Table 1. Documented Sites
Type
Site No.
Total
Agricultural terraces
F57, F61, F85, F86, F88, F89, F94, F96, F112, F129, F208, F209, F210, F223, F242, F243, F254, F260, F265, F290, F499, F508, F511, F517, F529, F536, F570, F639, F640, F643, F681, F714 
32
Partition and enclosure walls
F191, F319, F537, F562, F572, F829, F832
7
Dam
F553
1
Stone-clearance heaps
F42, F55, F56, F80, F84, F90, F95, F97, F102, F103, F107, F109, F126, F130, F169, F170, F171, F233, F244, F286, F320, F396, F399, F490, F497, F507, F546, F558, F573, F574, F641
31
Stone-clearance cairn
F123
1
Field towers
F64, F68, F259, F284, F563, F568, F583, F653, F742, F920
10
Roads
F58, F116, F273, F505, F588, F860
6
Winepresses
F1, F216, F253, F275, F397, F401, F564, F582, F638, F655, F682, F690, F710, F768?, F865, F871, F883, F889, F921
19
Pens
F54, F62, F65, F100, F211, F224, F234, F419, F501, F519, F544, F577, F918
13
Rock shelter
F138
1
Lime kilns
F76?, F81, F119?, F512?, F828
5
Cupmarks and basins
F27, F53, F59, F67, F69, F70, F120, F219, F245, F258, F267, F271, F272, F322, F398, F403, F410, F495, F514–F516, F522, F523, F550, F644, F652, F654, F663, F680, F684, F720, F721, F732, F734, F737, F759(2), F764, F767 , F830, F872, F896, F912(2), F917, F923, F924
47
Cisterns
F192, F518, F717
3
Burial caves
F771, F867
2
Caves
F45, F51, F52, F63, F75, F77, F108, F491
8
Shafts/rock-cuttings
F214(2), F276, F514A, F534, F575, F798, F892
8
Monastery
Area B2
1
Farmhouse
Area D1
1
Large public building
Area D2
1
Miscellaneous features
F36, F60, F78, F79, F98, F117, F118, F132, F133, F215, F266, F318, F412, F526, F548, F569, F775
17
Total
 
214
 
The Monastery (15.0 × 18.5 m; Fig. 2) was unearthed on the southeast slope of the knoll in Area B2. Its walls were built of ashlars and some of its rooms were paved with white mosaic, and others — with plaster (Fig. 3). A monumental threshold leading to a rectangular courtyard paved with white mosaic was uncovered in the east wall of the monastery. A design of what may be a cross (Fig. 4) is depicted at the center of the courtyard mosaic floor. An eastward-facing apse was discovered in one of the rooms, which probably served as a chapel. Next to this room was a stone lintel bearing a relief of a cross(?) resembling that in the courtyard mosaic. A large pile of collapsed building stones in another room included rectangular bases with grooves for the installation of a chancel screen. An elliptical entrance to a natural cave (8.0 × 9.5 m; Fig. 5) was uncovered in the center of the monastery. Several of the steps leading down into the cave were hewn, and others were built of stones (Fig. 6). Only the northern part of the cave was excavated, and its excavation was not completed, and a pit was dug by antiquity robbers in the western part of the cave. The cave contained an enclosure built in the Ottoman period; it sealed a Mamluk-period floor made of dressed paving slabs that had near the staircase a pit with traces of fire. A small collapsed column found to the south of the paving may once have stood near the entrance to the cave.
The cave was the earliest of four building phases identified at the monastery. Rock-cuttings on the rock outcrop over the cave belong to a later phase. These cuttings were annulled when the monastery was built in the Byzantine period. During the final building phase, the monastery’s courtyard was rendered obsolete or divided up by a wall constructed within it, possibly in the Early Islamic period.
 
The Farmhouse (Fig. 7). A Byzantine farmhouse (c. 15 × 15 m) comprising nine rooms and at least two construction phases was unearthed in Area D1, c. 500 m southwest of the monastery. Its walls, preserved to the height of a single course, were built of ashlars and utilized the bedrock. Some of the rooms yielded beddings for mosaic floors.
 
The Public Building (Fig. 8). Part of a building (18 × 24 m) unearthed in Area D2, southeast of the farmhouse, comprises a central courtyard surrounded by rooms and cisterns; the courtyard was paved with a coarse, white mosaic. One of the rooms to the north of the courtyard had a cellar (Fig. 9). A threshold stone with hewn sockets was found set in the cellar’s south wall. From the threshold, two elongated rock-hewn steps led down to an intermediate level. A massive collapse of building stones, including ashlars and voussoirs, found on this level indicate that it was roofed with arches. Mosaic tesserae recovered here may have come from the floor above the cellar. A large circular stone basin that probably served as a baptismal basin was discovered on this level. A rectangular installation (c. 2 × 3 m), divided into two parts, was hewn into the west wall of this level. A tethering hole in the installation’s south wall suggests that it comprised two troughs, one for fodder and the other for water. The troughs may have been used in a later phase of the building. A probe excavated in the northwest corner of the intermediate level revealed a stone-built staircase leading to a lower level in the cellar, with hewn bedrock walls and a floor paved with large stone slabs. Two crosses were engraved on the walls. Pottery from the Byzantine period was discovered inside the building and in its vicinity. A winepress unearthed to the west of the building contained mosaic paving and a plastered collecting vat. To its north, a section of a road running from northeast to southwest was discovered.
 
The excavation finds attest to extensive activity at the site in the Byzantine period. The discovery of the monastery is an important addition to our understanding of the Modi‘in area population during this period, and it attests to the monastic presence in the area. The monastery, farmhouse and public building, which were built nor far from each other, operated within a single habitat during the same period and provided each other with reciprocal services. The crosses discovered within them show that they were occupied by Christians. The monastery overlooks an ancient road running to its east (today’s Ha-Hashmona’im Blvd.; Torgë 2000) as well as the sites of Umm el-‘Umdan, Horbat Sher, Horbat Bet Shana and Tel Gezer. Despite the proximity of the excavation area to Umm el-‘Umdan, where finds from the Second Temple period have been recovered (Onn et al. 2002; Weksler-Bdolah, Onn and Rapuano 2003; Weksler-Bdolah 2014), no finds from this period were found in the current excavation, with the possible exception of a burial cave (F771) discovered on a spur ascending northward from Umm el-‘Umdan. This cave may be associated with tombs discovered nearby (Kogan-Zehavi 2009).