From December 2005 until October 2006, salvage excavations were conducted on four streets in the flea market compound in Yafo (Jaffa; Permit No. A-4675; map ref. NIG 21230–8/62707–12; OIG 16230–8/12707–12), prior to development. The excavations, carried out on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and financed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, were directed by Y. Arbel, with the assistance of L. Rauchberger and M. Cohen (area supervision), R. Haim and R. Assis (assistance in area supervision), S. Ya‘aqov-Jam and E. Bechar (administration), V. Essman and V. Pirsky (surveying and drafting), T. Sagiv (field photography), Y. Nagar (physical anthropology), C. Raphael (metallurgical laboratory), P. Gendelman (pottery), Y. Gorin-Rosen (glass), R. Kool (numismatics), M. Sadeh (archaeozoology) and G. Finkielsztejn (Rhodian handles). Additional assistance was rendered by M. Peilstöker, T. Shacham of the Jaffa Museum and Y. Drey.
The excavations were undertaken in the southern part of the flea market compound, on Rabbi Na
hman, Rabbi
Haninah, Rabbi Pin
has and Rabbi Tan
hum Streets (Fig. 1). These excavations are an additional phase in a project that includes excavating the streets of the marketplace, where preliminary probes revealed ancient remains (
HA-ESI 118). Limitations in the extent and depth of the excavated areas precluded the exposure of complete assemblages and in most cases, bedrock was not reached. Construction and road paving activities from the time of the British Mandate caused substantial damage to the excavation areas. The exposed antiquities included building remains, installations, rock-cuttings, tombs, a road and a city wall. The finds dated to the Iron Age and the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods.
Table 1. Preliminary Stratigraphy
Stratum |
Period |
Remains |
I |
British Mandate |
Lime pits, refuse pits and septic pits |
II |
Ottoman |
Well, paved road, water channels |
III |
Mamluk |
Tombs |
IV |
Crusader |
City wall, residential buildings |
V |
Early Islamic
|
Isolated walls, refuse concentrations, scattered potsherds |
VI |
Byzantine |
Industrial building, isolated walls |
VII |
Roman |
Tombs |
VIII |
Hellenistic |
Residential buildings |
IX |
Persian |
|
X |
Iron |
Remains of a plastered structure (a water reservoir?), potsherds |
XI |
Late Bronze Age |
Several potsherds (discovered in later pottery assemblages on Rabbi Pinhas St.) |
Table 2. The Strata Exposed in the Different Excavations
Street/Stratum |
I |
II |
III |
IV |
V |
VI |
VII |
VIII |
IX |
X |
XI |
Rabbi Nahman |
|
|
+ |
+ |
+ |
+ |
|
|
|
|
|
Rabbi Hanina |
+ |
+ |
|
|
+ |
+ |
|
+ |
+ |
|
|
Rabbi Pinhas |
|
+ |
+ |
+ |
+ |
+ |
+ |
+ |
+ |
+ |
|
Rabbi Tanhum |
|
+ |
+ |
+ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rabbi Nahman Street
The excavation, conducted in a section between ‘Ami‘ad and Rabbi Pinhas Streets, was limited to a depth of 1.5 m. Seven Muslim pit graves, oriented east–west, were discovered along the street. The graves were found only several centimeters above the floors of the Crusader period (Stratum IV; below) and therefore it is reasonable to date them to the Mamluk period or the beginning of the Ottoman period (Stratum III; fourteenth–sixteenth centuries CE), at which time the site was uninhabited.
Meager construction remains in the northern part of the area belonged to two sub-phases of Stratum IV (twelfth–thirteenth centuries CE). The remains ascribed to the later sub-phase included tamped-earth floors, wall sections, scattered plaster fragments and simple installations. The earlier sub-phase comprised a wall section built of kurkar masonry stones and a corner of two walls that were built of fieldstones (Fig. 2); it seems that these were the foundations of walls. A large dressed stone, delimited by a stone pavement, was also ascribed to the early sub-phase. The stone was probably used as a column base. In the other parts of the excavation area, floors ascribed to Stratum IV were discovered. Sections of a poured plaster floor were found in the middle of the street while tamped-earth floors occurred in the southern part of the street.
Potsherds dating mainly to the Byzantine (Stratum VI) and Early Islamic (Stratum V) periods, to the Middle Ages and a few to the Hellenistic period, were found below the floors of Stratum IV. A section of a wall built of dressed stones, which was discovered in the balk of the northernmost square, seems to have predated the remains of the Crusader period (Stratum IV).
Rabbi Hanina Street
The excavation was conducted in the section between Rabbi Ada and Rabbi Pinhas Streets. The upper strata were severely damaged by construction and road paving during the British Mandate. The preserved remains were ascribed to Strata I, II, V, VI, VIII, IX.
Stratum I. Three irregular-shaped pits that contained mostly iron refuse and whose sides were lined with lime were revealed in the middle of the road. The pits caused extensive damage to the remains of the industrial building from Strata V-VI (below).
Stratum II. A well from the Ottoman period, lined with dressed limestone (Fig. 3), was discerned in the southwestern corner of the street. The ceramic finds in the well included a Turkish pipe and gray potsherds of Gaza ware that dated to the Ottoman period. During the British Mandate buildings were constructed above the well.
Strata V-VI. The southeastern part of a large industrial building was exposed in the middle of the street, next to the modern level. The outer wall of the building was wide (c. 0.8 m) and built of two rows of roughly hewn kurkar stones, bonded with plaster, with a core of fieldstones and soil. Six plastered vats (average dimensions 0.7 × 1.0 m; Fig. 4) were discovered in the building. Four of them were arranged in a row and the fifth vat, to their east, was connected by a pipe to the western wing of the building, which was not excavated. Part of a stone vault was preserved above this vat. The sixth and southernmost vat was trapezoidal and partly destroyed. The vats were coated with light pink plaster mixed with potsherds. A cloth-dying industry or tannery probably operated in the building, which was located some distance from the city center. It is not possible to date the structure precisely due to lack of finds. However, based on evidence from other excavations in the vicinity, regarding industrial activity in the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods, the building can be dated likewise.
Stratum VIII. Parts of rooms that apparently belonged to a residential building were discovered in the middle and the northern end of the street. The walls of the rooms were built of kurkar and founded directly on bedrock or in shallow foundation trenches that were hewn in bedrock (Fig. 5). Crumbled mud bricks, which were revealed on the floors of the rooms, indicate that the upper courses of the walls were apparently built of this material. The ceramic finds that dated to the end of the Persian period and the beginning of the Hellenistic period (the Ptolemaic dynasty; fifth–third centuries BCE), included a variety of storage and serving vessels, intact lamps and stamped handles. Some of the vessels were imported from the Greek islands, Cyprus and Egypt. The finds recovered from the excavation are important, since only a few artifacts have been retrieved, so far, from several probes that were dug in the market compound.
Stratum IX. Part of a large well-preserved structure that was founded on the
kurkar bedrock was discovered. The outer western wall (length 6.3 m) of the structure, as well as parts of the southern and northern walls (each c. 3.5 m long) whose continuation was buried beneath modern buildings, were exposed (Fig. 6). The walls of the structure were built of fieldstones bonded with plaster and plastered on the inside. The structure was probably used as a water reservoir or as an industrial installation of some sort. The ceramic finds in the structure were sealed beneath Stratum VIII and dated to the latter phase of the Iron Age or the transition phase from the Iron Age to the Persian period (seventh–fifth centuries BCE).
Rabbi Pinhas Street
Stratum II. A road of tamped earth mixed with lime was exposed in the middle and western part of the street, next to the modern road level. The road was cut by three plastered water channels that were covered with stones. Below the road, potsherds and Marseilles roof tiles that dated the road to the second half of the nineteenth century CE were exposed. It seems that the beginning of the road was at the gate, which was broken into the city wall in the year 1869 (R. Kark, 2003, Jaffa, The Growth of a City 1799–1917, p. 27).
Stratum III. Several shallow Muslim pit graves, aligned east–west, were discovered in the eastern part of the street. The tombs were not excavated, but based on their stratigraphy, style and the potsherds collected in their vicinity, they can reasonably be dated to the Mamluk period or the beginning of the Ottoman period.
Stratum IV. At the eastern end of the street, a section of the eastern city wall of the Crusader period was exposed (Fig. 7). The exposed wall’s foundation (width 2.5 m, height 2.7 m) protruded from the city wall built on top of it. The outer face of the city wall consisted of kurkar masonry stones and the inner face was constructed from large fieldstones mixed with soil and plaster. The wall was preserved two courses high. Potsherds that dated to the Hellenistic and Roman periods were discovered below the foundation level. It can be assumed that the continuation of the wall was incorporated in the remains of the gate from the Crusader period, which had been exposed in the past c. 16 m north of the excavation, at the eastern end of the Olē Ziyyon Street.
Strata V-VI. Two sections of walls, ascribed to different, poorly preserved buildings, were exposed. In addition, debris concentrations that contained large amounts of potsherds from the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods were uncovered.
Stratum VII. Three pit graves were discovered in the eastern part of the street. The level of these graves was deeper than that of the Muslim graves in Stratum III and their orientation was different. These tombs were not excavated; however, they were dated to the Early Roman period and possibly also to the Hellenistic period, based on the ceramic finds in the stratum. At the western end of the street, a single well-built cist tomb that was covered with kurkar masonry stones was discovered (Fig. 8). The tomb was breached and had probably been looted. Some of the tomb’s cap stones were discerned nearby. The tomb was not excavated; however, its construction and elevation, as well as comparing it with similar tombs that were exposed in the nearby excavations of the Ganor compound (ESI 20:47*–49*), indicate that it should be dated to the Roman period. Potsherds that apparently dated the looting of the tomb to the Mamluk period were discovered between the cap stones lying near the tomb.
Stratum VIII. Remains of buildings, installations and tamped-earth floors that were probably part of a residential complex from the Hellenistic period were exposed in the middle of the street, near the corner with Rabbi
Hanina Street. Most of the walls were dismantled during the Middle Ages but their robber trenches were quite apparent (Fig. 9). The exposed earthen floors in the stratum were founded on natural soil.
Probes conducted below Stratum VIII revealed fragments of pottery vessels that dated to the transition phase between the Iron Age and the Persian period (Strata IX-X).
Rabbi Tanhum Street
In the north of the street, at a depth of 1.5–2.0 m below modern surface, remains of two rooms that belonged to the same residential building were exposed (Stratum IV; Fig. 10). At least two phases of construction were discerned in the remains. The walls were built of kurkar masonry stones. Incorporated in one of the walls was a square stone door that originally came from a Jewish burial cave, as indicated by the menorah engraved in its center. A large stone basin, equipped with two handles and two gutters, whose function is unclear, was exposed among the remains of the rooms. The ceramic finds dated to the twelfth–thirteenth centuries CE and included storage and serving vessels, many of which were glazed. Some of the vessels were imports from Europe and Egypt. Among the artifacts were arrowheads and coins that dated to the same period. At the northern end of the street, a Muslim pit grave that dated to the Mamluk period or the beginning of the Ottoman period was discovered.
The results of the excavations in the southern part of the flee-market compound are rather consistent with the results of excavations elsewhere in the compound. Their main contribution lies in providing additional information about the nature of this section of the city during the different periods. The excavations also contributed to the understanding of urban development processes and what influenced them. The assumption that throughout different periods Yafo had a kind of lower city, at the same time that the tell maintained its status as the urban center, was also corroborated. This was the situation in the early part of the Hellenistic period, in the Byzantine period when industrial activity was conducted in the lower city and in the Crusader period, when the area was fortified for the first time. During other periods the area was used for agriculture or burial. The remains and the artifacts from the excavations are in keeping with the information from the historical sources regarding the changes that occurred in the city throughout the periods. The urban compound spread to areas east of Tel Yafo at times of political stability and economic prosperity, even if they were short-lived. The lower city was abandoned and the area was used for burial during less stable periods, for example during the conflict between the Seleucids and the Hasmoneans and at the time of the Jewish revolts against Rome, or during times of social and economic depression in the country, such as the Mamluk period and the beginning of the Ottoman period.