The excavation area (c. 50 × 350 m; Fig. 1) was located on a steep slope, at the foot of Khirbat er-Ras. Some 80 antiquities sites were documented and inspected, but the excavation was suspended before all were mapped. The inspected sites included a large cemetery that comprised at least 50 shaft tombs and rock-hewn installations that are characteristic of the farming settlements in the region from the Iron Age through the Byzantine period. An assortment of potsherds was found in all the installations and caves, as well on surface, dating to the Chalcolithic period, Early Bronze I, Early Bronze II–III, the Iron Age and the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods (HA-ESI 117).

The openings of sixteen caves (diam. 0.8–1.0 m, max. depth 1.0 m; Figs. 2, 3) were partly excavated: 100 (Fig. 4), 103 (Fig. 5), 109, 129 (Fig. 6), 131 (Fig. 7), 132 (Fig. 8) and 173, as well as Caves 502, 508, 515, 517, 518, 519, 520, and 521. The elliptical Cave 118 (length c. 5.0 m, height c. 1.5 m) was found exposed because the side of cliff into which it was hewn had collapsed in antiquity. This cave was apparently connected to the shaft of Cave 100 (c. 2 m far from it). 

The investigation was limited to the upper parts of the shafts, down to where the cave became wider, to ascertain that these were burial caves. Similar shaft tombs are typical of the hill country during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages; however, it is impossible to date them without an excavation.

Cave 114 (opening dimensions: 0.4 × 0.6 m; Fig. 9) was a kokh-type burial cave. The cave’s opening was hewn in the face of the cliff and a small bedrock-hewn courtyard fronted it. The non-excavated cave was filled with alluvium and probably dated to the Roman period.

Fifteen rock-hewn installations were found, including a winepress, circular installations, cupmarks and others.

The winepress (106; Figs. 10, 11) consisted of a treading floor (3.5 × 3.5 m, depth 0.1 m) and a round collecting vat (diam. 1 m, depth 0.7 m).

The round installations included deep units (102; diam. 1.2 m, depth 0.7 m), shallow ones (133; diam. c. 1 m, depth 0.1 m; Fig. 12) and a round basin (172; diam. 1.2 m, depth 0.2 m).

Some of the installations had a small depression or cupmark (diam. 0.1–0.2 m, depth 5–15 cm) in the center. These installations were small (188; diam. 0.5 m, depth 0.25 m) and large (143; diam. 1.2 m, depth 5 cm; Fig. 13), as well as elliptical (101; 1.0 × 1.5 m, depth 0.5 m). A shallow depression (diam. c. 0.5 m, depth 5 cm) was discovered near one of the round installations that had a depression in its center (141; diam. c. 1 m, depth 0.1 m; Fig. 14).

A cluster of approximately 10 small cupmarks (diam. 5–10 cm) was discovered on a bedrock surface (136; 3 × 5 m; Fig. 15). A deep cupmark (128; diam. 0.3 m, depth 0.6 m) was also found.

Other installations included a groove in bedrock that led to a round surface (147; diam. 0.8 m, depth 0.1 m; Fig. 16) or a cupmark (149; diam. 0.2 m, depth 0.1 m); a rock-hewn surface on top of a large round stone (123; diam. c. 2 m, depth 5 cm; Fig. 17) with a cupmark (diam. 0.1 m, depth 0.1 m) hewn in its center; a square vat (115; 0.7 × 0.7 m, depth 0.6 m) and a rectangular rock-cutting (145; 0.7 × 1.5 m, depth 5 cm) in whose center was a depression (depth c. 0.1 m) and another hollow (depth c. 0.2 m) close by it.

 

Bedrock-hewn steps of various sizes (130; 30 × 50 m, max. depth 1.2 m) were found over large parts of surface, as well as remains of a few walls, preserved one or two courses high (max. length 1 m, width 0.2 m, height 0.5 m), which were probably remains of terrace walls, since no floors abutted them.