PreViews

Excavations at Dor

Ephraim Stern Qedem Reports I and II (Jerusalem: Hebrew University/Israel Exploration Society, 1995), 2 vols., 369 pp. and 503 pp., $140 plus $21shipping

The Ancient Harbour and Anchorage at Dor

Sean A. Kingsley, Kurt Raveh et al. British Archaeological Reports (Oxford, UK: Tempus Reparatum, 1996), 123 pp. plus drawings, charts, maps and photos, $56

Dor is an excavators’s dream: Each new layer reveals the presence, long ago, of yet another civilization. Canaanites, Sikhils (one of the Sea Peoples), Phoenicians, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans all occupied this distinctive mound, on the Israeli coast about 12 miles south of Haifa. From 1980 to 1987 Ephraim Stern directed excavations at Dor’s Area A and C, on the eastern part of the mound, and these two large volumes constitute the dig’s final report. The first volume traces Dor’s archaeological history stratum by stratum—from the Late Bronze Age through the Byzantine period—and presents the excavators’ conclusions about the various historical periods. The second volume catalogues and analyzes the finds. Both volumes are copiously illustrated with black-and-white photos, maps, drawings, charts and ceramic typologies.