Tel Dan

From ArchaeoWiki

Tel Dan (Arabic: Tell el-Qadi, "Mound of the Judge")

Tel Dan is well known as the find site of the Tel Dan Inscription.

Area 200 dunams (50 acres), rises 18 m above the surrounding plain

First identified with the Biblical city of Dan by the American explorer Edward Robinson

Neolithic Period occupation - only detected after 17 seasons of excavation in 1984, in the deep narrow trench of Area B in the southern part of the mound, at a depth of 13 metres below the mound surface

A section of wall 80 cm wide constructed of large fieldstones preserved to 203 courses and an abutting floor were revealed some 50 cm above bedrock - sherds found on and in floor were of the Pottery Neolithic Period, beginning 5th millennium BCE - Stratum XVI - a 2 m accumulation from this period, 5 sub-phases

1989 season, Area T in the north of the site revealed another wall of the same period - finds of the period also discovered in a small probe in the central Area M

Neolithic occupation seems to have last several centuries before terminating and ushering in an occupation gap of perhaps a full millennium's duration

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Areas of Excavation

A: central sector of the southern edge of the mound

B: central sector of the southern edge of the mound

K: south-eastern sector of the mound and ramparts; Triple Gate

T: north-western sector of the mound

Y: north-eastern sector of the mound

Tomb 387 - the Mycenaean Tomb

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Bibliography

Arie, Eran [2008], "Reconsidering the Iron Age II Strata at Tel Dan: Archaeological and Historical Implications", TA 35.1 (2008), pp.6-64.

Biran, Avraham [1986], "The Dancer from Dan, the Empty Tomb and the Altar Room", IEJ 36 (1986), pp.168-187.
- [1989], "The Collared-Rim Jars and the Settlement of the Tribe of Dan", in Gitin, S. and Dever, W.G. (eds), Recent Excavations in Israel: Studies in Iron Age Archaeology, AASOR 49, Winona Lake: Eisenbaruns, 1989, pp.71-96.
- [1994], Biblical Dan, Jerusalem: IES / Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1994. ISBN 965221020X
- [2003], "The Dancer from Dan", NEA 66 (2003), p.128.

Biran, A. and Ben-Dov, Rachel [2002], Dan II. A Chronicle of the Excavations and the Late Bronze Age 'Mycenaean' Tomb, Jerusalem: Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 2002. ISBN 0878203087 [Reviewed: Gittlen, Barry M., NEA 67.3 (2004), pp.176-177.]

Biran, A., Ilan, David and Greenberg, Raphael [1996], Dan I: A Chronicle of the Excavations, the Pottery Neolithic, the Early Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age Tombs, (with contributions by Avi Gopher, Liora Kolska Horwitz, and Naomi Porat), [Annual of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology], Jerusalem: Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1996. ISBN 0878203079

Biran, A. and Naveh, Joseph [1993], "An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan", IEJ 43 (1993), pp.81-98.

Bruins, Hendrik J., van der Plicht, Johannes, Ilan, David and Werker, Ella [2005], "Iron-Age ¹⁴C Dates from Tel Dan: A High Chronology", in Levy, T.E. and Higham, T. (eds), The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating - Archaeology, Text and Science, London: Equinox, 2005, pp.323-336. ISBN 184553056X (cloth) ISBN 1845530578 (paper)

Martin, Mario A.S. and Ben-Dov, Rachel [2007], "Egyptian and Egyptian-Style Pottery at Tel Dan", Ä&L 17 (2007), pp.191-203.

Yellin, J. and Maeir, Aren [1992], "The Origin of the Pictorial Krater from the 'Mycenaean' Tomb at Tel Dan", Archaeometry 34 (1992), pp.31-36.

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