carolina Press, 1993, see Fig. 222 on page 215.

76 Fritz Schachermeyr: "Die minoische Kultur des alten Kreta", W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart, 1964, pages 246-7.

77 Lawrence E. Stager: "When did the Philistines arrive in Canaan? Multiple Clues help unravel the Mystery", BAR, March/April 1991, pages 32-34, see page 33 left.

Volume 1: its siblings Senet and Snake Game,

and its surviving sequel the Royal Game of the Goose

You are on page	3.1.3. The Old Philistine "Fluted Crown"
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Trademark headgear such as that of the Philistine warriors, shown above at left, next to the sun-head from the Disk at right, usually owed its looks not to practical considerations. In most cultures, ancient or modern, the task of special headgear, from miters to mortar boards, is not to keep the wearer dry or warm or shaded, but to serve as instantly recognizable symbols that each convey a message.

The role of such visual symbols was even stronger in earlier times, before regular writing took over some of the information- carrying burden. In Ancient Egypt, for instance, the gods displayed their emblems on their human or animal heads and so expressed their special qualities for all to see. The pharaohs even wore different crowns to suit different occasions.

Religion and magic determined virtually every aspect of life in the ancient world, and conspicuous symbols, particularly when worn as identifiers, were typically invested with magico- religious powers themselves. The ancestral "fluted crown" of the Philistine warriors was therefore not just an arbitrary means for protecting their heads from blows or for recognizing each other in battle.

That crest of rays was a religious and magical symbol⁶⁷, like the cattle horns that other warriors wore on their helmets to imitate their horned or bull- masked gods. It also resembles in profile the horsehair helmet crests which adorn Classical Greek warriors on vases and in poems.

The shapes and general meanings of religious symbols tend to stay very stable over time. For instance, future archaeologists will be able to tell from the presence of crosses in the ruins of North American cities that Christians had taken their religion there, even though the sites may be far from where Christianity originated, and a couple millennia younger.

In Egypt, the headgear emblems of the gods remained essentially unchanged for more than three thousand years, from before the earliest dynasties until the end of paganism⁶⁸. A famous Egyptologist once said that king Menes, founder of the First Dynasty, would have recognized Amun, or Osiris, in a Ptolemaic or Roman- period temple⁶⁹. Throughout this immense span of time, visual markers such as the ram’s head of Ra or the "Feather of Truth" on the head of Maat and the throne on that of Isis kept their same meanings.

The earthquake that buried the Disk predated the Philistines by as little as, say, the Gutenberg Bible predates our current editions of the same text: a mere moment compared with the longevity of mainstream religious beliefs and symbols, particularly back then when deep cultural change crept even slower than today. We can therefore safely say that a time- traveling Palace- Period king Minos would have been equally familiar with the Philistine's religious icons, including their most characteristic symbol the "fluted crown" headdress.

The Philistine heirs of the Old Philistine religion near the end of the second millennium BCE would thus have seen something similar in that hirsute headgear to what it had meant to their predecessors shortly before that millennium's middle. The clues the Old Philistines left us in Crete can therefore shed light on what that symbol meant to their successors who made it their hallmark.

That hallmark was not entirely exclusive, but the only ancient infringer supports its interpretation as sun rays. The popular Egyptian dwarf god Bes wore in slightly later times often a crown of feathers that resembled the Philistine headgear. However, his grotesque features identify him immediately and prevent him from being confused with any Philistine. Furthermore, Bes was a solar deity⁷⁰, so he confirms the meaning of the rayed head as symbol of the sun.

Virtually all the non-Bes wearers of the "fluted crown" show up typically in places associated with the Philistines: in Egypt which they tried to invade, in Canaan where they settled, and in Cyprus, Mycenae, and Crete from where some among them came⁷¹.

Examples from the Sea Raider time or earlier include "fluted crown heads" on a seal⁷² and

on the warrior shown here, from an ivory game box found at Enkomi in Cyprus⁷³; on a silver rhyton fragment found in Shaft Grave IV at Mycenae⁷⁴; on a seal impression from Hagia

Triada in Crete⁷⁵; and on a votive axe from a Cretan cult cave at Arcalochori⁷⁶. The pictograph groupings on that axe, three short columns of six, six, and three signs, show a head with a Philistine -style crest twice from the front and three times from the side.

The most famous portraits of the Philistines, including the one in the example at the top of this page, are preserved in the wall reliefs from Pharaoh Ramesses III's mortuary temple at Medinet Habu in Egypt, dated to about 1175 BCE⁷⁷, and on the Phaistos Disk. The most frequent among the 45 signs on that Disk is also the most frequent occurrence of the Philistine "fluted crown" outside the Egyptian reliefs -- nineteen stamped side views of a head with that unmistakable crest.

3.2. The bald head as death of the rayed one

The Disk also shows twice a similar head profile but without crown or hair. The total baldness of these two heads permits a testable

interpretation of the "hedgehog hairdo" on the other nineteen. Their lack of hair begins the thread that will guide us to their meaning and to that of most other signs.

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