23. They may have come from Crete.
The Old Testament mentions the Philistines as originating in Caphtor, an area that has been identified as the Aegean island of Crete. Crete was home to distinctive Mycenean Greek culture, but about the twelfth century BCE, the civilization began to collapse. This timeframe corresponds with the archaeological record of when the Philistines started to appear in Canaan.
Furthermore, the ancient Egyptians referred to the Philistines as one of the sea peoples, thereby strengthening the likelihood that they were a Mycenean Greek people who settled down in Canaan’s coastal plains.