The Ramat Beqa‘ region is characterized by low hills, some of which are bare limestone, while others are covered with a thin layer of loess. Like elsewhere in the Negev, the region’s wadis abound with the remains of traditional farming that was practiced until recent times. A preliminary survey of the area (License No. S-575/2015) identified several agricultural terraces, field walls, built shelters, stone piles, tumuli, dams, water cisterns, buildings and a knapping site containing scattered flint. Some of these remains were uncovered in the current excavation (Fig. 2).
 
Dam (L110; excavated length c. 4 m, estimated length c. 20 m, width c. 1 m; Fig. 3). A dam wall traversing a wadi was excavated. Only its southern end was preserved, standing four courses high; it was built of two rows of small and medium-sized fieldstones and a soil fill between them.
 
Agricultural Terrace Walls (L107, L111, L115; average length 3.9 m, average width 0.4 m; Fig. 4). The walls were built of one to two rows of small fieldstones and preserved to a height of two courses.
 
Built Shelter (L125; Fig. 5). A horseshoe-shaped concentration of stones was found at the top of a bare rocky spur. It was open to the east and may have been a temporary shelter for shepherds or farmers.
 
Stone Piles (L100, L120). The piles consisted of medium-sized fieldstones. Some were preserved to the height of a single course, and other to the height of several courses. Upon carefully dismantling them, it became apparent that each covered a stone circle.
 
Flint-Knapping Site (L121–L124). Scattered flint was noted on a hilltop’s surface, consisting mainly of fresh flakes. All the flint surface finds were gathered from a specific square (L121; 10 sq m), and three trial squares nearby were excavated down to the natural bedrock (L122–L124; 1 × 1 m, excavation depth 0.05–0.10 m). They showed that knapping debitage is restricted to the surface.
 
The flint finds from the site include fresh flint-knapping debitage of the same local raw material found on the hill’s rocky outcrops. The flake industry is particularly prevalent in the assemblage (Table 1), and no uniformity in blank production was noted. The flakes and blades were produced by direct flaking with a hard hammerstone.
Very few cores were found in the assemblage. They are amorphous and were used mainly to produce flakes. They were not exhausted, probably because available raw material was plentiful.
More than 80% of the tools were prepared on flakes. Most of the tools are ad-hoc, mainly retouched flakes and a few retouched blades. The site also yielded three awls, three burins and an Early Bronze Age tabular scraper (Fig. 6; Rosen 1997:78, Fig. 3.33:3).
 
Table 1. Breakdown of items in flint assemblage
Object
Quantity
Percentage
Chips
10
1.56
Chunks
67
10.45
Total debris
77
12.01
Primary flakes
153
23.87
Flakes
309
48.20
Primary blades
11
1.71
Blades
12
1.87
Bladelet
1
0.16
Core trimming elements
10
1.56
Core platform
1
0.16
Burin spalls
1
0.16
Total debitage
498
77.69
Retouched flakes
45
7.02
Retouched blades
7
1.08
Awls
3
0.47
Burins
3
0.47
Notches
1
0.16
Tabular scraper
1
0.16
Total tools
60
9.36
Cores
6
0.94
Total assemblage
641
100
 
The excavation uncovered a dam, agricultural terraces, the remains of a built shelter, stone piles and a flint-knapping site. The dam, farm terraces and built shelter indicate that the land was used for seasonal farming. The stone piles may have been land-boundary markers. Apart from the flint-knapping site, which was probably active in the Early Bronze Age, the excavation area was largely devoid of non-structural indicative finds by which the remains could be dated.