Wuo WERE THE PHILISTINES ? 35 
‘“'Who were the Philistines ?’’ 
By Rev. SamMuEL Duntop, B.D., Irongray. 
In this lecture, which was not intended by its author 
for publication in the Transactions, the latest theories of the 
origin of the Philistines were described. |The Philistines 
were regarded as foreigners by the Hebrews and other 
Semitic races. They came from Caphtor, which the Septua- 
gint translates Cappadocia. More recent investigation traces 
them to Crete, whose early civilisation has been recently dis- 
covered. On the break up of Cretan Empire, roving bands 
of pirates swarmed in the Levant. From 1300 till 1100 B.c. 
they threatened the Egyptians of the XIX. Dynasty. 
Ramases III. defeated them and settled them on the sea- 
board of Palestine, about the same time as the Hebrews 
entered that country from the east of Jordan. 
25th February, 1916. 
Chairman—Provost S. Arnott, F.R.H.S. 
The Nearer East Problem, considered more especially 
in its Geographical Aspect. 
By Joun Murray, M.A., Dumfries Academy. 
The first part of the paper was occupied by a brief 
account of the geological history of the area as the most 
easterly of the Mediterranean peninsulas. In the physical 
geology four structural elements were specified—(a) fold 
mountains (the Illyrian-Grecian ranges and the Balkans); 
(b) central crust, block or massif (the Rhodope mountains) ; 
(c) transition areas (the Morava-Vardar and the Maritza 
Couloirs); (d) fractured basins (Adriatic and Agean). It 
was fully pointed out that on the inter-relations of these 
depended the history, economic and political, of the Nearer 
East. The four elements were then treated in detail, more 
especially with regard to the various States within whose 
