Winepress. The winepress was hewn in soft reddish limestone and coated with a thick layer of gray plaster (thickness 0.07 m). It had a treading floor (L105; 3.8 × 4.2 m, height of sides 0.35 m; Fig. 3) that had been damaged by mechanical equipment that severed it lengthwise, in an east–west direction. Within the southern side of the treading floor and close to its bottom was a hewn channel (diam. c. 0.08 m), through which the must flowed to a settling pit (L109; 1.0 × 1.1 m, max. depth 1 m; Fig. 4). A sump (diam. 0.15 m, depth 0.08 m) was cut in the northwestern corner of the settling pit. A channel (diam. 0.05 m) led from the western side of the settling pit to a collecting vat (L108; 1.1 × 1.2 m, max. depth 1.85 m). Several potsherds were found in the fill above the winepress, among them two collared-rim jars that have a triangular cross-section (Fig. 5:1, 2), one of which is slipped red and a thickened and everted jug rim (Fig. 5:3). The pottery vessels date to the second century BCE (Berlin 2013: 30, Figs. 1.4, 8).
 
Quarry. Signs of rock-cuttings, including a depression (L111; c. 4.5 × 4.5 m; Fig. 6), were discovered in the northwest of the lot. Three steps were cut in the bedrock that rose close to the eastern balk. Each step was the negative of a detached stone (upper step—length 0.4–0.6 m, width c. 1 m, height 0.36 m; middle step—length 0.65 m, width 0.7–0.9 m, height 0.26 m; bottom step—length greater than 0.8 m, width greater than 0.4 m). Another rock-cut step (length c. 0.3 m, width c. 1.5 m, height c. 0.2 m) was discerned to the southwest of the three steps.
 
A Rock-hewn Storage Cave and Entrance. An entrance (L202; Fig. 7), in which a layer of brown soil, roots, rock-cutting debris, large stones and several potsherds had accumulated, was exposed below a layer of crushed rock (L200; see Fig. 2). The entrance led to a rock-hewn cave (L203; 2.17 × 2.25 m, max. height 0.9 m; Figs. 8, 9), which was hewn on a slope that descends to the southeast and whose opening was in the west. The opening was square (0.50 × 0.56 m) and around it were remains of gray-white hydraulic plaster containing large quartz inclusions (thickness 0.04 m), similar to the plaster that was discovered in the winepress. A stone that sealed the cave and a layer of crushed rock were found inside the cave; below them was a layer of dark brown alluvium that contained roots and several potsherds (thickness 0.05 m). A jar fragment from the Hasmonean period, dating to the late second and early first centuries BCE (Fig. 5:4), was discovered on the bedrock, below the cave opening. On the western side of the entrance, parallel to the cave opening, was a square opening (0.57 × 0.60 m; Figs. 10, 11) of another cave, whose quarrying was incomplete. To the south of the entrance were quarrying marks of a step, whose hewing was incomplete (0.53 × 1.33 m; Fig. 10), yet it implies the construction of steps.
 
Evidence of agricultural activity in the Hasmonean period (second century BCE) and quarrying activity of an unknown period was exposed. The similar plaster found on the sides of the cave and in the winepress indicates they were contemporary. The plaster, the size of the cave and the low ceiling created favorable conditions for storing jars of wine during the fermentation stage. After the cave was completed, work had begun of quarrying another cave and steps. The unfinished work indicates the place was abandoned before the quarrying was completed. The winepress, storage cave and the quarry remains are characteristic of agricultural activity conducted outside the city of Jerusalem and raise the possibility that a farmstead was in the region.
 

 
Berlin A. 2005. Pottery and Pottery Production in the Second Temple Period. In B. Arubas and H. Goldfus, eds. Excavations on the Site of the Jerusalem International Convention Center (Binyanei Ha'umah): a Settlement of the First to Second Temple Period, the Tenth Legion's Kilnworks, and a Byzantine Monastic Complex: The Pottery and Other Small Finds (JRS Supplementary Series 6). Jerusalem. Pp. 29–60.