G. W. Bowersock replies:

Although I wrote that the idea of the sea peoples “no longer has much to be said for it,” Egon Lass has chosen to say something. He is utterly wrong to claim that my statement wipes away “several lives of careful scholarship.” I warmly endorse his assessment of the lifetime achievements of the late Lawrence Stager and others. In fact I have closely followed the expedition to Ashkelon with admiration for a long time, because I knew very well both Leon Levy, for whom it is named, and Stager, who led the expedition. This has unquestionably been a distinguished enterprise, even without Aegean invaders. For an account of current views, I recommend an article by Ariel David, “Ancient Egyptian Records Indicate Philistines Weren’t Aegean Pirates After All” (Haaretz, July 23, 2017), which includes references to the doctoral research of Shirly Ben-Dor Evian, a curator at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.