Shortly after conquering Canaan after settling in their new tribal lands, the tribe of Dan was beginning to get more and more seafaring than most of the other tribes at this time during the Judges era (around about 1300 B.C.-1100 B.C.)
As one judge ,Deborah, says of the tribe of Dan; the Danites were always on/associated with ships sailing somewhere:
Judges 5:17
“…And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?”
The tribe of Dan’s territory was by the Mediterranean Sea, so it would make sense they would be associated with/be close to their ships. However, why were they always close to the ships (lingering)? It seems there was something attractive to some Danites about being out at sea rather than living in their holy land that they were given by God.
What were they doing constantly in the Mediterranean in their ships instead of in the promised land?
Why the Bible does not directly say what they were doing (just that they were out sailing a lot) there might be a strong hint in historical records in Mediterranean nations at this time:
Possible connection of The Danite sailors of the Bible and the Danaanite pirates in historic records
It’s very odd that right around this time when the tribe of Dan was becoming quite a sea faring tribe (around 1200-1100 B.C.) there were also a sea people recorded by other nations called the Danaans. (or Danauna, Danaouna, Deyen or Danaoi)They were pirates that would raid seacoast of nations around the Mediterranean (like Egypt, Cyprus, Crete,[some parts of] Phoenicia etc.) [1]
These Danaan pirates are very likely the same Danites that lingered in ships since the tribe of Dan often attached their names to things they conquered:
Joshua 19:47
“...the Danites…settled in Leshem and named it Dan after their ancestor.”
And very likely they attacked caring their name and these natives called them a version of their name:
Danites=Danaans,Danauna,Danaouna,Deyen,Danaoi pretty much all have the word ‘Dan’ in them:
A strong trait the tribe of Dan had thus a possibly strong hint these sea people were really these seafaring Danites!
These Danaans were most likely Danites that choose a life of pirating the seacoasts of non-Israelite nations rather than staying in their land of inheritance chosen by God and fighting off the rest of the Canaanites as they were commanded by God (through Joshua/Moses) to do.
Eventually it seems these pirate Danites (Danaans seemed to also be known as Achaeans to the Greeks[2]) seem to begin to lose ties with the land of Dan/Israel back in the Promise land and seem to instead permenately settle in Crete to rule the native Cretans along with another group of people known as the Dorians around about 1200 B.C.-1100 B.C. as the ancient Greek poet ,Homer, comments in his epic poem “The Odessey”:
“Crete awes the circling waves, a fruitful soil! And ninety cities crown the sea-born isle: Mix’d with her genuine sons, adopted names In various tongues avow their various claims: Cydonians, dreadful with the bended yew (the bow), And bold Pelasgi boast a native’s due: The Dorians, plumed amid the files of war, Her foodful glebe with fierce Achaians(also known as Danaans: thus connecting the Achaeans with the same pirate Danaans talked about earlier) share;…”[3]
Along with the Danite pirates are found another group of immigrants to Crete dominating the native Cretans (The Cydonians and Pelasgi) that also might be another wave of Danite (or possibly from another tribe even)/Israelite pirates:
Another possible connection to the Danite/Israelite pirates: the Dorian sailors found alongside the Danaanite pirates
Even though, unlike the Danaanites, there is no known historical records of the Dorian pirate's origins, there is something in the name of "Dorian" itself that seem to strongly link these Dorian invaders/pirates to a port city in ancient Israel at this time:
The strong connection to the city of Dor in ancient Israel and the Dorians
Dorians seems to be strongly connected from coming from to the port city of Dor not only just by name:
Dorian has the very word "Dor" in it:
Dorian=Dor
But also, there is a strong cultural link in the artifacts found from this time at the city of Dor and the Dorians (specifically to their descendants that eventually settled in Greece that will be talked about later) As this archeologist Describes:
“...We had been excavating at Tel Dor…As early as 1983 we discovered in our area sea Eastern side of the mound a favissa, a pit for storing cult objects, that contain clay figurines clearly fashioned in a Greek style the pottery was also Greek other favissa have been found on the Palestinian and Phoenician coast but this one was the first that contain purely Greek materials…the Dor favissa was our first indication that there have been a substantial Greek presence…”[4]
However, even though this archeologist says Greeks settled in ancient Dor and this is why these Greek-looking artifacts are found in Dor from this time: this most likely is not the reason: Because at this time, there is also evidence presented by the same archeologists that Dor was NOT a Greek colony but still largely Israelite (or a part of Israel: that is pretty much almost all of the people being Israelite):
“These houses of Yahweh, like the Jerusalem Temple, were served for the most part by hereditary priests. Several seals contain names designated with the title cohen, priest. One recently published seal refers to ‘Hanan son of Hilqiyahu the priest’.The ending –yahu is a form of Yahweh. Another seal, dating to the last days of the northern kingdom (late eighth century B.C.E.), mentions an Israelite priest active in the temple at Dor: ‘Zekharyo [-yo is a shortened form of Yahweh] the priest of Dor.’ Similarly, the prophet Amos reports that
(Amos 7:10)
‘Amazyah [-yah is another form of Yahweh] the priest of Bethel’ sent a message to King Jeroboam of Israel .’”[5]
This is proof that Israelites were strongly present at Dor at this time (like the Bible says):
Thus, most likely, The Dorians came from Dor but were not Greeks; they were Israelites but their descendants would later become known as Greeks.
From here these two waves of Danites(or Israelites since the Dorians Israelite tribal origins are not necessarily known but assumed to also be Danites) seem to pretty much lose their contact with the Danites that were left in the tribe of Dan back in Israel, and instead seem to move on from Crete into Greece as history shows:
A little later it seems the Danaans migrated from Crete to the Peloponnese Island around 1200 B.C.-1000 B.C. and became a part of or began the major part of Mycenaean civilization.
And some centuries later around 1000 B.C-900 B.C. the Dorians also left Crete and invaded the Peloponnese and ran the Danaanites away/enslaved them and settled in the southern tip of the Peloponnese Island[6]:
The majority of the conquered Danaans fled to the northern part of the Peloponnese where they founded Achaea and then became known as Achaeans the Dorians settled mostly in the southern Peloponnese and founded many cities (such as Cornith Sparta etc.):
Therefore by 800 B.C. if all this is true (and it seems to be) it seems good bit of Danites had seemed to have left Dan in Israel in large numbers and eventually had mostly seem to have forgotten their Danite/Israelite identity and instead became Greeks: The Danaans became the Achaean tribe of the Greeks and The Dorians became the Doric tribe of the Greeks: this would make 1/2 of ancient Greece roughly Israelite/Danite (The other Greek tribes: the Ionian and Aeolian tribes seems to be the native non-Israelite Javanite Greeks)[7].
The tribe of Dan (most likely) begins to be massively depleted in Israel
With two possible major migrations to Greece this probably would have taken not only many Danite men but also their wives and their children from their native land, this had to drop the Danite population in Israel by a very good number; but not all Danites left Israel for good, a good bit also stayed along with many other Israelite tribes of this time. There is really no way to tell how many Danites left their tribal home for the sea Crete/Greece but since this seems to be such (a) huge migration(s) to Greece we will assume for now at least half left their tribal territory in Israel. If half of the Danites did leave (as it seems a good portion left) then this means ½ of the tribe of Dan was missing (roughly 4.5% of Israel), and thus along with Judah’s tribe (Zerah) and another half of Simeon’s tribe missing by 900 B.C., a rough total of 10.6% of Israel is missing from the main group in Israel at this time by 900 B.C. (which would now be around 89.4% accounted for). [8]
Sources:
[1]
[A]
Historicaleve “Ramses III against the Sea Peoples” by Admin on 07/12/2021
Website:
https://historicaleve.com/ramses-iii-against-sea-peoples/
[B]
Wikipedia “Denyen”
Website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denyen
[2]
Wikipedia “Achaeans (Homer)”
Website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaeans_(Homer)
[3]
“THE DISCOVERY OF ULYSSES TO EURYCLEA” book XIX chapter 9 of “The Odessy” by Homer 725–675 B.C. somewhere in Asia minor/Aegean islands from Project Gutenberg Translated by Alexander Pope ARGUMENT. Uploaded on April 1, 2002
Website:
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3160/pg3160-images.html#chap09
[4]
“Gorgon Excavated at Dor” By Ephraim Stern from Biblical Archeology society (BAR) Volume 28 Number 6 (November/December 2002)
Website:
https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/gorgon-excavated-at-dor/
[5]
“Pagan Yahwism: The Folk Religion of Ancient Israel” By Ephraim Stern from Biblical archeology society (BAR) Volume 27 Number 3 (May/June 2001)
Website:
https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/pagan-yahwism-the-folk-religion-of-ancient-israel/
[6]
Wikipedia “Dorian invasion”
Website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorian_invasion
[7]
[A]
“Achaeans (tribe)”
Webiste:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaeans_(tribe)
[B]
Wikipedia “Dorians”
Webiste:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorians
[8]
The tribe of Dan would be 1 out of 12(or more specifically/technically 11 [because roughly half of the tribe of Judah and Simeon are missing at this time]: making roughly 11) tribes of Israel. So what percentage was the whole tribe of Dan
So % of Dan=?
11/1=98.1/? cross multiply: 98.1=11?, divide 98.1/11=11?/11 so 8.9=? or 8.9%. so half of the tribe of Dan is roughly: 8.9/2=4.5 or 4.5% so if half of the tribe of Dan did leave then roughly 4.5% of Israel is gone so: 4.5%+6.1%=10.6% of Israel is missing from the main group (which is now 89.4%:100%-10.6%=89.4%).