This, the first volume in the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project series, lays the groundwork for the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project (JCHP), which was established as a joint research endeavour of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Part I provides the historical, economic and legal context for the JCHP's development, while outlining its objectives and the unique opportunities that Jaffa offers
researchers.
The history of Jaffa and its region and the major episodes of cultural change that affected the site and region are explored through a series of articles in Part II, including an illustrated discussion of historical maps of Jaffa from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Recent archaeological discoveries from Jaffa are included in Part III, while Part IV provides a first glimpse of the JCHP's efforts to publish the Jacob Kaplan and Haya Ritter-Kaplan legacy from Jaffa. Together the twenty-five contributions to this work constitute the first major book-length publication to address the archaeology of Jaffa in more than sixty years since excavations were initiated at the site