Areas A and B

Four contiguous squares and one additional square, 30 m farther north were opened in Area A; five adjacent squares were laid out in Area B. Only one half of each square was excavated. The position of each square on the slope determined the thickness (0.3–0.7 m) of an archaeologically sterile soil layer that covered the soft limestone bedrock. The excavation of the ten squares revealed neither ancient activity nor any relevant antiquities. The absence of ancient finds was significant for assessing the development and functioning of the ancient settlements on Ras el-Biyad. At no period did any of the settlements expanded from the strategically positioned tell down the western slope.
Area C

Locus 501

An area (2.5 × 5.0 m) was excavated toward the bottom of Ras el-Biyad’s southern slope. The removal of a shallow soil cover revealed a south-sloping, apparently intentionally smoothed hard bedrock surface. No other human activity was discernible and only a few small and worn potsherds, datable to the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Mamluk periods, were uncovered.

Locus 502 (Figs. 3–5). On the northern edge of the plateau, c. 35 m south of L501, was a small exposed outcropping of soft limestone bedrock that exhibited evidence of hewing. Eventually, a rectangular swath of worked limestone (11.5 × 12.3 m) was cleared. Three forms of bedrock utilization were discerned, namely cupmarks, quarries and shafts. In the center of the area, a step slightly higher than the surrounding hewn rock surface and probably at the level of the original bedrock surface displayed two cupmarks (diam. 0.08 and 0.13 m respectively, depth 0.13 m). Immediately east of the cupmarks was an area that served as a quarry (c. 3 × 4 m). A smaller quarrying area was north of the cupmarks. Partial negatives of hewn stones, severance channels and a single stone whose removal was incomplete were visible. Three shafts, L502D (1.10 × 2.55 m), L502E (0.65x1.78 m) and L511 (0.90 × 2.08 m) were joined by a single small cist burial (L502B) and a single burial (L502A). Only one of the shafts (L511) was partially excavated, although the excavation was suspended upon reaching a blockage of large basalt stones. The northernmost burial, L502A (0.80 × 1.45 m) was found sealed with three large stone slabs. It is not clear whether it served as a cist grave or as a shaft leading into a burial chamber. The small cist, L502B (0.47 × 0.90; Fig. 6), was equipped with a ledge (width 0.08 m) for cover emplacement.
No datable material could be associated with the shafts or the burials that were not excavated. It appears that the burials postdated the quarry as the small cist was hewn into the quarried section of the outcropping. Similar shafts and cists are commonly found in the Roman and Byzantine Periods.
Locus 503 (Figs. 7, 8). A partially exposed bedrock area (5.2 × 9.0 m), c. 30 m southwest of L501 was cleared. Portion of a step quarry whose hewn steps were 0.35–0.45 m high was exposed. In the midst of the quarry, whose exact dimensions and shape were not determined, was a burial chamber shaft (1.03 × 1.65 m) whose excavation yielded no diagnostic finds and was suspended at a depth of 0.6 m, upon reaching a basalt-stone fill.
Locus 504 (Fig. 9). A rectangular hewn area (2.45 × 4.00 m) was excavated 20 m southeast of L503. It is 1.2 m high in the east and only 0.53 m high in the west, due to the sloping topography. Three hewn flanks created a small, partially closed space whose northern half contained numerous basalt boulders in disarray and its southern half was vacant. Very few ceramic fragments, dating from the Roman through the Mamluk periods, were found scattered in the space and none was relevant to the dating of the hewing or its function.
Locus 505 (Figs. 10, 11). Another quarry with a burial chamber shaft was exposed 10 m south of L504. The cleared irregularly shaped area (c. 5 × 8 m) proved to be of poor quality, with many cracks and fissures; hence, only a small portion of it was quarried for building stones.  
The burial chamber shaft (1.1 × 2.0 m) was in the east of the outcropping. A pile of earth immediately to the west of the shaft was apparently removed from the tomb during illicit digging. The pile contained a poorly preserved northern oil lamp (Fig. 12). The mold-made, egg-shaped lamp has a channel running from the unadorned discus to the wick hole. Its surface is decorated with few incised strokes and circles in relief. The base is decorated with an impressed branch pattern, probably of an olive tree. A nearly identical lamp, dated to the Byzantine period, was recovered from the previous excavations at Tel Barom (‘Atiqot 55: Fig. 15:11). It is reasonable to assume that the lamp points to a period of activity in the tomb.
A partially completed circular hewn installation (diam. 1.4 m; Fig. 13) was revealed 0.7 m south of the shaft.
Locus 506. An area (2 × 2 m), c. 40 m southwest of L502, on the western edge of the plateau, was excavated. A layer of soil (depth 0.5 m) covered bedrock. A junction of the soft plateau limestone with the hard escarpment bedrock was revealed and only 25 small and worn Roman and Byzantine body potsherds were found.
Locus 507. An area (2 × 2 m), c. 35 m east of L506, was excavated on the plateau. The flaking soft limestone bedrock was overlaid with a thin layer of soil (depth 0.3 m) that contained ten small, worn Roman and Byzantine potsherds.
Locus 508 (Fig. 14). A roughly rectangular-shaped area (4 × 11 m), utilized as a quarry, was in the southwestern corner of the plateau, before it descended to the south and c. 80 m south of L505. This was the only quarry of those excavated where a few measurable negatives of cut stones were visible; two stones in the north attained a size of 0.75 × 1.10 m. A burial tomb shaft (0.7 × 1.9 m), which was not excavated, occupied the northwestern corner of the outcropping. Only fourteen worn potsherds dating to the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods were found throughout L508.
An additional shaft was recorded in the thick brush immediately to the west of the L508 shaft.
Locus 509 (Figs. 15, 16). Locus 509, located 30 m southeast of L508, is a nearly rectangular area (4 × 8 m), which was cleared of a shallow, fine earth accumulation that overlaid a small simple winepress. It was subsequently used for quarrying, which destroyed much of its treading floor. A small channel led from the treading floor to a rounded collecting vat (L510; upper diam. 1.12 m, lower diam. 0.7 m, depth 1.3 m), which was not damaged by the quarrying and its walls tapered down toward the bottom.
Distributed over bedrock west of the collecting vat were seven cupmarks that ranged in depth (0.03–0.17 m) and in diameter (0.14–0.32 m). A single shallow cupmark (width 0.2 m) was on the northern edge of the quarried area and should be associated with the earlier winepress phase.
No datable finds could be associated with any of L509 elements.
To the south of L508 and the eastern extremity of L509 was an accumulation of at least nine shafts in a very limited area covered with brush; several lie beyond the bounds of the development area.
Additional features in the area, recorded but not excavated, were all shafts, except for one quarry. These are tabulated below to enable a better, albeit partial, picture of the extent of the burial ground north of Tel Barom.
 
 
LOCUS TYPE LOCATION COMMENTS
701 Qarry 10 m north of L508 Adjoining shaft?
702 Shaft 6 m south of L508  
703 Shaft 6 m south of L702  
704 Shaft 15 m south of L703  
705 Shaft 10 m northeast of L704  
706A Shaft 8 m northwest of L509 706A and 706B are adjoining shafts.
706B Shaft 8 m northwest of L509  
707 Shaft 5 m north of L509  
708 Shaft 2 m west of L707  
709 Shaft 8 m south of L703  
710 Shaft 10 m south of L503  
711 Shaft 14 m east of L501 On upper southern slope of Ras el-Biyad where indications of many shafts are visible
712 Shaft 35 m northeast  of L501