Antiquities were discovered in probe trenches and three excavation squares were opened (Fig. 1).

Square A. Remains of an installation (L10; Fig. 2), built of dressed limestone and fieldstones, were discovered at a depth of 0.8 m below surface. The bottom of the installation was flat and consisted of two rows of rectangular stones. The walls had apparently caved in and their stones were found in the collapse around the installation.

A layer of sand (thickness 0.4 m) beneath Installation 10 covered the southern side of a silo (L16) that was built of medium-sized round stones. The opening of the silo was circular (diam. 0.5–0.6 m; Fig. 3) and it became wider toward the bottom (width at base 1.2 m, height in center 0.82 m).

Another silo (L17; preserved height 0.4 m; Fig. 4) was discovered next to the eastern balk of the square; its eastern side was beyond the excavation limits. The floor of the silo consisted of tamped earth and below it was a layer of hard hamra soil, devoid of finds. The soil fill inside the two silos contained numerous potsherds that dated to the ninth–tenth centuries CE, including bowls (Fig. 5:1–4, 6–8), jugs (Fig. 5:9, 13, 15), a decorated jug (Fig. 5:19), a cooking pot (Fig. 5:22), lamps (Fig. 5:25, 26), as well as glass fragments, animal bones and a bronze coin that was recovered from Silo 17.

Another round installation (L12; Fig. 6), c. 1.4 m south of Silo 17, was built of small fieldstones and preserved two courses high. Its bottom consisted of hamra and it contained soil fill that was devoid of archaeological finds.

 

Square B. A section of a tamped level (1.50 × 1.85 m), founded on top of natural hamra soil and built of small stones and crushed white chalk, was exposed 0.8 m below surface in the middle of the square. The sandy soil fill above the tamped level contained potsherds from the Early Islamic period, fragments of glass and animal bones. An irregular shaped pit (L11) in the western part of the square was dug to a depth of c. 1.9 m below surface. The pit was filled with light brown sand, which contained numerous fragments of pottery vessels that dated to the Early Islamic period, including bowls (Fig. 5:5), jugs (Fig. 5:10–12), jars (Fig. 5:16–18), decorated jugs (Fig. 5:20,

21), lamps (Fig. 5:23, 24) and a zoomorphic vessel (Fig. 5:27), as well as glass fragments and animal bones.

 

Square C. The base of a wall (W14) built of small stones and the foundation of a plaster floor that abutted it (L13) were discovered at a depth of 0.8 m below surface. White lime fill with charcoal inclusions was found in-between the stones of the wall. The soil fill that covered the wall and the floor contained potsherds that dated to the Early Islamic period, such as a jug’s base (Fig. 5:14).