For more than four millennia, the natural harbor of Dor—a small but important bay nestled between the Carmel range and the Plain of Sharon—attracted sailors, merchants and generals from across the ancient world. History tells us that the originally Canaanite harbor town of Dor had become a focus of Philistine and Phoenician settlement by the time the Egyptian Wen-Amon arrived at the port in the late 12th century B.C. From the Book of Kings, we learn that Solomon made Dor one of his 12 administrative governorates, a status the city retained throughout much of its Assyrian and Persian history. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Dor became a significant Greco-Roman port city with paved streets, monumental temples, a theater, a complex water and sewer system and a major walled fortress.

For most of the past three decades, an international team of archaeologists has been piecing together the material remnants of Tel Dor’s long and continuous occupation. Major finds include a huge stone gate dated to the time of Solomon, intricately designed cylinder seals of the Assyrian province, beautiful terracotta figurines from the Persian period and, of course, the well-preserved architectural remains and fortification walls of the Greco-Roman city. Recent excavation at the site has also revealed one of the largest murex dye industrial complexes ever found along the Levantine coast.

This season, archaeologists will be focusing on uncovering strata from the Biblical period, including excavating an Iron Age II monumental building. Volunteers will also help investigate the rich Hellenistic layers that cover much of Tel Dor. Volunteers can work with one of three groups; one, affiliated with the University of Washington, concentrates on the classical period and art history; the second, led by Professor Elizabeth Bloch-Smith of St. Joseph’s University, focuses on the Biblical period and on archaeological methods and theory. Those interested in conservation will work with Dr. Ann Killebrew of Pennsylvania State University.

Participants will stay three to four to a room in the nearby Kfar Galim Youth Village. Rooms are air-conditioned and include private bathrooms and shared access to kitchenettes.

Ilan Sharon is the co-director of the excavation at Tel Dor, where he has been on staff since the project began in 1980. He began work as an excavator when he was 16, but did not pursue it as a career until nine years later; he earned a degree in mathematics in the meantime.

Dr. Sharon is currently Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In addition to the Tel Dor excavation, he is also studying the Hellenization of the Levant, absolute dating of the early Iron Age in Israel and mathematical characterization of artifact profiles.

Co-director of the Tel Dor excavations, Ayelet Gilboa has been digging there since 1980. She handles the early periods of the site—the Iron Age and before. She is in charge of the Tel Dor group from Haifa University, where she has been Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology since 2001. In addition to digging at Dor, she has excavated at Sepphoris and the Yesud Hama’ala synagogue.

Dr. Gilboa is editor of Atigot and IAA Reports, the Israel Antiquities Authority’s monograph and excavation-report series, and was previously assistant editor of the New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land.