Samson, the
legendary warrior against the Philistines, was said to be a member of this tribe. Later,
the bible claims that the tribe moved to the northern part of the land (Judges
18), apparently due to military pressure by the Philistines. There, its principal
settlement was Tel Dan. The move involved a religious act of defiance, when the
Dan people installed their own independent legacy of Levite clergy.The bible describes
Dan as a sea faring tribe, and the tribe may be the same as the Danua mentioned
in egyptian accounts. The original territory
of Dan, before the move to the north, is approximately the metropolitan area of
Tel Aviv. metropolis is known in Hebrew as Gush Dan - the Dan area.
When Jeroboam led the revolt of the northern tribes and established the Kingdom
of Israel, Dan was one of the tribes in it, and so would count as one of the Lost
Tribes exiled by the Assyrians. The Beta Israel,
a group of Jews living in Ethiopia which was isolated from Israel until the 19th
century claim to be descendants of the Tribe of Dan, though it is not clear how
they got there. During the period of activity
by the Sea Peoples, a group referred to as the Danoi appear and receive mention
in Homer (and subsequently danae is introduced into greek mythology explaining
their co-heritage with the greeks. The majority of academics researching Homer
think that the Danoi are the same group as either the tribe of Dan, the Danua,
or both. The Danua were part of a tribal confederation known as the Sea Peoples,
which also included - Peleset (the Philistines; Sea
Peoples)
- Shekelesh (taken to mean men of Sheker and thus possibly
Issachar)
- Tjekker (thought to mean of Acco, and thus may refer to Manessah)
- Weshesh
(technically Uashesh, and thus may refer to Asher)
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