Overview

Bibliography

Tel Dan is situated within a 50-acre Israeli nature reserve located at the foot of Mount Hermon (Arabic: Jabal al-Shaykh), a cluster of peaks overlooking the nations of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. The park is the source of the Dan spring, one of three watercourses whose confluence in the Hula Valley forms the Jordan River.

The mound on both north-south and east-west caravan routes. received its definitive shape during the Middle Bronze period when large ramparts were constructed around the city. These ramparts rise 20 meters above the surrounding plain, but the interior of the site forms a depression up to 10 meters lower than the high ramparts. According to the Bible, Dan is the northern most point in ancient Israel and is the site for one of the two state temples of the kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 12). The identification of the site with biblical Dan is certain, thanks to a bilingual Greek and Aramaic inscription found in 1976 that reads, “To the God who is in Dan.”

Excavations of the site began in 1966 under the direction of Avraham Biran and continued through the end of the century. Three areas of the excavations are noteworthy. Zone 1 displays the mudbrick Middle Bronze gate (Area K); Zone 2 features a large Israelite gate complex (Areas A and AB) with upper and lower plazas and a nearby bazaar; finally, the Israelite temple (Area T) is visible in Zone 3.

The archaeological strata uncovered at the site, as illustrated in the site plan, date to the following periods:

	Roman Period
	Hellenistic Period
	Stratum I, Iron Age
	Stratum II Iron Age
	Stratum III, Iron Age
	Stratum IV, Iron Age
	Stratum VII, Late Bronze Period
	Middle Bronze Period