The Many Masters of Dor, Part 1: When Canaanites Became Phoenician Sailors - The BAS Library
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The Many Masters of Dor, Part 1: When Canaanites Became Phoenician Sailors

By Ephraim Stern

History runs deep at Tel Dor—45 feet deep to be exact! Layer upon layer of ancient cities, each built on the ruins of its predecessor, have formed this immense mound on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, about 12 miles south of Haifa. As extraordinary as the mound’s size is the large number of different people who have occupied or controlled the site. Following the Canaanites, who led Dor in a coalition of cities opposing Joshua (Joshua 11:1–15), the city experienced a series of conquests by Sikils—a Sea People tribe—Phoenicians, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians. Despite this succession of conquests, the Phoenicians […]

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Footnotes

1.

B.C.E. (Before the Common Era), used by this author, is the alternate designation corresponding to B.C. often used in scholarly literature.

2.

See “BAR Interviews Amihai Mazar—A New Generation of Israeli Archaeologists Comes of Age,” BAR 10:03.

3.

Important exceptions are the excavations at smaller sites, such as Ras Basit, Ras Ibn Hani, Teli Sukas and Sarepta (Biblical Zarephath).

4.

See Ephraim Stern, “Excavations at Tell Mevorakh Are Prelude to Tell Dor Dig,” BAR 05:03.

Endnotes

1.

The excavations at Tel Dor, directed by the writer, are sponsored by the Philip and Muriel Berman Center for Biblical Archaeology of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; the Israel Exploration Society; the University of California, Berkeley; California State University at Sacramento; South California College; Boston University; New York University; the University of Saskatchewan; and McMaster University at Hamilton, Ontario.

2.

Yigael Yadin, “And Dan, Why Did He Remain in Ships?” Australian Journal of Biblical Archaeology 1 (1968), pp. 9–23; also see Lawrence E. Stager, “When Canaanites and Philistines Ruled Ashkelon,” BAR 17:02.

3.

In addition to Beder, Wen-Amon mentions two other princes whose names are typical of the Sea Peoples: Weret, who had a trading treaty with Tyre, may have been the prince of Ashkelon, the most important Philistine ciry; Mekmer may have been the Philistine ruler of Ashdod or Gaza.