During October 1999 a trial excavation was conducted in the Modi‘in industrial zone, east of Shoham (Permit No. A-3131*; map ref. NIG 196066/657093; OIG 146066/157093), in the wake of paving a road. The excavation, on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, was directed by F. Volynsky, assisted by A. Hajian (surveying) and Y. Nagar (physical anthropology).
An arcosolium tomb and the remains of a road were excavated on the western slope of a low hill, adjacent to the area that had previously been excavated by H. Torge (HA-ESI 114:46*–47*).
The bedrock-hewn tomb (Figs. 1, 2), aligned north–south, was covered with a stone lid (0.7 × 0.8 × 2.0 m) whose northern part was broken in the past and found nearby. The tomb consisted of a central chamber (0.8 × 1.5 × 2.0 m), an eastern arcosolium (0.8 × 1.5 × 2.0 m) and a western arcosolium (0.8 × 1.0 × 2.0 m). Several non-diagnostic potsherds and a few non-articulated human bones, whose deteriorated state of preservation did not allow to determine the gender or age of the interred, were found in the tomb.
Some 5 m east of the tomb, an ancient road oriented north–south, was exposed for c. 150 m. A sounding was excavated (Fig. 3) in the best-preserved segment of the road, which was built of two parallel rows of large fieldstones (0.5 × 0.7 m). Between the rows was a fill of terra rossa soil mixed with numerous smaller fieldstones. The fill was preserved 0.3 m high above natural bedrock. A few worn potsherds that could not be dated with certainty were recovered from the fill. The proximity of the arcosolia tomb, which was common in the Byzantine period, to the road suggests that the latter may also date to the same period.