A salvage excavation was conducted in August 1998 at Kafr Kama (A-2909

*; map ref. NIG 24120–1/73680–1; OIG 19120–1/23680–1), after ancient remains were discovered in backhoe trenching, prior to construction. The excavation, on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, was directed by A. Mokary, assisted by I. Vatkin (surveying), V. Shorr (drafting), and H. Tahan (drawing).

 

One excavation square (Fig. 1) was opened on the southeastern slope of the hill, where the village core is located. Three walls (W11, W12, W17) of a building, constructed from fieldstones and semi-hewn stones, were exposed; the walls were preserved 1.2 m high. The building’s floor was beaten earth. A staircase that probably led to a second story was adjacent to the western side of W12, which severed another wall (W14), whose top was below the floor and therefore, it predated the building.

 

The finds retrieved from the floor of the building included two bowl rims with a red slip on the exterior (Fig. 2:2, 3), dating to the 4th–5th centuries CE, three jar rims from the 6th–7th centuries CE (Fig. 2:5–7), a thick, black-painted krater rim from the 8th–9th centuries CE (Fig. 2:1) and the fragment of a handmade, coarse material platter (Fig. 2:4). Judging by the ceramic finds the building is dated to the Early Islamic period.