The specific origins of most of the named Sea Peoples groups — beyond the Philistines — remain uncertain.

The Shardana, the Shekelesh, the Tjeker, the Denyen — the proposed identifications with Sardinia, Sicily, the Teucrians, and the Danaoi remain speculative, supported by some evidence but not confirmed by the kind of genetic evidence that has clarified the Philistine question.

The mechanism of the Bronze Age Collapse — the specific sequence of events, the relative contributions of different factors, the ways in which the interconnected Bronze Age system unraveled — is better understood than it was a generation ago, but is still not fully characterized.

The relative importance of drought, the Sea Peoples, internal political stress, earthquakes, and other factors continues to be debated.