Dor in the Persian period: a Phoenician town on a street grid

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What the source says

The Persian-period page of the Hebrew University's Dor excavations opens with an inscription: in his epitaph Eshmunazar, king of Sidon, records that the "lord of kings", that is the Persian emperor, had given him the cities of Dor and Jaffa "and all the rich grain-lands" between them; an alternative reading, "the lands of Dagon", is given beside those words. According to the page, the Persians perpetuated the imperial strategy of the Assyrians and needed Phoenician shipping: in times of peace to bring them luxuries and raw materials from far-off lands, and in times of war to ferry their armies. Source 1.

The town itself

According to the page, at Dor the Persian period marks a cultural change: the town is "once again Phoenician", as evident in the building styles, in cultic finds such as figurines and in inscriptions. Remains of a well-built and bustling town, with streets dividing it into insulae, or blocks, are found in all excavation areas. Area A, local phases 6-7, has the "earliest evidence" for the orthogonal town plan of the Persian to Roman period. For Area C the page states that all three insulae and both streets were already built up in this period, and that although facades and inner partitions were shifted, the town plan changed little thereafter, until the Roman era. Source 1.

Industry and connections

In Area G the open area was "riddled with pits" in the Persian period, some containing refuse of the purple-dye industry. The page also notes finds that attest to the growing importance of Hellenic material culture, "including especially imported pottery from Athens". Source 1. A refuse pit points to production nearby, but the page does not describe the scale of production or where the dye went, and it does not date the dye installation it mentions in Area D1.

Dating and placement

The page gives no years: it speaks of "the Persian period" and of local phases, such as the "Earlier Persian Period" in Areas C and D1. On this site the Persian period is 539-331 BCE, after the Achaemenid rule of the Met's timeline. The same timeline enters the "Phoenician city-states" at about 700-117 BCE, a range that begins in this site's Iron Age and ends in its Hellenistic period. Source 2. "Phoenician" on the Dor page is therefore a cultural description, not a period name, and the placement in the Persian period rests on the excavators' own wording.

Dor and the Ma'agan Mikhael ship

The Ma'agan Mikhael ship also appears on this site's Persian period page. The Dor excavation page speaks of Phoenician shipping in general terms, and the ship is one dated find from the same period. They can be read side by side, but without assuming that the ship sailed from Dor or to it: the Dor page does not mention it, and the ship's page on this site does not mention Dor.

Scope of reading: the Persian-period page of the Hebrew University's Dor excavations was read on 24 October 2026, together with the Met timeline page for 1000 BCE-1 CE. The full excavation reports and editions of the Eshmunazar inscription were not read, and the Dor page does not say where the inscription was found or where it is kept.