Tel Dan (Arabic “Tel El Kadi” – “The Judge’s Hill”) sits in the Hula Valley at the foot of Mount Hermon, about 200 m above sea level. Tel Dan’s elliptical shape dominates its surroundings from a height of about 18 m, thanks to a steep earthen embankment from the second millennium BCE. The site was identified by Edward Robinson in 1852 as the biblical city of Dan and was excavated by Dr. Avraham Biran from 1964-1989. The digs were conducted first by the Department of Antiquities and Museums and later the Glueck Institute for Biblical Archeology of the Hebrew Union College. The mound was settled starting from the Ceramic Neolithic period and intermittently until later periods. During the Early and Middle Bronze Age there was a central city called “Laish” at the site, which was called “Dan” after it was conquered by the tribe of Dan during the settlement period. Among the main finds at the site: an Aramaic inscription that mentions the House of David, a large ritual center from the Iron Age that was in use until the Hellenistic period; a decorated clay plaque known as the “Dancer of Dan”; impressive fortifications and an elaborate gatehouse.
Historical and biblical references to the city of Dan
The city first appears under the name “Laish” in the 18th c. BCE Egyptian execration texts, the archive of Mari from the same period, and the description of Pharaoh Thutmose III’s military campaign in the 15th c. BCE. The Bible says that after it was conquered by the tribe of Dan its name was changed: “And the name of the city was called Dan… but Laish was the name of the city for the first time” (Judges 18:9). The city of Dan is mentioned in the census conducted by King David (1 Chronicles 22:2). During the reign of Jeroboam, King of Israel, it became a ritual center where a golden calf was placed (1 Kings 12:29) which caused the prophet Amos to cry out to the people of Israel that they were worshiping “the God of Dan” (Amos 8:15).
The ancient times at Dan
The earliest findings discovered in the mound date to the Ceramic Neolithic period (fifth millennium BCE). Abandoned for almost a thousand years, Dan became a significant city called “Laish” in the Early Bronze Age 2-3 (30th-25th c. BCE). According to Biran, the city spread over about 200 dunams and was probably the largest in the region. This city ceased to exist around 2,400 BCE, for no known reason.
The fortified Canaanite city “Laish”
The site was renewed in the Middle Bronze Age 2a (20th-19th c. BCE) when a large earthen embankment was constructed, surrounding the settlement and making an elliptical shape that is still visible today. A huge well-preserved gatehouse was found nearby, which excavators called “Abraham’s Gate” and dated to the 18th century BCE. The city grew during the Late Bronze Age (15th-13th centuries BCE). The “Mycenaean tomb”, associated with this period, contained many expensive burial offerings, most of which were imported, testifying to international commercial relations. Another interesting find was a clay plate depicting a man playing and raising his leg in a dance movement, called “the dancer from Dan.”
The city of Dan in the Biblical period
According to Biran, the city of Laish was conquered in 1200 BCE. The evidence from the 12th century BCE point to a sharp change in the material culture. Deep silo pits and only local ceramic finds, mainly storage vessels, were discovered from this phase. The destruction layer found in the mound dates to the middle of the 11th century BCE, and some believe that it belongs to the Philistine occupation, after which the settlement was rebuilt. Several blacksmiths’ forges point to Dan’s role as a metal factory city in the 10th century BCE. The Bible describes the transformation of Dan into an important administrative and ritual center in the Kingdom of Israel. Biran excavated a sacred complex with many ritual objects including a plastered device that might have been used for the water mixing ceremony in the 10th-9th c. BCE. Some of the finds indicate a close relationship between Phoenician Tyre and Dan.
Dan during the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Aram-Damascus
Dan continued to serve as a ritual center during the days of King Ahab of Israel. From the period between the 9th-8th c. BCE, large platforms made of ashlar stones, impressive fortifications, an elaborate gatehouse, and a unique structure known as the eaves house were built. In the early 8th c. BCE, the city of Dan prospered thanks to the defeat of the Arameans by the Assyrian kingdom, among other reasons. The ritual center in Dan grew and expanded in the days of Jeroboam II (785 BCE), and new altars and pyres were constructed. Excavators in 1993 found an inscription near the Israeli gate. The victory inscription (or Tel Dan Stele), dated between the 9th-8th c. BCE, was written on a stone in Aramaic and is interpreted as archaeological evidence for the existence of a “House of David”. The inscription was probably placed by the Arameans under King Hazael, and after Dan returned to the rule of Israel, it was torn down and used to build the new gate.
Under the rule of the empires and after
Tel Dan was occupied by the Assyrians in 732-733 BCE, after which the ritual complex was still in use – perhaps by the population that the Assyrians brought to the city. Even after the decline of the city during the Babylonian occupation (590 BCE), the ritual complex survived. It was still used during the Persian period when Dan belonged to the “Abar-Nahara” satrapy. The cult complex expanded in the Hellenistic period, a time when a massive immigration to Dan might have occurred. During the excavations in 1976, an early 2nd c. BCE bilingual inscription (Greek and Aramaic) was found in the ritual complex, and describes a Greek named Zoilos who made a vow “to God who is in Dan.” In the Roman period, the city was almost completely abandoned. Scant remains of a settlement were found in the southern area, possibly pointing to the “village of Dan” mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea. Coins were also found, the last of which belonged to the emperor Honoitus (393-408 CE).
sources
Ilan, d. 2018. The “Tower” temple from the Middle Bronze Age in Tel Dan. Book by Lawrence A. Staiger. The Land of Israel: Studies in the Knowledge of the Land and its Antiquities. pp. 25-37. Byrne, A. 1992. 25 years of excavations at Tel Dan. Society for the Investigation of the Land of Israel and its Antiquities. Published by the united kibbutz. Tel Aviv. Greer, J. 2013. Dinner at Dan: Biblical and Archaeological Evidence for Sacred Feasts at Iron Age II Tel Dan and Their Significance. Brill. Boston.
Biblical Hiking map