djr[2] in hieroglyphs
Era: Late Period (664–332 BC)

Dor (Hebrew: דוֹר or דאר, meaning "generation", "habitation"), was known as Dora (Greek: τὰ Δῶρα)^[3] to the Greeks and Romans, and as Dir in the Late Egyptian Story of Wenamun.^[2] Dor was successively ruled by Canaanites, Sea Peoples, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans.

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]

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]

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 Canaanites, (Joshua 12:23) whose ruler was an ally of Jabin king of Hazor against Joshua, (Joshua 11:1,2). It appears to have been within the territory of the tribe of Manasseh, though they never managed to conquer it (Joshua 17:11; Judges 1:27). It was one of Solomon's commissariat districts (Judges 1:27; 1 Kings 4:11).^{[6][clarification needed]}

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 edit

After the Late Bronze Age Collapse, the town appears to have been settled by a migrant group called the Tjekker. In the Egyptian literary text known as the Story of Wenamun, the main character visits Dor and is received by Tjekker prince named Beder. This layer of the settlement is known archaeologically as Dor XII, and dates from c. 1150–1050 BC.

Persian period edit

In ca. 460 BCE, the Athenians formed an alliance with the Egyptian leader Inaros against the Persians.^[11][12] In order to reach the Nile delta and support the Egyptians, the Athenian fleet had to sail south. Athens had secured landing sites for their triremes as far south as Cyprus, but they needed a way station between Cyprus and Egypt. They needed a naval base on the coast of Lebanon or Palestine, but the Phoenician cities of Sidon and Tyre held much of the mainland coast and those cities were loyal to Persia. Fifty miles south of those cities, however, the Athenians found an isolated and tempting target for establishing a way station.^[13]

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 edit

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 edit

A moshav south of Tel Dor is named "Dor" after the ancient city.

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]

Tel Dor ("the Ruin of Dor") was first investigated in the 1920s by John Garstang, on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. J. Leibowitz excavated in the lower town around the tell in the 1950s. From 1979 to 1983, Claudine Dauphin excavated a church east of the tell. Avner Raban excavated harbour installations and other constructions mainly south and west of the mound in 1979 - 1984. Underwater surveys around the site were carried out by Kurt Raveh, Shelley Wachsman and Saen Kingsley. Ephraim Stern, of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, directed twenty seasons of excavations at the site between 1980 and 2000, in cooperation with the Israel Exploration Society.^[16] The eleven excavation areas opened have revealed a wealth of information about the Iron Age, Persian, Hellenistic and Early Roman periods.

Purple dye production edit

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 quicklime (calcium oxide) which served, according to scholars, in helping to separate the dye from the mollusks after they had been broken and removed from their shells.^[17] These mollusks were primarily imported into the region from other places along the Mediterranean coast, and consisted of species Phorcus turbinatus, Patella caerulea, Stramonita haemastoma, Hexaplex trunculus, among other species.^[18]

Neolithic tsunami edit

In 2020, archaeologists discovered evidence of a tsunami that destroyed middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B coastal settlements in Tel Dor, Israel as it traveled between 3.5 to 1.5 km inland. The tsunami was approximately 16 m high. Recovery in the affected areas was slow but overall, it did not significantly affect the social development of the southern Levant.^[19] Whilst the tsunami is not identified with the Biblical flood, it is believed to contribute to the flood myths found in numerous cultures.^[20]

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]

• Cities of the ancient Near East

• 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

• 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.