Square A1. A layer of soil that contained a concentration of building stones and potsherds from the Roman and Byzantine periods was excavated (L100). A circular pit (L106; depth c. 2 m; Fig. 3), hewn in soft limestone bedrock, was excavated in the east of the square, 0.8 m below the soil layer. The pit contained light gray soil, potsherds from the Ottoman period, including some that were burnt and brik-type jugs (Fig. 4:1, 2), and animal bones.
 
Square A2. A layer of soil that contained building stones was excavated above the bedrock (L101; depth 2 m). A row of building stones (W10), probably not in situ, was exposed in the eastern corner of the square. Layer 101 contained potsherds from the Roman, Byzantine, Abbasid Mamluk and Ottoman periods.
 
Square A3. An installation (L102; 2.7×4.7 m; Fig. 5) that included rock-cuttings and built walls (W11, W12). A hewn channel (length 2.2 m, width 0.1 m, depth 0.1 m) was exposed in the southern side of the installation; it probably conveyed water to a bell-shaped cistern (L104) by taking advantage of the bedrock slope. An irregular shaped pit (L103) was hewn north of the channel. Another wall (W13), built of small and medium fieldstones, was exposed near the channel. This wall was probably used in a later phase for blocking the flow of water from the channel to Cistern 104, after the installation was no longer in use.