Question: The Philistines are said to come from Crete. However in the Table of Nations, they are said to be descendants of Ham. They seem to have adopted some of the Greek Culteral aspects, but is it a stretch to say they were probably darker complected Hamites that were driven out of Crete by the Mycaean Greeks?
I think the Philistines were one branch of the Sea People who included/were best known after settling down as the Carthaginians. The Sea People were particularly active a few centuries before the date of this find.
(there's a later edition of the work, although I'm not sure it's still in print, the publisher was acquired)Giving Goliath His Due:The name Goliath, like Achish, is not Semitic, but rather Anatolian (McCarter 1980, 291, Mitchell 1967, 415; Wainwright 1959, 79). Not all agree though; the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (2:524) proposes that Goliath may have been a remnant of one of the aboriginal groups of giants of Palestine who now were in the employ of the Philistines. [1. Naveh (1985, 9, 13 n. 14) states that Ikausu, the name of the king of Ekron in the seventh century b.c., is a non-Semitic name that can be associated with that of the Achish of Gath in David's time. The name in the seventh century has a shin ending that is non-West Semitic.]
New Archaeological Light on the Philistines
by Neal Bierling
foreword by Paul L. Maier
online version