Weread, for example, of Philistine incursions into the hill country, toMichmash in Benjamin (1 Samuel 13:23), and the Rephaim Valley nearJerusalem (2 Samuel 5:17–22). It was in one of these border disputes thatthe city at Khirbet Qeiyafa was conquered and destroyed.

during Iron Age I, in the 12th–11thcenturies BCE, Ekron, which is located very near the Sorek Valley, was thedominant Philistine center, and the biblical tradition accordingly places thenarrative concerning the Philistines in that valley.

duringIron Age IIA, the 10th–9th centuries BCE, Gath in the Elah Valley becamethe dominant Philistine center and the biblical tradition recounting theborder disputes between the Philistines and the Israelites accordingly shiftsfrom the Sorek Valley to the Elah Valley.