During March 2007, a salvage excavation was conducted north of Ahihud and the ‘Akko-Karmi’el road (Permit No. A-5070; map ref. 21683/75746), prior to the construction of a railroad track. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and underwritten by the Israel Railroad Authority, was directed by H. Tahan (drafting and drawing of artifacts), with the assistance of Y. Ya‘aqobi (administration), H. Smithline (field photography) and a team of excavators from the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Two areas, c. 0.5 km apart, were excavated. A small rock-cut winepress and a hewn rectangular installation were exposed; a few potsherds that dated to the Late Roman period were collected.
Area 1. A rock-hewn winepress, oriented north–south, was exposed on a large bedrock surface. It consisted of a treading floor (c. 1.7 × 2.0 m) and a collecting vat (diam. c. 0.65 m, depth c. 0.7 m; Figs. 1, 2) that was adjacent to the southern side of the floor. Another smaller collecting vat was in the eastern part of the treading floor and opposite it was a depression in the west. A shallow hewn channel extended from the collecting vat to the end of the bedrock surface.
Area 2. A rock-cut rectangular installation (0.9 × 1.3 m, depth c. 0.35 m; Figs. 3, 4), with a shallow settling pit at its bottom, was exposed and a few potsherds were collected.
The potsherds included bowls (Fig. 5:1–4) from the Late Roman period (third–fifth centuries CE) and a base of a stand (Fig. 5:5) from the same period (third–fourth centuries CE). Although it was not possible to date the installations, they probably belonged to the same period.