Philistine DNA traced to the Aegean

[Dave Beatty]

There has long been speculation that the Philistines originated in the Aegean with Crete being a strong candidate (based upon pottery, certain linguistic characteristics, links to the 'Sea Peoples' etc), but now DNA seems to settle the matter (although just exactly where in the Aegean they came from has yet to be revealed).

https://www.timesofisrael.com/know-thine-enemy-dna-study-solves-ancient-riddle-of-origins-of-the-philistines/

[Patrick Waterson]

The Bible has them come from 'Caphtor', which would seem to equate to the Egyptian 'Keftiu'.

[Mark G]

There is a chap in the states who will be disappointed, believing that the horned helmets form a link to the vikings.

Absence of evidence for vikings with horned helmets not withstanding

[Duncan Head]

Original paper at https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/7/eaax0061

There is a chap in the states who will be disappointed, believing that the horned helmets form a link to the vikings.

Obviously the Vikings were Philistines who migrated North when defeated by the Neo-Babylonians 

[Dangun]

What were the other candidate explanations?
Pulling out an atlas, if they were distinct from the Levantine and the Egyptians, and newly arrived, where were they going to have come from? The Arabian peninsula?

[Duncan Head]

There was a theory, mentioned by Drews, that the Sea Peoples in general, including the Philistines, were not migrants of any sort but simply the local Syro-Palestinian population, engaged in social revolution.  See also this article.

[Mark G]

I also heard mainland Greeks, but that could have been a miss understanding of the island types

[Patrick Waterson]

Mainland Greeks is fine; it fits with the Caphtor/Keftiu designation, although we should perhaps remember that nobody back then had any conception of 'mainland Greece' as such*: 'Hellas', when it got going, included a lot of islands and a slice of Italy as part of its composition. Hopefully excavations will find some cultural links with somebody more specific, over and above the current vague associations.

*They knew there was a mainland, but even that Hellenic bastion the Peloponnese was 'Pelops' Isle' - once Pelops had won it in his chariot race.  (Back then there were quite a few creative ways of resolving territorial claims which did not involve a full-scale war.)