Dar was born in 1935 in Lublin, Poland. He studied archaeology at the Avshalom Institute between the years 1957 to 1960. From 1969 to 1981 he studied at Tel-Aviv University for his B.A. and M.A. (with distinction) followed by his Ph.D. studies of History of the Jewish People. His doctorate was "The Settlement Pattern of Western Samaria in the Periods of the Second Temple, Mishna, the Talmud and the Byzantine Period". Later to be published as a book in Hebrew in 1982. The book was translated to English in 1986.[2]
In 1980 Dar became a Teaching Associate at the Bar-Ilan university. In 1998 he became a professor and by 1999 Head of Department Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, until 2002. Following that he became Professor Emeritus in 2023.[1]