During November 2002 a trial excavation was conducted on Qibbuz Galuyot Street in Yafo (Permit No. A-3769*; map ref. NIG 178545/662024; OIG 128545/162024). The excavation, on behalf of the Antiquities Authority and financed by the Netivē Ayyalon Company, was directed by M. Ajami, assisted by D. Porotzki (surveying), Y. Nagar (physical anthropology) and A. Gorzalczany.
The old Jewish cemetery at Abu Kabir is located on a kurkar ridge south of Qibbuz Galuyot Street, between Herzl and Pinkhas Rosen Streets. The French scholar Clermont-Ganneau discovered 70 marble gravestones in 1872, most of which were sent abroad for study. Clermont-Ganneau published the plans of several rock-hewn tombs and most of the inscriptions that were engraved on the headstones. Many of the inscriptions were in Greek and only a few were in Hebrew and Aramaic. They were informative with regard to the origins of the Jews from Jaffa and their occupations during the Roman and Byzantine periods. The excavations at the site were renewed in the 1960s by J. Kaplan (HA 11:22) and again at the beginning of the 1990s by Y. Levy (ESI 7–8:176–177; 12:46–47).
Eighteen excavation squares and nine half squares were opened, revealing eleven kurkar-hewn tombs, a single one of which was excavated (Tomb K; Fig. 1). This was a haphazardly hewn burial complex, wherein the ceiling of the main chamber collapsed a long time ago. A recess in the northern wall and the remains of a step below it probably alludes to the tomb’s entrance that led to the main chamber. West of the entrance was a hewn kokh and three kokhim were hewn in the southern wall, opposite the entrance. Two arcosolia with a vaulted ceiling were exposed on either side of the hall. The kokhim and arcosolia were excavated to an elevation of 0.2 m above the kurkar floor, so as not to disturb any human remains.
Bottles and plastic bags from the 1980s in the tomb indicate that the complex was either excavated or plundered in the past (no documentation was traced). Poorly preserved and non-articulated osteological remains were found in the tomb. These represented at least four individuals, three adults (one 18–25 years of age) and one child.
The area of the excavation undoubtedly lays within the limits of the Jewish cemetery, which is dated to the fourth–fifth centuries CE. Although no evidence to date the cave was found, the quarrying style resembles that of Roman- and Byzantine-period tombs known from previous excavations at the site.