Keftiu

Keftiu (Middle and Late Egyptian Keft, Keftu, Kaftu, Kafta, Kefdet, Keftju; Old Testament kaphtor; Akkadian kaptaritum; Assyrian kaptara; Ugaritic kptwr, kptr; Mycenaean kapte?) in ancient Egyptian sources referred to the region of Crete and, among other things, its Minoan-Mycenaean inhabitants and trading ships, which had a range as far as Crete.

In the 13th century BC, the Egyptians transferred the geographical designation to the Levant. A similar development of localization is noticeable in the writings of the Old Testament. There, kaphtor was originally the Greek homeland of the Philistines. There are also Old Testament texts suggesting that the Philistines were the Sea Peoples who plagued Egypt before the Late Bronze Age collapse. One name often associated with these Sea People, the Tjeker, were a tribe theorized to have originated from Zakros in the far East of Crete. However, in the Septuagint, kaphtor is located in the region of Cappadocia.