Tel Dothan
Dothan is a location mentioned twice in the Hebrew Bible. It has been identified with Tell Dothan, also known as Tell al-Hafireh, located adjacent to the Palestinian town of Bir al-Basha, and ten kilometers southwest of Jenin in the West Bank, near Dotan Junction of Route 60.
Identification
The modern consensus is that the archaeological site of Tell Dothan corresponds to ancient Dothan.Eusebius places Dothan 12 miles to the north of Sebaste; broadly consistent with the modern location.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 Crusaders and later medieval travelers had located Dothan at the village of Hittin.Hebrew Bible
Dothan is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in connection with the history of Joseph, as the place in which the sons of Jacob had moved their sheep and, at the suggestion of Judah, the brothers sold Joseph to the Ishmaelite merchants. It later appears as the residence of Elisha and the scene of a vision of chariots and horses of fire surrounding the mountain on which the city stood.The plain near Dothan is also mentioned in the apocryphal Book of Judith.
History and archaeology
Northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
Dothan served as an Israelite administrative centre, and archaeologists have discovered a large complex and Hebrew inscriptions at the site. During Iron Age II, it was a city in the 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.A bronze bull was 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.
During excavations carried out at Tel Dothan several epigraphic findings were discovered. One of them is the Abisur Bulla, a Hebrew inscribed bulla found in the collapse of a four-room house dating to the late 9th or early 8th century BC. That bulla was once used as a seal for a textile sack. This is evidence by the impressions of cord and fabric on the bulla's reverse. The bulla is considered significant because it bears the first known mention of the Hebrew personal name Abisur. Additionally, its inscription is topped by Phoenician-style hieroglyphs. As one of the earliest datable seals from the Kingdom of Israel, it is an important benchmark for local literacy between the late Iron Age IIA and the early Iron Age IIB.
In excavations carried out in a later phase of the site, a fragmentary inked ostracon was found in Area L, of which only three complete letters survive. It uses the Aramaic script, and the letters are paleographically dated to the 7th century BC. This is important since it adds evidence for the changing of local literacy practices during the post-Israelite period.
Crusader period
Castellum Beleismum or Chastiau St Job was the Frankish name of a tower built by the Crusaders on the ancient tell in 1156 and given to the Hospitallers in 1187.Modern discovery
visited the site in 1851 and was considered the first modern traveller to visit it. He described the discovery in his 1854 book:...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". "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.
Van de Velde's visit had taken place a few days before Edward Robinson's; Robinson credited van ve Velde with the discovery.