Tel Dor
Alternative name | Tell el-Burj, Khirbet el-Burj (Arabic) |
---|---|
Location | Haifa District, Israel |
Region | Levant |
Coordinates | 32°37′03″N 34°55′03″E / 32.61750°N 34.91750°E |
Type | Settlement |
History | |
Abandoned | 630s |
Site notes | |
Condition | In ruins |
Tel Dor (Hebrew: דוֹר or דאר, meaning "generation", "habitation") or Tell el-Burj, also Khirbet el-Burj in Arabic (lit. Tell, or Ruin, of the Tower), is an archaeological site located on the Israeli coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea next to modern moshav Dor, about 30 kilometers (19 mi) south of Haifa, and 2.5 kilometers (1.6 mi) west of Hadera. Lying on a small headland at the north side of a protected inlet, it is identified with D-jr of Egyptian sources, Biblical Dor, and with Dor/Dora of Greek and Roman sources.[1]
The documented history of the site begins in the
Etymology
| ||||||||
djr[2] in hieroglyphs | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Late Period (664–332 BC) | ||||||||
Dor (
.The city was known as Dor even before the Greeks arrived or had contact with the peoples in Israel. When the Greeks came to the city and learned its name to be Dor, they called it Dora, possibly after a Dorus said to be a son of Poseidon.[4][5]
Location and identification
Dora of the classical period has been placed in the ninth mile from Caesarea, on the way to Ptolemais (Acre). Just at the point indicated was the small village of Tantura, probably an Arabic corruption of Dora.[6]
Hebrew Bible
Many scholars doubt the historical accuracy of biblical texts relevant to times prior to the 9th century BCE. They suggest that the biblical context for such places as early Dor is more mythology than history.[7]
In the Hebrew Bible, Dor is depicted as an ancient royal city of the
History and archaeology
According to IAA archaeologists, the importance of Dor is that it is the only natural harbour on the Levant coast south of the Ladder of Tyre, and thus was occupied continuously from Phoenician times until the late 18th century.[8] According to Josephus, however, its harbour was inferior to that of Caesarea.[9]
Dor is mentioned in the 3rd-century Mosaic of Rehob as being a place exempt from tithes, seeing that it was not settled by Jews returning from the Babylonian exile in the 4th century BCE. Schürer suggests that Dor, along with Caesarea, may have initially been built towards the end of the Persian period.[10]
Early Iron Age
After the
Persian period
In ca. 460 BCE, the
The Athenians seized Dor from Sidon. Dor had many strategic advantages for the Athenians, starting with its distance from Sidon. The Athenians had a maritime empire built on oared ships. They did not need large tracts of land and instead needed strategically situated coastal sites that had fresh water, provisions and protection from bad weather and enemy attack. Dor had an unfailing freshwater spring near the edge of the sea and to its south a lagoon and sandy beach enclosed by a chain of islets. This was precisely what the Athenian fleet needed for landing their ships and resting their crews. Dor itself was strategically situated. It stood atop a rocky promontory and was protected on its landward side by a marshy swale that formed a natural moat. Beyond the coastal lowlands was Mount Carmel. The town had Persian-built fortifications. In addition to this, the town had straight streets and Phoenician dye pits for the purpling of cloth. For these reasons, Dor became the most remote outpost of the Athenian navy.
Hellenistic period
In 138 BC, Dora was the scene of battle between Seleucid emperor Antiochus VII Sidetes and the usurper Diodotus Tryphon, leading to the latter's flight and ultimately his death.[3]
State of Israel
A
The victims of the 1948 Tantura massacre are buried in a mass grave under a car park for the nearby Tel Dor beach.[14][15]
Excavation history
Tel Dor ("the Ruin of Dor") was first investigated in the 1920s by
Archaeological findings
Purple dye production
As of 2001, excavations at the site have yielded an apparatus for the production of a purple dye solution, dating to the Persian and Hellenistic periods, wherein there was still a thick layer of
Neolithic tsunami
In 2020, archaeologists discovered evidence of a tsunami that destroyed middle
Museum
The historic 'Glasshouse' museum building, located in kibbutz Nahsholim, some 500 meters south of the site itself, now houses the Center for Nautical and Regional Archaeology at Dor (CONRAD), consisting of the expedition workrooms and a museum displaying the finds from Tel Dor and its region such as documenting the city's importance in the ancient world as a manufacturer of the prestigious azure and crimson colours from sea snails.[21] The house is an old glass-making factory from the 19th century built by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild.[22]
See also
- Cities of the ancient Near East
References
- ^ Gibson, S., Kingsley, S. and J. Clarke. 1999. "Town and Country in the Southern Carmel: Report on the Landscape Archaeology Project at Dor," Levant 31:71-121.
- ^ ISBN 3525530676.
- ^ a b Josephus, The Jewish War (1:52).
- . Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ISBN 9783110368130. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ^ a b Stern, E. 1994. Dor — Ruler of the Seas. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.
- ^ Finkelstein, Israel and Neil Asher Silberman. 2002. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York: Touchstone.
- JSTOR 25182937.
- (15.331)
- ^ Schürer, E. (1891). Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi [A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ]. Vol. 1. Translated by Miss Taylor. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 84 (note 121).
- ^ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Richard Crawley (trans.). 1.104. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-674-99413-3. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-670-02080-5.
- ^ Raz, Adam (2022-01-20). "There's a mass Palestinian grave at a popular Israeli beach, veterans confess". Haaretz. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
- ^ STERN, EPHRAIM. “EXCAVATIONS AT DOR, FINAL REPORT: VOLUME I A—AREAS A AND C: INTRODUCTION AND STRATIGRAPHY.” Qedem Reports, vol. 1, 1995, pp. 1–369
- OCLC 48108956.
- JSTOR 26493565.
- ^ Shtienberg, Gilad; Yasur-Landau, Assaf; Norris, Richard D.; Lazar, Michael; Rittenour, Tammy M.; Tamberino, Anthony; Gadol, Omir; Cantu, Katrina; Arkin-Shalev, Ehud; Ward, Steven N.; Levy, Thomas E. (2020). "A Neolithic mega-tsunami event in the eastern Mediterranean: Prehistoric settlement vulnerability along the Carmel coast, Israel". PLOS One. 15 (12) – via PLOS One.
- ^ Kiderra, Inga (December 23, 2020). "Massive Tsunami Hit the Neolithic Middle East 9,000+ Years Ago". UC San Diego Today. Archived from the original on December 15, 2023.
- ^ HaMizgaga Museum Archived 2008-06-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ History of the Bashan family Archived 2008-11-22 at the Wayback Machine
Bibliography
- Olami, Y., Sender, S. and Oren, E., Map of Dor (30) (Jerusalem, Israel Antiquities Authority, 2005).
- Full Tel Dor bibliography http://dor.huji.ac.il/bibliography.html
External links
- Tel Dor Project Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Haifa and Boston University.
- Open data from excavations in Area G at Tel Dor
- Gilad Shtienberg et al.: A Neolithic mega-tsunami event in the eastern Mediterranean: Prehistoric settlement vulnerability along the Carmel coast, Israel. In: PLOS ONE. 23 December 2020. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0243619. — Dor paleo-tsunami:
- Evidence for a massive paleo-tsunami at ancient Tel Dor, Israel. On: EurekAlert! Dec 23, 2020.
- Archaeologists Find Evidence of Neolithic Mega-Tsunami in Israel. On: sci-news. Dec 24, 2020.