During December 2005, a salvage excavation was conducted within the precincts of the Tiberias-Hittim waste-water purification plant (Permit No. A-4654; map ref. NIG 2474–6/7458–60; OIG 1974–6/2458–60), in the wake of damage caused to antiquities. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and underwritten by the Water Commission, was directed by E. Amos (surveying), with the assistance of H. Tahan (pottery drawing) and N. Getzov.
A hewn and plastered collecting vat (depth 1.8–2.0 m) of a Byzantine-period winepress was exposed (Figs. 1, 2). The vat had survived by its eastern wall (length 1.8 m) and the eastern face of its southern wall (length c. 1.7 m). Its floor sloped northward and a circular settling pit (diam. c. 0.6 m, depth c. 0.4–0.5 m) was cut in its northeastern corner. Five steps descended to the vat’s floor (tread width 0.45–0.50 m, height 0.3 mp; Fig. 3); the four upper steps were hewn alongside the eastern wall and the fifth lower step was in the southeastern corner, next to the southern wall. The walls, the floor, the steps and the settling pit were all coated with two layers of white hydraulic plaster mixed with gray inclusions. The lower plaster layer (thickness c. 1.5 cm) was revetted with large potsherds, while the upper layer was smoothed. Additional remains of plaster were visible in the balk to the north of the collecting vat (Fig. 4); these may have belonged to the treading floor of the winepress, which was not preserved. Potsherds from the Byzantine period, including a cooking pot (Fig. 5:1) and a jar (Fig. 5:2), were discovered on the floor of the vat.