During August 2003 a salvage excavation was conducted at Horbat Medav next to the village of Julis in the Western Galilee (Permit No. A-3970*; map ref. NIG 21670/76209; OIG 16670/ 26209), prior to the construction of a water pool. The excavation, on behalf of the Antiquities Authority and funded by the Meqorot Water Company, was directed by E. Stern, with the assistance of A. Dadush (administration), A. Shapiro (surveying) and D. Avshalom-Gorni (pottery consultation).
During the 1990s, M. Aviam exposed the remains of a monastery from the Byzantine period at Horbat Medav (Eretz Tsafon. Ed. Z. Gal, 2002:205*–209*).
The current excavation was located c. 50 m east of the wall that enclosed the monastery. An ashlar-built wall, oriented east–west, was discovered in a preliminary survey. A square (Fig.1) was opened to investigate this wall, which proved to be a farming terrace founded directly on natural bedrock and built of two rows of ashlar stones with debesh between them (0.8 m wide, 0.5 m preserved height). Potsherds dating to the Roman period (third century CE) were collected above bedrock.
It had been ascertained in previous surveys and in Aviam’s excavation that the site was first settled in the Byzantine period. The present excavation indicates that initial activities at the site had already taken place in the Roman period.