Tel Dan Excavations - Essay Example

TEL DAN EXCAVATIONS TEL DAN EXCAVATIONS Historical Background In 1838, Edward Robinson identified Dan-Laish with Tel-Dan archaeological excavations. It was first called Tell El-Qadi, or “mound of the judge”; it was located at the north-eastern part of the Hula Valley and was at the source of the River Jordan. Subsequent excavations by Avraham Biran uncovered Greek and Aramaic inscriptions about Dan, definitively confirming Robinson’s identification1. Dan refers to the tribe of Dan, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. It is described in Judges, 18:27-29, which states that the Danites settled in the place of Laish; they fought and burned the city and named it after their ancestor, Dan. The first mention of Dan is in Genesis, 14:14, when Lot was taken captive by armed men, and so Abram chased them up to Dan, a city first called Laish or Leshem. Dan-Laish was founded in the fifth millennium BC. It was a prosperous city, with a sloping earth rampart and mud-brick triple-arched gate as defence, which allowed the inhabitants to feel safe and secure. Biran surmised that the formidable sloping earth rampart with a gate was the one Abraham saw when he reached the city2. Thesis Statement The Tel Dan excavations can unravel the conflicting mysteries, or events, of biblical history. The excavations are slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle back together. Significance of Tel Dan Discoveries So much has been said of the Tel Dan mysteries that in 1966 archaeologist Avraham Biran began digging the site for its secrets. Biran stressed biblical archaeology, with the two important disciplines, archaeological research and biblical studies, as the base for their excavations and efforts. These made a positive effect on their work3. An important discovery is the house of David inscription. This is a ninth century BCE victory statement in Aramaic language and inscribed on a basalt stone. The inscription is attributed to an Aramaic king Hazael of Damascus, who conquered the city of Dan around the 840s, decorated the inscription in a public place to indicate his power and sovereignty over the city. When the Israelites recaptured the city, they torn and broke down the inscription and reused it as construction material. Archaeologists led by Avraham Biran so far discovered three fragments of the inscriptions, which they found within the walls of the outer gate4. The inscription tells us that the Aramaic king killed the kings of Israel (Joram) and Judah (Ahaziah). But this is contrary to the texts in the 2nd Book of Kings, Chapter 9, where Jehu killed Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah. These are two interesting contradictions that need to be clarified, probably with the help of future finds at Tel Dan. The inscriptions were found in three fragments, all found in the same general area of Tel Dan. On July 21, 1993, the first fragment, named Fragment A, was discovered at the base of a wall in one of the excavation sites. It was found reused as construction material for the wall. The second fragment is known as Fragment B1, found on June 20, 1994, at the site’s Iron Age wall. Fragment B1 was located at a small shrine that dates back to 733 BCE, a time of conquest of northern Israel by Tiglath-Pileser III. Ten days after B1 was found, Fragment B2 was discovered; it was used as a flagstone, between the pavement and the city wall. The three fragments are considered to be contemporary and broken at the same time, even if they were found on different dates5. Another significance of the discoveries is the temple at Tel Dan, a surviving temple complex in biblical Israel after Solomon’s temple and other holy places in Jerusalem were destroyed by occupying forces. This Israelite temple is attributed to King Jeroboam I who led the establishment of an independent kingdom of Israel. King Jeroboam built new temples separate from Jerusalem, and these were at Bethel, south of Israel, and at Dan on the north. In these new temples, Jeroboam set up an idol for the people to worship, a golden bull calf, similar to the one the Israelites were made to worship when they were out of Egypt. This act was a political attempt on the part of Jeroboam, but the Bible calls it the “sin of Jeroboam”6. The excavations also discovered the remains of a large city, dating back to the third and second millennium BCE. The discovery laid before the archaeologists a city that existed before the arrival of the tribe of Dan. The excavations uncovered a settlement where there were layer of pits believed to be associated with nomadic people who lived in huts and stored their food in those pits. Pottery was found, including jars dating back to the Iron Age. In the book of Judges, 18:2, a reference was made to the Danites who pitched camp in a place named Kiryat Yearim, calling it “Mahaneh Dan”, referring to the tent camp of the Danites, who were nomadic at that time. The people were engaged in metal work because of the finds of crucibles, furnaces, and metal slag. The Danites were not just shepherds but also involved in metallurgy7. In other areas of the town, Biran and his volunteers found houses made of stone and mud brick, and what was surprising was that there were infant jar burials beneath the floors. They also found stone-built tombs and funerary offerings in the tombs, which suggested the rich culture of the inhabitants8. The city named Dan is again mentioned in the Old Testament within the context of Danites’ settlement in the north. In Joshua, 19:47, it was mentioned that the Danites fought against Leshem and then took hold of the land and named it after Dan, their ancestor9. Progress at the Site Tel Dan excavations will play an important role in the current biblical studies. There are current biblical studies that need further explanations. Explanations will be supported by archaeological findings from ancient sites, like those of Tel Dan excavations. Dr. David Ilan of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the host of other archaeologists, volunteers and students of archaeology and biblical studies are still digging for fresh archaeological finds at the site. There’s still a large area for them to dig even deeper. A large portion of the town and settlement at Tel Dan are still untouched and undiscovered. More of these finds will have significance to current biblical questions like the events that transpired in the Old Testament times. BIBLIOGRAPHY Athas, George. The Tel Dan Inscription: A Reappraisal and a New Introduction. London and New York: T&T Clark International, 2003. Biran, Avraham. “Tel Dan: Biblical Texts and Archaeological Data”. In Scripture and other Artefacts: Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Honour of Philip J. King, edited by Michael D. Coogan, J. Cheryl Exum and Lawrence E. Stager, 1-17. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994. Charlesworth, James. Jesus and Archaeology. UK: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006. “Tel Dan.” Find a Dig. http://digs.bib-arch.org/digs/tel-dan.asp (accessed 1 August 2012). “The Expedition, A New Chapter in Archaeology Unfolds.” Tel Dan Excavations. http://teldan.wordpress.com/excavations/ (accessed August 1, 2012). Read More