Persian to British Mandate-Period Settlement at Qedumim Square, Yafo (Jaffa): An Umayyad Fortress and Ottoman Street

An excavation at Qedumim Square, Yafo, uncovered settlement remains of the tell, dating from Iron II, the Persian, Hellenistic–Early Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader and late Ottoman–British Mandate periods. Two segments of a fortification wall were probably part of an Umayyad-period fortress dating from the seventh century CE. A late Ottoman-period stone-paved street with a drainage and sewage channel below it contribute important data concerning the urban infrastructure of that time. Several coins and large quantities of pottery retrieved from the excavation, including a few ceramic items inscribed with short Hebrew, Greek and Latin inscriptions, shed light on the settlements in the different periods.