In March 2005, a salvage excavation was conducted at Fassuta (Permit No. A-4399; map ref. NIG 2292/7728; OIG 1792/2728) following the excavation of trial trenches in which building stones were discovered. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Antiquities Authority with the financial support of the contractor, was directed by H. Tahan Rosen (pottery drawing), with the participation of Y. Lerer and Y. Ya‘aqobi (administration).
A single square was excavated, at first by means of a backhoe and afterwards manually (Fig. 1). At a depth of 1.2 m, roughly-hewn covering stones (0.65 × 0.90 m) belonging to at least three cist tombs were exposed; the tombs were not excavated (Figs. 2, 3). In the northern part of the square a sewage pipe was exposed that had damaged one of the tombs and shifted some of the stones that covered it. The fill layer above the tombs yielded a cooking pot from the Roman period (Fig. 4:1), a bowl (Fig. 4:2) and a krater (Fig. 4:3) from the Byzantine period, and bowls (Fig. 4:4, 5) and a krater (Fig. 4:6) from the Mamluk period.