The excavation area consisted of three squares (A–C; Figs. 2, 3), in which the remains from five strata that were partly damaged during the construction of a modern building, were identified.

 

Square A (Fig. 2)
Architectural remains dating to the Crusader period were not exposed; however, the upper layer of fill in the square (L1800) contained potsherds from the period (Fig. 4:1, 10). A layer of burnt soil fill (L1807) that contained a large quantity of fieldstones, industrial metallurgical debris and fragments of pottery vessels (Fig. 4:6, 11, 13) was ascribed to the seventh–eighth centuries CE. A stone collapse (L1814) in the western part of Square A and a reddish brown layer of hamra fill (L1815), without architectural remains, below the bottom level of the collapse, were ascribed to the Byzantine period. The fill included a large quantity of store jar fragments from the Byzantine period (Fig. 4:12), as well as a number of other vessels from the same period (Fig. 4:2).

 

Only a few potsherds (Fig. 4:7) from the Hellenistic period were found; no architectural remains were discovered from that period.

 

Squares B and C
A channel (L1802; Fig. 3), which most likely conveyed water from a well that was exposed on Rabbi Hananya Street (Permit No. A-4675), was ascribed to the Ottoman period. The channel (length 3 m, inner width 0.2 m, outer width 0.7 m, depth 0.16 m), oriented southeast–northwest, was built of plastered kurkar stones. Potsherds from the Ottoman period (Fig. 4:9) that dated the last phase of its use were collected from the fill (L1805) inside the channel.

 

The northern corner of a building (W1824; 0.6 × 1.9 m, oriented northeast–southwest; W1825, 0.6 × 2.0 m, oriented northwest–southeast; Fig. 2), built of undressed kurkar stones (0.15–0.40 × 0.2 m), was ascribed to the Crusader period. Potsherds from that period were collected from the fill above the walls (L1817; Fig. 4:5) and from fill near W1824 (Fig. 4:3, 4, 14).

 

Below the bottom course of W1825 (L1820) was a fill layer that contained potsherds from the Early Islamic period (Fig. 4:8). Also ascribed to this layer is a small section of a wall (W1826) that was exposed in the eastern part of the square (0.6 × 1.1 m; Fig. 3). Unlike Walls 1824 and 1825, W1826 was built of a combination of large kurkar stones and small fieldstones.