The Mycenaean pottery made at Ashdod and the other cities of the southern Levant in the twelfth century BCE suggests a significant immigration of South Greek speakers. The immigrants undoubtedly inspired the later legend that 'the Philisti nes' came from Caphtor. In fact, however, their nomenclature suggests that 'Philistines' or Palestinians were initially distinguished from the immigrant kerētîm or kaptorîm, and it is likely that the people called Palashtin were the Northwest Semitic speaking majority among whom the immigrant minority had settled. The name 'Canaan', never very popular, went out of vogue with the collapse of the Egyptian empire. In the Iron Age many inhabitants of what had once been Canaan preferred to be called 'Sons of Israel', while those who did not affiliate themselves to Israel preferred the name, 'Palestinians'. The Palestinian (Peleset) raiders who caused Ramesses III so much trouble, and against whom he led a punitive expedi tion, certainly came from the less civilized parts of Palestine, and may well have included men whose descendants would one day identify themselves as Israelites or Judahites.
