As their nearly three-decade long excavation comes to an end, a team of archeologists working at a site in Israel have announced the discovery of what is thought to be the first Philistine cemetery to ever be unearthed in the region, according to BBC News and National Geographic.

The burial site, which was actually found in 2013 and kept secret until now, was discovered beyond the walls of ancient Ashkelton, a major city inhabited by the Philistines from 2th century BC to the 7th century BC and which was located in southern Israel off the coast of the Mediterranean– approximately eight miles (13 km) north of the Gaza Strip.

Members of the Leon Levy Expedition, the team of archaeologists responsible for the discovery, reported that they discovered the remains of between 145 and 211 individuals in multiple burial chambers. Some of those individuals, whose bodies had been dated back to between the 11th and the 8th century BC, were surrounded by jewelry, weapons, food, or other artifacts.

“After decades of studying what Philistines left behind, we have finally come face to face with the people,” Daniel M. Master, one of the leaders of the excavation, told BBC News. “With this discovery we are close to unlocking the secrets of their origins.”

Discovery could shed new light on a poorly understood culture

According to Nat Geo, while archaeologists had successfully discovered the five major cities of the Philistines, a group that they referred to as “one of the most notorious and enigmatic peoples of the Hebrew bible,” they had only tentatively identified a handful of burial sites previously.

In the bible, the Philistines are portrayed as a villainous civilization who warred with the nation of Israel, even seizing the Ark of the Covenant for a short time, and it is from this group that the giant who was felled by David, Goliath, emerged. They first appear in the archaeological record in the early 12th century BC, and some believe they are related to the mysterious Sea People.

The discovery, which was kept secret for three years to avoid protects by orthodox Jewish people who have previously demonstrated at digs where ancient burial sites were disturbed, may provide new insight into the burial practices of the Philistines, which had been was so poorly understood that expedition leader and Harvard archaeologist Lawrence Stager compared it to the accuracy of “the mythology about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree” to Nat Geo.

“Finding the Philistine cemetery is fantastic because there are so many questions regarding their genetic origins and their interconnections with other cultures,” said assistant excavation director Assaf Yasur-Landau. “So much of what we know about the Philistines is told by their enemies, by the people who were fighting them or killing them,” Master added. “Now, for the first time… we’ll really be able to tell their story by the things they left behind for us.”

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Image credit: AFP

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