Prior to the excavation, numerous rock-cuttings were visible on surface along an elongated bedrock strip (length c. 150 m). The rock-cuttings were hewn in a layer of hard nari (1 m thick) that covered the soft chalk and was exposed the length of a relatively narrow strip, aligned northwest–southeast on the slope of Tell el-Ful. Rock-cuttings were entirely absent from the soft chalk bedrock that was exposed east and west of this narrow strip.
Some of the rock-cuttings were small and others extended across an extensive area. Ashlar stones (length c. 0.70 m, width 0.35 m, height 0.35 m) that had not been detached from bedrock were recorded in the quarries.
The remains of modern quarrying activity that used explosives, damaging the ancient quarry and removing parts of it, were noted on the western edge of the quarry.
Apart from these quarries, no ancient remains, either built or quarried, were discovered. Potsherds dating to Iron II, the end of the Hellenistic–Early Roman period and the Late Roman–Byzantine period were found on surface. Two coins were discovered at the site; one of Agrippa I, minted in Jerusalem (41/42 CE; IAA 96313) and the other may be from the fourth century CE (IAA 96314). They were apparently swept from the top of the tell.