Tel Dor

Hebrew university expeditions are excavating at Dor for nearly 40 years. It is the site of a major Mediterranean commercial seaport, which was active from the Canaanite period (c. 1800 BCE) to Roman times (c. 250 CE). It was especially significant in the early Iron Age (c. 1100 – c. 850 BCE) and the Persian-Hellenistic period (c. 500 – c. 100 BCE). In the first of these two eras it serves as a key-site for studying the phenomenon of the “Sea Peoples”, reputed to have ravaged the Eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Bronze Age; as well as the inception of Phoenician civilization. In the latter period it weighs into the debates about Hellenization—the processes by which Greek language, as well as artistic, architectural and cultural norms became prevalent around the Mediterranean and beyond. In both these eras the site of Dor becomes important not only in the south-Levantine context but for pan-Mediterranean perspectives.