Editing Tel Dothan

{{short description|Biblical city and archaeological site}}
[[File:Tel_Dotan3.jpg|thumb|Tel Dothan]]
'''Dothan''' ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: {{Script/Hebrew|דֹתָן}}) (also Dotan) was a location mentioned twice in the [[Hebrew Bible]]. It has been identified with '''Tel Dothan''' ({{langx|ar|تل دوثان}}), also known as '''Tel al-Hafireh''', located adjacent to the [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] town of [[Bir al-Basha]],<ref name="Shahin2005">{{cite book|last=Shahin|first=Mariam|title=Palestine: A Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ZTtAAAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Interlink Books|isbn=978-1-56656-557-8|quote= Tel al-Hafireh (Tel Dothan) Tel al-Hafireh is an archeological site that lies 6 kilometers south of Jenin, close to the village of Bir al-Basha. }}</ref> and ten kilometers (driving distance) southwest of [[Jenin]] in the [[West Bank]], near Dotan Junction of [[Highway 60 (Israel–Palestine)|Route 60]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~semitic/wl/digsites/Cisjordan/Dothan_02/ |title=Tel Dothan 2002 Overview |author1=Daniel M. Master |author2=John Monson |publisher=Harvard University: Faculty of arts and Sciences |access-date=2011-07-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704032946/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~semitic/wl/digsites/Cisjordan/Dothan_02/ |archive-date=2010-07-04 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.panoramio.com/photo/4783910 |title=Tel Dothan (photo and map) |publisher=panoramio.com |access-date=2011-07-24}}</ref><ref name="Robinson">Robinson, Edward, [https://books.google.com/books?id=bdjeBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA122 Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions], second edition, page 122; "footnote 434: We learned afterwards from Mr Van de Velde, that he too had unexpectedly lighted upon Dothan a few days earlier."</ref>

==Identification==
[[File:1940s Survey of Palestine map of Tel Dothan.png|thumb|1940s [[Survey of Palestine]] map of the area]]

The modern consensus is that the archaeological site of Tel Dothan corresponds to ancient Dothan.

[[Eusebius]] places Dothan 12 miles to the north of [[Sebastia, Nablus|Sebaste]]; broadly consistent with the modern location.<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/eusebius_onomasticon_03_notes.htm#671 Eusebius of Caesarea, Onomasticon (1971), Notes edited by. C. Umhau Wolf] under "Merran", accessed 27 December 2017</ref>[[Image:Dothan, where Joseph was sold by his brethren American Colony, Jerusalem.jpg|right|thumb|View of Tel Dothan]]

===Other proposed locations===
Van de Velde noted that the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem|Crusaders]] and later mediaeval travellers had located Dothan at the village of [[Hittin]].<ref name="VDV" />

==Hebrew Bible==
Dothan is first mentioned in the [[Hebrew Bible]] ([[Book of Genesis]]) in connection with the history of [[Joseph (Hebrew Bible)|Joseph]], as the place in which the sons of [[Jacob]] (Israel) had moved their sheep and, at the suggestion of [[Judah (biblical figure)|Judah]], the brothers sold Joseph to the [[Ishmaelites|Ishmaelite]] merchants ({{bibleverse|Gen.|37:17}}). It later appears as the residence of [[Elisha]] ([[Second Book of Kings]], {{bibleverse|2 Kings|6:13}}) and the scene of a vision of chariots and horses of fire surrounding the mountain on which the city stood.<ref>2 Kings 6:17</ref>
[[File:Northern views. Joseph's Well at Dothan.jpg|thumb|Northern views. Joseph's Well at Dothan]]

The plain near Dothan is also mentioned in the [[apocrypha]]l [[Book of Judith]].<ref>{{bibleverse||Judith|4:6|NRSV}}</ref>

==History and archaeology==
===Northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria)===
Dothan served as an [[Israelites|Israelite]] administrative centre, and archaeologists have discovered a large complex and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] inscriptions at the site.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dothan I: Remains from the Tell (1953-1964).|author1=Master |author2=Monson |author3=Lass |author4=Peirce|publisher=Eisenbrauns|year=2005|location=Winona Lake}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Miglio|date=2014|title=Epigraphic Artifacts from Tell Dothan|journal=BASOR}}</ref> During Iron Age II, it was a city in the [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Kingdom of Israel]]. Archaeologist [[William G. Dever]] estimates the city's population to have been around 1,200 people during the 9th and 8th centuries BCE.<ref name=":022">{{Cite book |last=Dever |first=William G. |title=Beyond the Texts: an archaeological portrait of ancient Israel and Judah |date=2017 |publisher=SBL Press |isbn=978-0-88414-218-8 |location=Atlanta |pages=393}}</ref>

A bronze bull has been found in an Israelite sanctuary east of Tell Dothan, in the mountains of Samaria, dated to around the 11th century, which may be related to the episode of the golden calf.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

===Crusader period===
Castellum Beleismum (Latin) or Chastiau St Job (medieval French)<ref name=Ellenblum2007>{{cite book | first=R.|last=Ellenblum|author-link= Ronnie Ellenblum |title= Crusader Castles and Modern Histories |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year= 2007 |page= 173 |isbn= 9781139462556 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=oiYgyRyL97oC&pg=PA173 |access-date=7 June 2020}}</ref> was the Frankish name of a tower built by the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem|Crusaders]] on the ancient tell in 1156 and given to the [[Knights Hospitaller|Hospitallers]] in 1187.

===Modern discovery===
[[Charles William Meredith van de Velde]] visited the site in 1851, and was considered the first modern traveller to visit it.<ref name="Bonar1858">{{cite book|last=Bonar|first=Horatius|title=The Land of Promise: Notes of a Spring-journey from Beersheba to Sidon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hAhIAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA384|year=1858|publisher=James Nisbet & Company|pages=384|quote= See Van de Velde's Syria and Palestine vol. i. p. 364. That traveller may claim the discovery of the site. He visited the spot, whereas E Robinson, like ourselves, only had it pointed out at a distance}}</ref> He described the discovery in his 1854 book:<ref name=VDV>{{cite book|last=Velde, van de |first=Charles William Meredith|author-link=Charles William Meredith van de Velde |title=Narrative of a journey through Syria and Palestine in 1851 and 1852|url=https://archive.org/details/narrativeajourn00veldgoog  |volume=1 |year=1854|publisher=William Blackwood and son|page=[https://archive.org/details/narrativeajourn00veldgoog/page/n391 364]}}</ref>
<blockquote>...I saw a huge tell at the distance of only a few hundred yards from our way, covered over with ruins, and the fragment of an ancient aqueduct, that had been supported on arches. I asked Abu Monsur the name of the tell, and the answer was, "Haida Dothan" (that is, Dothan). "Dothan," I asked, "Dothan?" "Nahm; Dothan, Dothan, Dothan!" exclaimed the testy old shech, as if hurt at my not believing him at the instant. My object in reiterating the question was to get him to repeat the name; for the discovery of Dothan was a very special circumstance, with respect to which I was anxious to assure myself, by having the name properly pronounced.</blockquote>

Van de Velde's visit had taken place a few days before Edward Robinson's;<ref name=Robinson/> Robinson credited van ve Velde with the discovery.<ref name="MasterLarsen2005">{{cite book|last1=Master|first1=Daniel M.|last2=Larsen|first2=Timothy|last3=Monson|first3=John |author4=Egon H. E. Lass |author5=George A. Pierce|title=Dothan: Remains from the Tell (1953-1964)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=teYKqG08BRwC|year=2005|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=978-1-57506-115-3|page=7}}</ref>

==Modern use of the name==
The [[Israeli settlement]] of [[Mevo Dotan]] (lit. ''Approach to Dothan'') is named for the city, as is [[Dothan, Alabama]] in the US.

==See also==
*[[Archaeology of Israel]]
*[[List of biblical places]]
*[[Jubb Yussef (Joseph's Well)]] in Galilee, believed by Muslims to be the site of Joseph's pit or well

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin}}
*{{cite book|title=Tent work in Palestine. A record of discovery and adventure |volume=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/tentworkinpales00condgoog|first=C.R.|last=Conder|year=1878|author-link=Claude Reignier Conder|publisher=Internet.archive (from Harvard collection)|ref=none}} (pp. [https://archive.org/stream/tentworkinpales00condgoog#page/n148/mode/1up 116] -117)
*{{cite book|last1=Conder|first1=C.R.|author-link1=Claude Reignier Conder|last2=Kitchener|first2=H.H.|author-link2=Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|year=1882|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp02conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|location=London|publisher=[[Palestine Exploration Fund|Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund]]|volume=2|ref=none}}  (p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft#page/215/mode/1up 215])
*{{cite book|last=Guérin|first=V.|author-link=Victor Guérin|title=Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine|url=https://archive.org/details/descriptiongogr04gugoog|volume=2: Samarie, pt. 2|year=1875|publisher= L'Imprimerie Nationale|location=Paris|language=fr|ref=none}} (pp. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr04gugoog#page/n244/mode/1up 219]-222)
*{{cite book|last= Maundrell|first=H.|author-link=Henry Maundrell |title= A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem: At Easter, A. D. 1697 |url=https://archive.org/details/gri_journeyfroma00maun  |year=1703 |publisher=Printed at the Theatre |location=Oxford|ref=none}}   (p. [https://archive.org/stream/gri_journeyfroma00maun#page/n86/mode/1up 57])
*{{cite book|last=Palmer|first=E.H.|author-link=Edward Henry Palmer|year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer|publisher=[[Palestine Exploration Fund|Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund]]|ref=none}}  (p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/194/mode/1up 194])
*{{cite book|last1=Robinson|first1=E.|author-link1=Edward Robinson (scholar)|last2=Smith|first2=E.|author-link2=Eli Smith|year=1841|url=https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearch03robiuoft |title=Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838|  location=Boston|publisher=[[Crocker & Brewster]]|volume=3|ref=none}}  (pp. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/316/mode/1up  316] - 317)
*{{cite book|last=Zertal|first=A.|author-link=Adam Zertal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vt-IvRhCEyYC |title=The Manasseh Hill Country Survey|volume=1|location=Boston|publisher=BRILL|year=2004|isbn=9004137564|ref=none}} (pp.  [https://books.google.com/books?id=Vt-IvRhCEyYC&pg=PA149 149]-150)
{{Refend}}
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==External links==
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11: [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8373 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.11.jpg Wikimedia commons]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=teYKqG08BRwC&dq=dothan+valley&pg=PA11 Dothan: Remains from the tel (1953-1964), Daniel M. Master]

[[Category:Book of Genesis]]
[[Category:Torah cities]]
[[Category:Canaanite cities]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Samaria]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in the West Bank]]
[[Category:Joseph (Genesis)]]