During June 2000, a salvage excavation was conducted along the route of the railroad track in the Exhibition Grounds in Tel Aviv (Permit No. A-3255; map ref. NIG 181718/676787; OIG 131718/176787). The excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, was directed by S. Golan, with the assistance of P. Fogel (area supervision), V. Essman (surveying), M. Sharvit (mollusks), L. Kupershmidt (metallurgical laboratory) and M. Shuiskaya (pottery drawing).
The site had previously been excavated by J. Kaplan (HA 41-42:26–27 [Hebrew]) who discovered settlement remains from the Chalcolithic Period (the Ghassulian phase), the Early Bronze Age and Middle Bronze IIA. Another excavation exposed fragments of pottery vessels that belonged to a settlement from the Middle Bronze Age (HA-ESI 114:120*).
Geomorphologic tests indicated that a swamp was located to the east of the site and it seems that part of the excavation was actually a slope that had slid down toward an ancient wadi channel.
Five squares were excavated. One square was devoid of finds. Potsherds were found in two squares, which according to the geomorphologic tests were swept over from an adjacent site and in two other squares complete, poorly preserved pottery vessels from MB IIA were discovered. The petrographic analysis of the vessels indicated that they were produced at the site. Other finds in the excavation included animal bones, mostly those of sheep/goat and cattle, stone vessels, a bronze chisel and shells of Murex, Glycymerididae and Cassidae mollusks, which frequently occur along the country’s coastline.
A clay layer on top of stones contained pottery vessels, some stood on their base and others were upside down, animal bones, particularly jaws and vertebrae of sheep/goats and cattle and a bronze chisel (Fig. 2:4). Pottery vessels, stone vases and animal bones were found on top of another clay layer that was exposed below the top clay layer. The pottery vessels included open and carinated bowls (Fig. 1:1–5), kraters (Fig. 1:6–9), cooking pots (Fig. 1:10–13) and jars (Fig. 1:14–19), as well as a basin (Fig. 2:1), fragments of a basalt bowl and grindstones (Fig. 2:2, 3) and bones that consisted of vertebrae, ribs, a complete skull of sheep/goat and a horn.