Jaffa is an ancient settlement that has been inhabited intermittently for over four thousand years, today as part of the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. The Mound of Jaffa is in the heart of the modern city and so is the area surrounding the Mound. The fact that the modern city is built on the ancient layers makes it difficult to excavate the city, but over the years initiated excavations and salvage excavations carried out in the city have shed light on the ancient times of Jaffa. Additional knowledge about ancient Jaffa comes from ancient written sources.
Jaffa during the Bronze Age
Few findings from the Early Bronze Age (3700-2400 BC) indicate the beginning of a settlement in Jaffa already in this period, and in the Middle Bronze Age (1950-1530 BC) the city was fortified with a glacis (sloping wall) and this is probably the period when Jaffa became a real city . The Late Bronze Age in Jaffa is rich in archaeological finds and the city is also mentioned in Egyptian sources. From this period, a gate was found with the titles of Ramesses II (1264-1198 BC) engraved on its beams. Later, in the Late Bronze Age, another gate, city-walls and a citadel were discovered. Adjacent to the citadel, a small room was built and on its floor a skull of a lion and an Egyptian scarab were found. The excavator of the site Jacob Kaplan thought that it is a temple. The last layer of the Late Bronze Age was destroyed by fire in the 13th century BC and the Egyptian presence in the city ended. In written sources, Jaffa is first mentioned in an inscription engraved on the walls of a temple in Karnak in Egypt in the list of cities conquered by Pharaoh Thutmose III around 1460 BC; after that, it is mentioned in Papyrus Harris 500 that tells a story about the rebellion of the city of Jaffa against the Egyptian rule and its recapture by an Egyptian general in a trick similar to the Trojan horse. In the Al-Amarna letters from the 14th century BC, Jaffa is mentioned as a city with granaries belonging to the king of Egypt, and in a letter from Afek, Jaffa is mentioned as a city where an Egyptian official resides. The archaeological findings and the written sources testify to Jaffa as an important city for the Egyptian rule in Canaan during the Late Bronze Age.
Jaffa during the Iron Age, the Persian period and the Hellenistic period
From the Iron Age I (12th and 11th centuries BC) Philistine pottery from the 11th century BC was found, but the remains from this period are few. From the rest of the Iron Age the remains are more numerous and probably indicate an increase in the importance of the settlement in the place. From the 10th and 9th centuries B.C., winepresses were found and a glacis was built on top of the Middle Bronze Age glacis. Jaffa is mentioned in Assyrian sources from the end of the 8th century as a city controlled by Ashkelon along with other cities in the region.
During the Persian period (539-332 BCE), Jaffa continued to expand and remains from the period were found all over the mound and at its foot. Phoenician construction techniques and Phoenician pottery were discovered in this layer. This find corresponds with the inscription engraved on the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II, King of Sidon, which says that Dor and Jaffa were given to Eshmunazar by the Persian king.
During the Hellenistic period (332-63 BC) the city continued to grow and excavations revealed residential quarters, a citadel, a large building that may have been used as an agora (Hellenistic market), a building with an altar that may have been used for worship and a burial cave. In the Hasmonean period (140-63 BC) The city shrunk but continued to exist and a cache of about eight hundred coins from the time of Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BC) was found in the city.
Jaffa in later periods
Jaffa continued to be inhabited in later periods. It was a very limited settlement in the Roman period (63 BC to 324 AD) and flourished in the Byzantine period (324-638) and then a another reduction in the area of the city in the Early Islamic period (638-1099). In the Crusader period (1099-1268) the city was fortified and prospered until it was destroyed by the Mamluks in 1268. During the Ottoman period (1517-1917) the city recovered slowly and in the 18th century it began to grow rapidly and became one of the most important cities in the country.
Jaffa in the Bible
In the Bible Jaffa is mentioned four times: in the book of Joshua (29:46), Jaffa is mentioned as a city located near the Yarkon in the territory of the tribe of Dan; In the book of Jonah (1:3) as a city from which Jonah the prophet sails to Tarshish; In the book of Ezra (3:7) as a city to which cedar trees are brought from Lebanon for the construction of the Second Temple; And in 2 Chronicles (2:15) as the city where cedar trees are brought from Lebanon to build the first temple (the temple of Solomon).
The excavations in Jaffa
The main excavations in Jaffa were carried out by P.L.O Guy on behalf of the Antiquities Department between 1945 and 1950 and by Jacob Kaplan on behalf of the Jaffa Museum of Antiquities between 1955 and 1974. In addition to the main excavations, many salvage excavations were done over the years in limited areas on and outside the ancient mound.
Hiblical Hiking Map
Sources
R. Gophna and E. Ayalon. 2015. Yafo (Jaffa) (site 25), Map 70 (Tel Aviv-Yafo), The Archaeological Survey of Israel.
J.P. Dessel. 2011. Jaffa. In E.C. Meyers (ed.) The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East.
A. Burke, K. Lords, M. Peilstocker, K. Keimer and G. Pierce. 2010. Egyptians in Jaffa: A Portrait of Egyptian Presence in Jaffa during the Late Bronze Age. Near Eastern Archaeology Vol. 73:1, 2-30.
ל. ראוכרברגר. 2015. יפו, מתחם הדואר. גיליון 127.