AMIHAI MAZAR - A Philistine Outpost in Northern Tel Aviv: The Story of Tell Qasile 

Tell Qasile is located in the compound of Eretz Israel Museum in northern Tel Aviv. The site may be small in size (3 acres), but not in stature: it has provided important evidence for the culture of the central coastal plain of Israel between the 12th and 9th centuries B.C.E.
The site served as a harbour town for a mixed population of Philistines and local Canaanites. It was home to a sequence of three successive temples, which were unique to the region. In this lecture, Professor Mazar presented the rich finds from these temples, and explained what Qasile tells us about the Philistines material culture, how they interacted with local Canaanite populations, and their wider engagement with Phoenicia, Cyprus and Egypt. He also explored the final fate of the town during the 10th to 9th centuries BCE.
Amihai Mazar is Professor Emeritus in the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and Vice-President (Israel) of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society. He has directed numerous excavations including those of Tell Qasile, Tel Batash (biblical Timnah), Tel Beth Shean, and Tel Rehov. He has written extensively on the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages of the Southern Levant.