c hapter 4 Jaffa’s ancient inland harbor: historical,cartographic, and geomorphological data a aron a. burke,1 shelley wachsmann,2 simona avnaim-katav,3 richard k. dunn,4 krister kowalski,5 george a. pierce,6 and martin peilstöcker7 1UniversityofCalifornia,Los Angeles; 2Te xasA&M; 3UniversityofCalifornia, LosAngeles; 4Norwich University; 5Johannes GutenbergUniversity; 6BrighamYoung University; 7Humboldt Universität zu Berlin Thecontext created by recent studies of thegeomorphologyofLevantine harborsand renewedarchaeologicalresearchinthe Late Bronze AgelevelsofTel Yafo (Jaffa) by theJaffa Cultural Heritage Projecthaveled to efforts to identifythe location of apossible inland Bronze andIronAge harbor at Jaffa, Israel.Althoughseveral scholarsduring thetwentieth centuryspeculatedabout theexistenceand location of an ancient inlandharbor, theextent of theproxy data in supportofits identification hasnever been fullyassessed. Nonetheless, a range of historical, cartographic, arthistorical,topographical, andgeomorphologicaldata can be summoned thatpoint to theexistenceofabodyofwater thatlay to theeastofthe settle- ment andmound of ancient Jaffa. This feature is likely avestige of Jaffa’searliestanchorage or harbor andprobablywentout of usebythe startofthe Hellenisticperiod. slongasbiblicalscholars, archaeologists, always directly relatedtoits declineasaport(see historians,and geographershaveconcerned historicaloverviews in Peilstöcker andBurke 2011). athemselves with Jaffa, itsidentityhas revolved Jaffa’seclipse by anotherportisfirstattestedwiththe around itsroleasthe primaryportonthe centralcoast of establishmentofCaesareaMaritimaduring theEarly ancient Israel (Figures 4.1 and4.2). Were it not forits role Romanperiod (Notley2011:103) andlater followed by as aport, alltraditional explanations forJaffa’slocation theconstructionofTel Aviv harbor in 1938 andthenby wouldfailtoaddressits raisond’être. It wasnever regarded theharborofAshdodin1965.Tothe extent that Jaffa’s as aparticularly agriculturallyproductiveregion, nordid role as aportrevived,thisappears to have been in direct itsimmediate environs yield unique natural resources. It relationship to increasing trafficdue to religious pilgrim- didnot sitastride an overlandroute thatmight explain age by Christians,Jews,and,tosomeextent, Muslims, itsnear five-millennium-longsettlementhistory,nor do andaddedtolater by Zionists. Despitehistoricalsources historicalsources emphasize Jaffa’sindependence. Instead, thatdirectlyattestJaffa’sroleasaportfromthe Classical areviewofJaffa’shistoryindicates, to thecontrary, that period onward,geomorphologicalchanges to thecoast- Jaffa’svarious periodsofdecline in importance were line of thesouthernLevantwould suggest that Jaffa’s 89 90 t he history and archaeologyofJaffa 2 Figure 4.1. Mapofthe centraland southernLevantine coast. MapbyKrister Kowalski. ancient harbor,during theBronze andIronAges, wasnot Here we seek to outlinethe evidencefor an internal thesameharborthatservesthe citytoday.Processes such Bronze andIronAge harbor long sinceobscuredbyvari- as thosecharacteristicofmanyancient harborsaround ousnatural andanthropogenic processes. This effortlays theMediterranean, like Ephesus andMiletus,revealthe thegroundworkfor anew research initiative by theJaffa gradualsilting andrelocation of these harbors(Brückneret CulturalHeritageProject, in cooperationwiththe Institute al.2005; Kraft et al.2007; Marriner andMorhange2007; of NauticalArchaeology,named theIoppa Maritima Stocketal. 2013). Nevertheless, no systematicefforthas Project, oneofthe primarygoals of which is locating the been undertaken to date to confirm an alternative location ancient harbor.Webegin with themodernevidencethat forthe site’smostancient harbor.1 contributestothe recognitionofthe importance of Jaffa’s J affa’s ancient inland harbor 91 Figure 4.2. Mapofstreets in Te lAviv–Jaffashowing location of stadium, park,and location of Ayalon andYarkonrivers. Israel Transverse Mercator (New Israel Grid)projection. MapbyKrister Kowalski. 92 t he history and archaeologyofJaffa 2 ancient harbor,despite theabsenceofdirectevidencefor painting to have featuredastone-built quay on itswestern it, andreviewthe earliestreferencestomaritimeactivities andnorthwestern sides(Figure 4.3), alimited part of it in Jaffaaspreserved in earlysources such as theHebrew appearstohavebeenuseful forloading andunloading Bible. This is followed by an examination of thelines of cargo from ships, with thestone wall servingprimar- evidence, primarily from thenineteenth centuryCE, for ily as a breakwater protecting thebuildingsbehindit. theswamp locatedonJaffa’seastern side thatisknown in Elements of this quay were exposedbyJacob Kaplan Arabic as al-Bassa.Inthiscontext,wepresent the firsteffort during hisJaffaharbor(NamalYafo) excavationscarried to generate high-resolution topographic models from satel- outin1978 (Ritter-Kaplan 1978),and thesamefeatures lite data to explorethe existenceofanextensivedrainage were reexposedin2007 during salvageexcavationsbythe depressionassociatedwith al-Bassa that is no longer visible Israel Antiquities Authorityconducted forinfrastructure at ground level. Thecombination of this evidencesupports upgrades (Haddad 2009). thehypothesis that al-Bassa constitutes aportion of the Despitesuch facilities, inclement weatherand even mod- original extent of an earlierbodyofwater,anestuary, that estsurfwreakedhavocon thesmallcraft ferrying persons and mayhavefunctionedasananchorage or harbor forJaffa goodsfromships offshore thatwereeithertoo large forthe during theBronze andIronAges. harbor or uncertainofthe approach.GeorgeSmith states that thereefs at Jaffa“aremoredangerous in foulweather than they areuseful in fair”(Smith1932:130–31). During The Recent History winter, themajorityofthe boatsmooredwithinthe mouth of Jaffa’s Harbor of the Yarkon River,and smallerboats were simply beached Theeconomicand politicaldrawbacksassociatedwiththe (Hanauer 1903a:261; Avitsur1965:30). Thesamesituation absenceofagood harbor at Jaffawerebaldlyevident dur- is also documented from at least theCrusaderperiodwhen ing thenineteenthand earlytwentiethcenturies CE (Kark thepilgrim Saewulfstatesthatmorethan1,000 people 1990). Recent assessmentsofthe port during this period re- were killed trying to approach Jaffa, andthismay have veal thelimitsofJaffa’sharborfacilities (Mirkinand Goren contributedtoprominenceofthe harbor of Akko over that 2012; seeChapter 6, this volume). Echoing thestatements of Jaffaduring theCrusaderperiod(seeBoas2011:122). of many visitorstothe Holy Land,Baedeker’s guidebook, Hanauer(1903a:261) noted thatartificialrockcuttingsin forexample, notes that Jaffafeatures“no good harbor” theoffshore rocksatJaffaindicatedearlierattemptstousethe (Baedeker 1876:6). This statementwas intendedtoreflecta rockstocreateabetterharbor, butthese cannot be reliably situation wherebylargeshipswererequiredtoanchorwest dated. Variousschemes during thetwentiethcentury were of achain of rocksthatformedashallow anchorage,and also proposedtodredgethe harbor to accommodatelarger goodsand passengers were ferriedinlightersthrough the steamships, build breakwaters(Shacham 2011:fig. 13.10), rockstothe quayside in theharboronJaffa’swestern and andconnect the quay viatrackstorailroads, including plans northern sides, which layexposedtothe open sea. from an Italiansyndicate to fund an operationnot to exceed G. A.Barton (1904:92) describedthe unchangedsitua- $7,000,000 to improvethe harbor (Anonymous1922).2 As tion by theearly twentiethcenturyduring hispassagefrom earlyasthe 1830s, questionsevenlingeredabout thepossible Beirut in 1902: construction of an inlandharborusing the“Jaffamarsh” TheharboratJaffaisverybad.Ahalf-submerged reef runs (Avitsur 1965:32). alongthe shore. Shipsmust cast anchoroutsideofthis, and passengersmust go ashore in smallboats. This is thesystem in allofthese Eastern harbors, butatJaffaitisparticularly Jaffa’s Harborfromthe Middle bad, forthe unbroken swells of theMediterraneanbeatin Bronze Age to the Roman Period here,and it is often dangerous to pass thesunkenreefunder Jaffa’ssignificance became inextricably boundtoits identity such circumstances. as aportonthe southernLevantine coast from at least This situation wasaptly captured in theOrientalist paint- thebeginning of the Middle Bronze Age(MB IIA, ca. ing of Gustav Bauernfeind (seeFigure6.29, this volume; 2000–1800 BCE) andcontinuing throughthe Persian Vosseler2013:47, fig. 2). Despitethe fact thatthe harbor period. This is borneout by thesubstantialquantities of is depicted in at least onefamousnineteenth-century importedwaresfromacross theMediterraneanduring these J affa’s ancient inland harbor 93 Figure 4.3. TurkishRecruitsTaken to theShip,GustavBauernfeind (1888) (oil painting,1.52×2.8 m, Dahesh Museum,New York). periodsrecoveredbyexcavations both by Jacob Kaplan and mention in Egyptiansources during theNew Kingdom, theJaffaCulturalHeritageProject underthe directionof ca.1550–1075 BCE. AmpleMycenaean, Cypriot, and AaronBurke andMartinPeilstöcker (e.g., Epstein 1966:14; Egyptianimportedwares suggest theport’sroleinthis Peilstöcker 2011), which aretypical of thecharacter and commerce during this period. Indeed, the port also likely quantity of those recovered from excavatedports along functioned as astrategic supply pointfor Egyptianforces theLevantine coast such as Ashkelonand Akko.Before campaigninginthe southernLevant(Burke2011:68), as the Middle Bronze Age, thereislimited evidencefor well as apoint forthe disembarking of troops when neces- EarlyBronze