Jaffa

==Archaeology==
[[File:Passila Ja 032.jpg|thumb|Jaffa flea market]]

The majority of excavations in Jaffa are salvage in nature and are conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority since the 1990s. Excavations on Rabbi Pinchas Street, for example, in the flea market have revealed walls and water conduits dating to the Iron Age, Hellenistic, Early Islamic, Crusader and Ottoman periods. A limestone slab ({{convert|50|x|50|cm|in|abbr=on|disp=or}}) engraved with a [[Menorah (Hanukkah)|menorah]] discovered on Tanchum Street is believed to be the door of a tomb.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.biblicalproductions.com/archeological_excavations.htm |title= Archaeology News in Israel |publisher= Biblical Productions | year = 2008 | access-date = 18 December 2012 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130101034312/http://www.biblicalproductions.com/archeological_excavations.htm |archive-date= 1 January 2013 |df= dmy-all }}</ref>

Additional efforts to conduct research excavations at that site included those of B. J. Isserlin (1950), [[Ze'ev Herzog]] of [[Tel Aviv University]] (1997–1999), and most recently the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project (since 2007), directed by Aaron A. Burke ([[UCLA]]) and Martin Peilstocker ([[Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz|Johannes Gutenberg University]]).

In December 2020, archaeologists from the [[Israel Antiquities Authority|Antiquities Authority]] (IAA) revealed a 3,800-year-old jar containing the badly preserved remains of a baby dates back to the Middle [[Bronze Age]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Davis-Marks|first=Isis|title=Archaeologists in Israel Unearth 3,800-Year-Old Skeleton of Baby Buried in a Jar|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-remove-3800-year-old-baby-skeleton-jar-180976647/|access-date=2021-01-08|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}</ref>

"There's always the interpretation that the jar is almost like a womb, so basically the idea is to return [the] baby back into Mother Earth, or into the symbolic protection of his mother”, said archaeologist Alfredo Mederos Martin.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Trove spanning millennia emerges from construction in ancient Jaffa|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-trove-spanning-millennia-emerges-from-construction-in-ancient-jaffa-1.9371748|access-date=2021-01-08|newspaper=Haaretz|language=en}}</ref>

Researchers also covered the remains of at least two horses and pottery dated to the late [[Ottoman Empire]], 232 [[seashell]]s, 30 [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] coins, 95 glass vessel fragments from the Roman and [[Crusades|Crusader]] periods 14 5th-century BC rock-carved burials featuring lamps.<ref>{{cite web|last=Geggel|first=Laura|title=3,800-year-old baby in a jar unearthed in Israel|url=https://www.livescience.com/baby-jar-burial-jaffa.html|access-date=2021-01-08|website=livescience.com|date=21 December 2020|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Archaeological dig in Jaffa unearths 3,800-year-old baby buried in a jar|url=https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/archaeological-dig-in-jaffa-unearths-3800-year-old-baby-buried-in-a-jar-654116|access-date=2021-01-08|website=The Jerusalem Post {{!}} JPost.com|language=en-US}}</ref>