During November 1998 a salvage excavation was conducted in a hewn burial cave south of En-Nabi Yaqin (L-830; map ref. NIG 2148/6007; OIG 1648/1007; The Survey in Judea, Site 163, In: Judaea, Samaria and the Golan — Archaeological Survey 1967-1968, 1972), prior to paving a road. The excavation, on behalf of the Archaeological Staff Officer of Judea and Samaria, was directed by Y. Peleg and I. Srukh, assisted by M. Kahan (surveying and drafting).
The cave (Fig. 1) consisted of a small antechamber (1.45 × 3.05 m) with an entrance (0.65 × 0.70 m) in its northern wall that accessed a circular burial chamber (diam. 3.5 m, height 1.55 m), which had a flat ceiling and floor. Cooking pot fragments from the Byzantine period were the sole find in the cave, which was probably related to the large settlement at Khirbat Bani Dar, located c. 300 m to the southwest. This site yielded finds from the Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods, as well as the Middle Ages (The Survey in Judea, Site 162, In: Judaea, Samaria and the Golan – Archaeological Survey 1967-1968, 1972). The cave may have been hewn in the Iron Age and reused during the Byzantine period.