The problem with the “Sea Peoples” label is that it groups together multiple distinct peoples with different origins, different trajectories, and different fates under a single name that implies a degree of unity and coherence that the evidence does not support.

The Peleset (Philistines), the Shardana, the Shekelesh, the Denyen, the Tjeker, the Weshesh, the Teresh, the Lukka, and the Ekwesh were not a single nation, a single ethnic group, or a coordinated empire.

They were multiple distinct peoples who shared the common experience of the Bronze Age Collapse and who, in various combinations and at various times, appeared in the Egyptian and other Near Eastern records as threats or migrants.

Some of these groups — perhaps the Peleset — were primarily migrants in the sense of communities moving from one region to another in search of a new home, bringing their families and possessions with them.