On a hilltop, agricultural installations hewn in bedrock surface (10 × 20 m; Figs. 1, 2) c. 400 m north of Horbat Yattir, were cleaned; a cave and a farming terrace were examined on the hill’s southern slope.

Winepress (L202). The winepress consisted of two treading floors. The main treading floor (2.6 × 3.0 m, depth c. 0.1 m) was west of and connected to the collecting vat (1.2 × 1.4 m, depth 1.2 m) by means of a channel (length 0.4 m, width 8 cm, depth 5 cm). A smaller treading floor (0.9 × 1.2 m, depth 5 cm) was south of and connected to the vat by means of a shallow channel (length 0.3 m, depth 5 cm).

 

Pressing Installations. Five pressing installations, which consisted of a treading floor that was usually connected by a short channel to a cupmark or a basin, were hewn in bedrock surface.

(1) Installation 203 (Fig. 3). Irregular-shaped treading floor (c. 1.5 × 1.5 m, depth 3 cm),  cupmark (diam. 0.3 m, depth 0.3 m) and channel (length 0.1 m, depth 5 cm).

(2) Installation 204 (Fig. 4). Elliptical treading floor (0.9 × 1.1 m, depth 3 cm), cupmark (diam. 0.5 m, depth 0.1 m) and channel (length 7 cm, depth 3 cm).

(3) Installation 205 (Fig. 5). Square treading floor (c. 1.0 × 1.2 m, depth 2 cm) and two adjacent cupmarks (diam. 0.15 m, depth 5 cm).

(4) Installation 206 (Fig. 6). Round surface (diam. c. 0.2 m, depth 5 cm), deep cupmark (diam. 0.15 m, depth 0.2 m) and channel (length c. 0.1 m, width 4 cm, depth 2 cm).

(5) Installation 209 (Fig. 7). Elliptical treading floor (c. 1.2 × 2.0 m, depth 3 cm), hewn basin (diam. c. 0.7 m, depth 0.4 m) and shallow channel (length 0.15 m, width 7 cm, depth 4 cm).

 

Cupmarks. Two shallow cupmarks were cleaned (L207—diam. 5 cm, depth of 5 cm; L208—diam. 0.2 m, depth 5 cm).

Cave. A cave (L201; c. 6 × 17 m, max. height in excess of 2 m; Figs. 8, 9) was located on the southern slope of the hill, c. 70 from the bedrock surface on the hilltop. The opening was made narrower by means of a wide wall (width c. 1 m), built of different sized stones, in which a narrow entry was set (width c. 0.5 m). The cave had no partitions or installations that are characteristic of a dwelling and therefore, it was probably used as a sheepfold. Two squares (Loci 210, 211), opened along the inside of the wall, were excavated down to bedrock (0.15 m below surface) and another square (L200; 0.2 m below surface), which was opened in front of the cave, yielded pottery fragments that dated to the Byzantine period.

 

Farming Terrace. A system of c. 20 farming terraces (length 30–40 m, width from bank to bank 15–27 m, height 1 m) that were supported by stone retaining walls (width 1.0–1.5 m) crossed the wadi channel south of the hill. On either side of a terrace wall (length 18 m, width 1.5 m, height 1 m), c. 20 m south of the cave, a probe trench (L341; 3 × 3 m; Figs. 10, 11) was opened in an old breach in the terrace where a dirt road passed through. It became clear that the wall was built of fieldstones (up to 0.7 m long) that were set on a foundation of small stones; the latter were placed atop a layer of loess (thickness c. 0.4 m), deposited on bedrock. Potsherds that dated to the Byzantine period were recovered from the trench.

 

The group of installations, which were hewn in bedrock surface on the hilltop and apparently belonged to the Roman–Byzantine settlement of Horbat Yattir, is common to the agricultural fringes of the mountain-region settlements in these periods. The system of farming terraces in the wadi reflects a later settlement phase, at the end of the Byzantine and the beginning of the Early Islamic periods. The system should probably also be attributed to the settlement at Horbat Yattir, which continued to exist in these periods. Yet, it seems that the cave was in use much later because the utilization of caves for storage and as sheepfolds was widespread among the Arabs of the Hebron Highlands from the Ottoman period until the modern era.