Home of the “House of David” Inscription

Tel Dan is located in the scenic Hula Valley in northern Israel, where the largest tributary of the Jordan River begins its course south. In the Hebrew Bible the site is referred to as Laish (Genesis 14:14; Joshua 19:47; Judges 18:29), a name also used for the site in Egyptian and Mesopotamian texts from the Middle Bronze Age. Excavations by the famed Israeli archaeologist Avraham Biran found that Dan was indeed a major Canaanite town of the Middle Bronze Age, as shown by a massive and remarkably intact three-archway city gate built of mudbrick.

Dan is perhaps most famous, however, for being an important administrative and cultic center of the northern kingdom of Israel during the Iron Age. According to 1 Kings 12, Jeroboam I set up a golden bull in Dan’s major temple to rival the traditional Yahwistic cult of the Jerusalem Temple. Amazingly, Biran’s excavations actually uncovered the remnants of the Dan shrine, thus not only confirming the Biblical narrative but also providing important archaeological evidence about the royal cult of northern Israel. In addition, while excavating Dan’s Iron Age levels, Biran came across several fragments of the famous “House of David” inscription. Although the recovered pieces—originally part of a stele of the Aramaean king Hazael—provided fresh historical insight into the relationship between the kingdom of Israel and their Aramaean neighbors to the north, the inscription famously provided the first and only known mention of King David outside the Bible.

Biran has now given the task of excavating Dan to archaeologists David Ilan, Ryan Byrne and Nili Fox. In returning to Dan this summer, these archaeologists plan to expose houses and private installations dating to the latter half of the Iron Age when the Assyrians had occupied the site. They will also further excavate the enigmatic set of buildings located just outside the Iron Age city gate. It was in the constructional fill layers of these features that Biran recovered the first fragments of the House of David inscription. Will you be the one to find the missing pieces?

Project volunteers will reside at the air-conditioned Mt. Hermon Field School, where they will be housed two to a room. In addition to having laundry facilities and internet access, the school is located close to hiking trails, a swimming pool and a grocery store.