Earlier we wrote about the excavation at Tel Dor here. Dr. Ayelet Gilboa, chair of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, and the co-director of the Tel Dor Excavation Project, was kind enough to provide us with one of the wonderful aerial photos of Tel Dor.
Aerial view of Tel Dor looking northeast. Photo courtesy: Dr. Ayelet Gilboa.
Click on the image for a photo suitable for use in a PowerPoint presentation.
Dor has a long history extending from the Canaanite period around the 20th century B.C. It was also controlled by the Phoenicians, the Sea People, the Israelites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Dor was abandoned in the third century A.D. (Biblical Archaeology Review, Nov./Dec. 2002).
Dor is mentioned only a few times in the Old Testament Scriptures.
- When Jabin, king of Hazor, heard of the victories of Joshua and the Israelites he put together a confederacy of armies including the king of the “heights of Dor on the west” (Joshua 11:2).
- Joshua conquered “the king of Dor in the heights of Dor” (Joshua 12:32).
- Dor was allotted to the tribe of Manasseh (Joshua 17:11). The writer of Joshua quickly acknowledges that Manasseh could not take possession of these cities, “because the Canaanites persisted in living in that land” (Joshua 17:12; see Judges 1:27).
- Solomon appointed his son-in-law Ben-abinadad over the height of Dor (1 Kings 4:11).
- Ephraim’s territory extended to the border of Manasseh, including “Dor with its towns” (1 Chronicles 7:29).
For more information about the 2010 excavation season at Tel Dor check the official web site here.
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