Abstract
Abstract. The ancient city of Jaffa experienced considerable changes during the 19th century. The effects of warfare, extensive reconstruction and urban expansion turned the Jaffa of 1900 into a markedly different place than the town Napoleon besieged in 1799. Although textual, artistic and photographic records reflect these long-term changes, it is maps drawn by military and civilian European engineers that provide the most comprehensive illustrative testimony.Recent archaeological efforts have, moreover, added yet another perspective to this mosaic of sources. Among the material evidence providing valuable insight into Jaffa's 4000 years of history, data on the later phases of Ottoman rule is particularly intriguing. We now have previously unavailable material confirmation and more detailed records in a higher resolution for urban expansion over farmland and cemeteries, road paving, public construction and the dismantling of fortifications.The joint cartographic and archaeological testimonies offer a more realistic outlook on a period, which, until recently, had been subjectively perceived through military and religious filters, or the critical and often derogatory perspectives of explorers, adventurers and tourists. The challenges the Ottoman authorities faced were numerous and complex; cartographic and archaeological evidence has increased our understanding of the means, investment and planning they employed to maintain control over a thriving and heterogeneous harbor town during a period of profound transformation.
Highlights
William Wittman, a member of the British Military Mission assisting the Ottomans against Napoleon, was unimpressed by what he had seen during a visit to Jaffa in 1799
While Jaffa's mound was never completely abandoned, urban spread into the surrounding lower grounds to the north, south and east was only viable in periods of security and prosperity
Some of the Ottoman-era well houses disappeared with urbanization, but others were incorporated into new construction and may still be detected in modern Jaffa and its broader periphery, the crowded and bustling streets and alleys of south-central Tel Aviv (Sasson and AmitaiPreiss 2017; Sasson 2009)
Summary
William Wittman, a member of the British Military Mission assisting the Ottomans against Napoleon, was unimpressed by what he had seen during a visit to Jaffa in 1799. Cultural gaps between Europe and the Levant, the disappointment of harsh realities in fabled biblical locations, and bewilderment in radically alien scenes all surely influenced the accounts, yet given the volume of similar testimonies there can be little doubt that the descriptions, even when exaggerated for effect, generally reflect the sights and state of 19th century Jaffa. I combined historical records and archaeological remains to investigate the profound urban changes Jaffa had experienced from 1799 to the British conquest in 1917 (Arbel 2014; 2017a). Architectural remains associated with features in four maps drawn between 1799 and 1878 will be discussed. In essence, this is a first attempt to illustrate the potential and advantages of an interdisciplinary cartographic-archaeological approach to the research of late Ottoman Jaffa
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