Returning to the fundamental question of the term “Sea Peoples” itself is essential for understanding why the mystery remains partially unresolved despite over a century of research.

The term “Sea Peoples” was not used by the ancient Egyptians themselves.

The hieroglyphic texts at Medinet Habu and other Egyptian sources use phrases that can be translated as “peoples of the sea” or “northern peoples from all lands” — descriptive terms for foreign groups associated with the sea and with a northern or western direction, but not a coherent label for a unified group.

The modern scholarly label “Sea Peoples,” coined by Gaston Maspero in the late nineteenth century, has been so convenient and so widely adopted that it has sometimes been mistaken for an ancient self-designation.