During March–April 2006, a trial excavation was conducted west of Khirbat el-Mansiyah, next to the ‘En Tut interchange (Permit No. A-4757*; map ref. NIG 203472–562/723832–915; OIG 153472–562/223832–915), after ancient remains were discovered in probe trenching. The excavation, carried out on behalf of the Antiquities Authority and financed by the Cross-Israel Highway Company, was directed by M.A. Tabar, with the assistance of A. Hajian (surveying).
The remains of an Ottoman khan were recorded and described by Y. Olami in a survey of the region (Map of Dalia [31]:56–57) and various excavations had been conducted there (ESI 15:49–50; 16:59–63; Permit Nos. A-4389; A-4698; Fig. 1).
The western part of a structure (Fig. 2) was exposed in six half squares, oriented north–south. The outer (W3) and inner walls (W4, W5) of the building, preserved two courses high, were built of two rows of ashlar stones founded on bedrock. Three of the building’s rooms, built in a row along W3, were exposed (Loci 108, 109, 110). The northern room (L110) was 3 m wide and the middle room (L108)—2 m wide, whereas the width of the southern room was not ascertained as its southern wall was not excavated. The fill in the rooms consisted of soil and different sized ashlar stones (0.30 × 0.45 × 0.55 m) that had collapsed from the walls. A few potsherds and fragments of roof tiles that dated to the Ottoman period (eighteenth–nineteenth centuries CE) were recovered from the fill.
The location of the building, its plan and the artifacts allude to the possibility that this is the khan from the Ottoman period that was described in the aforementioned survey.