While the word philistine has come to mean uncouth or unsophisticated, historians now believe that the actual Philistines—who appear in the Bible as the main rivals of the early Israelites—were technologically and politically advanced. The late Trude Dothan, who pioneered archaeological research on the Philistines and the related tribes, known collectively as the Sea Peoples, writes (1982):
The Sea Peoples, including the Philistines, first appeared in the eastern Mediterranean in the second half of the 13th century BCE. At the time, the Egyptians and the Hittites were in power in the Levant (the Hittite empire centered in Anatolia), but both were weak, politically and militarily. The Sea Peoples exploited this power vacuum by invading areas previously subject to Egyptian and Hittite control. In wave after wave of land and sea assaults they attacked Syria, Palestine, and even Egypt itself. In the last and mightiest wave, the Sea Peoples, including the Philistines, stormed south from Canaan in a land and sea assault on the Nile Delta.
According to Egyptian sources, . . . Pharoah Ramesses III (ca. 1198–1166 BCE) soundly defeated them in the eighth year of his reign. He then permitted them to settle on the southern coastal plain of Palestine. There they developed into an independent political power and a threat both to the disunited Canaanite city-states and to the newly settled Israelites. Philistine culture and military power thrived, principally from the middle of the 12th to the end of the 11th century BCE, exerting a major influence on the history and culture of Canaan. From the end of the 11th century, Philistine influence and cultural distinctiveness waned. Ultimately, it was eclipsed by the rising star of the united Israelite monarchy.
Read more on Biblical Archaeology Review: http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=8&Issue=4&ArticleID=1