The excavation area was located in the eastern fields of Moshav Bet Hananya, near the High Aqueduct to Caesarea. Eight half-squares, aligned east–west, were excavated in the area where the pipe is to be laid. Remains of two phases, the early dating to the Roman and Byzantine periods and the later—to the end of the Ottoman period, were exposed.

The Early Phase (Squares A16, A38). A thick level of heavy alluvium soil (thickness 1.5 m) was exposed in Square A16; below it was a level of tamped white soil (1.6 × 1.6 m, thickness 0.3 m; 6.7 m above sea level) that contained a large quantity of shells and ribbed potsherds, mostly fragments of bag-shaped jars from the Roman period (Fig. 1:2, 4, 5). The white soil level, which extended southward in the direction of the High Aqueduct to Caesarea that is 7 m away, may have been related to the aqueduct’s construction.

Collapse that consisted of various size dressed stones (L19; Fig. 2) was exposed in Square A38. It apparently originated from a breach in the aqueduct that occurred in the 1920s when the swamps in the region were being dried. The finds in the square included fragments of a bag-shaped jar (Fig. 1:1) and a Lebanese amphora (Fig. 1:3), which dated to the Early Roman period, as well as a fragment of a mortarium (Fig. 1:7) and a fragment of a ceramic pipe that was connected to Channel C of the nearby aqueduct (Fig. 1:6) and dated to the Byzantine period.

 

The Late Phase (Squares A1, A2, A4, A5, A7, A8). A section of a wide wall (W24), built of roughly hewn fieldstones and oriented north–south, was exposed in Squares A1 and A2 (Figs. 3, 4). A tamped soil and small stone floor (L22) abutted the wall from the east. A fragment of a round millstone (diam. 1.07 m) was discovered west of W24.

A wall (W25) was discovered in Squares A4 and A5 (Figs. 5, 6), 5 m west of Squares A1 and A2. Wall 25 was built similar and parallel to W24 and a tamped earth floor (L23) abutted it from the east. Collapsed building stones, with some dressed ones among them (L27), were exposed to the west of W25. Three coins that dated to the late Ottoman period were discovered on Floor 23 and between the fallen stones.

Three wall foundations (W11–W13) of a square building (L15) that was erected on heavy clayey soil were exposed in Squares A7 and A8, 5 m west of Squares A4 and A5 (Figs. 7, 8). The exterior faces of the walls were built of ashlars and fieldstones, secured with bonding material and small stones were placed between them; Wall 12 was wider than the other walls. The structure extended to the south, beyond the limits of the excavation area. The artifacts recovered from the squares included fragments of a glazed bowl (Fig. 1:8) and pipes from the end of the Ottoman period (Fig. 1:10, 11), as well as pieces of roof tiles that dated to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries CE (Fig. 1:9). The building remains belonged to a flour mill (Abu Ner) that operated here in the latter part of the Ottoman period and was destroyed in 1922. To run the flour mill, a section of the adjacent aqueduct was adapted for the purpose of conveying water to the installation.