During August 2001 an excavation was conducted on Ha-Oren Street in Ramat Yishay (Permit No. A-3491*; map ref. NIG 21510–650/73430–510; OIG 16510–650/23430–510), in the wake of construction work on a road. The excavation, on behalf of the Antiquities Authority and financed by the Local Council of Ramat Yishay, was directed by L. Porat, with the assistance of Y.Ya‘aqobi (administration), A. Shapiro and V. Essman (surveying and drafting), H. Tahan (pottery drawing) and E.J. Stern (pottery reading).
The excavation area was located on the western slope of a hill, to the west of two previous excavations that exposed remains from the Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic periods (ESI 18:30; ESI 20:25*–26*). Three squares were opened; remains from the Abbasid period (Stratum I), end of the Fatimid and beginning of the Crusader period (Stratum II) and Crusader and Mamluk periods (Stratum III) were revealed (Fig. 1).
Stratum I. A room (L122, L123) with three walls, W104 and W121 (Sq B) and W118 (Sq C), was exposed. Two of the walls (W104, W121) were founded on bedrock. The walls (width c. 0.9 m) were built of large, dressed chalk blocks and a core of smaller stones. They were preserved 1.2 m high. An agricultural installation attributed to this stratum was cut into bedrock in Sq A. Only parts of it are visible, as later walls covered it. The pottery from this stratum (Fig. 2) dated to the ninth–tenth centuries CE and consisted of glazed bowls of Polychrome Splashed and Mottled-type wares (Fig. 2:1, 2), handmade vessels (Fig. 2:3, 4, 7), cooking pots (Fig. 2:5) and jars (Fig. 2:6).
Stratum II. Remains of six walls preserved a single course high and a single stone wide were discovered. Walls 105–107 and Wall 126 in Sq A, which formed three rooms, were built on bedrock or partly on the agricultural installation from Stratum I. A beaten-earth floor segment (L108; Fig 3) was exposed between W105 and W106. Two walls (W117, W120) and remains of a white, beaten-earth floor (L114) between them belonged to this stratum in Sq C. The pottery from this stratum was dated to the end of the eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth century CE and comprised mostly various kinds of glazed bowls, such as sgraffito (Fig. 4:1, 3), alkaline (Fig. 4:2), gritty ware (Fig. 4:4), splashed ware (Fig. 4:5) and slip painted (Fig. 4:6), as well as cooking pots (Fig. 4:7) and handmade vessels, some of which belonged to geometric ware (Fig. 4:8, 9).
Stratum III. A stone floor was unearthed in Sq B (L102; Fig. 5). It was composed of large dressed chalk blocks in secondary use. One of the stones was the threshold of a doorway with a hole for the hinge. Wall 104 and W121 from Stratum I were dismantled to the same level as the floor and used in it. The pottery above the floor and from surface layers of the excavation mainly belonged to the thirteenth century and to a lesser extent, to the fourteenth century CE. Its main component was the different kinds of glazed bowls, including slip painted (Fig. 4:10), gritty ware (Fig. 4:11) and Aegean ware (Fig. 4:13, 14), as well as cooking ware (Fig. 4:12) and handmade vessels, some with geometric designs (Fig. 4:15, 16).
During archeological supervision works next to the excavation area and c. 6 m north of Sqs A and B, two bell-shaped cisterns with openings built of dressed blocks, c. 10 m apart, were discerned.