The Philistines, as noted, eventually developed their own script — a version of the local Semitic script tradition rather than a continuation of any Aegean writing system.

The Aegean connection of the Philistines’ ancestors, which had included the Linear B writing system, appears not to have survived the migration; within a few generations, the Philistines were using Semitic scripts and presumably speaking Semitic languages (the evidence from inscriptions is fragmentary).

This linguistic and scribal assimilation of the Philistines into the broader Semitic-speaking world of the Levant is itself important evidence for the speed and depth of cultural integration.

The people who arrived at Ashkelon with Aegean-style pottery and Aegean-related genetics were, within a few generations, using Semitic-style scripts and embedded in the broader Near Eastern cultural world.