Research on populations from across Greece, Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt, and North Africa during the Bronze Age shows a connected world with substantial gene flow between regions — consistent with the archaeological and textual evidence of intensive trade and cultural exchange.

Against this background of connectivity, the genetic disruptions of the Sea Peoples period appear more clearly.

The influx of Aegean-related ancestry at Ashkelon in the twelfth century BCE stands out against a background of Canaanite-related genetics that was otherwise relatively stable.

This contrast makes the genetic signal of the Philistine migration clearly visible.

Research on Sardinia continues to be relevant to the Shardana question.

The Nuragic Sardinians and their genetic relationship to Bronze Age Mediterranean populations has been studied with increasing resolution, and the picture that emerges is of a population that was indeed somewhat isolated from the rest of the Bronze Age Mediterranean world — which, paradoxically, argues against a large influx of Shardana migrants from the eastern Mediterranean during the collapse period.