The excavation was conducted within the precincts of the prison, at the southwestern end of Horbat Damon. The ruin is situated on the Mount Carmel watershed (HA-ESI 112:29*), where other sites from the Byzantine period and earlier periods, on the southwestern slopes of Nahal Oren (M. Marcus, H. Alon and H. Shalala, 1997, in: Mount Carmel: Survey, Landscape and Touring Itineraries, pp. 70–71, 74–75), are known. Remains of agricultural installations were documented in preliminary surveys in the region.

Two squares (A, B), c. 200 m apart, were excavated.

 

Square A. Three strata were uncovered in the square. The upper stratum was a layer of fill and debris that contained mixed potsherds, dating from the Roman until the Mamluk periods. An animal skeleton was discovered c. 0.2 m below surface, in what may possibly have been a later pit that penetrated into the upper stratum. The middle stratum was a large stone collapse, enclosed within Walls 4 and 5 (L107; Fig. 1); most of the collapse probably belonged to the walls from the bottom stratum. A stone lintel decorated with a floral design (Fig. 2) was discovered in the collapse, as well as numerous potsherds.

The principal remains were exposed in the third and lowest stratum, below the collapse. These included part of an olive press from the Byzantine period that was enclosed between W4 in the north and W5 in the west. A wall (W3), higher than and to the north of W4, did not abut it. Wall 3, which was oriented differently, probably did not belong to this stratum and perhaps postdated it. Its construction technique, utilizing fieldstones and mortar, was different than that of W4 and the fill alongside it contained fragments of pottery vessels from the Ottoman period.

The olive press included two piers on either side of a collecting vat (L112B; Fig. 3). The walls and the stone piers (height 1.8 m; Fig. 4) were founded on natural bedrock surface (L112A). On the inner upper part of the western stone pier, closest to W5, was a small round recess into which the wooden beam was inserted. A similar recess was on the opposite stone pier, but only half of it survived. Potsherds from the Byzantine period were found in a small cupmark (depth 0.1 m) at the bottom of the collecting vat (depth 1.1 m). A thin layer of brown earth (L108) that overlay the bedrock floor contained potsherds, mostly from the Byzantine period and similar to those recovered from the cupmark. 

Most of the ceramic finds dated to the Late Byzantine period (end of the sixth–beginning of the seventh century CE). Nearly all potsherds came from the collapse (L107) and included bowls (Fig. 5:1–5), kraters (Fig. 5:6–8), cooking pots (Fig. 5:9, 10) and jars (Fig. 5:11–18). The potsherds associated with the olive press in the bottom stratum were also from the same period and included jars (Fig. 5:19–21). A few potsherds were found in the upper stratum, including a bowl (Fig. 5:10) dating to the Byzantine period and a glazed bowl (Fig. 6:1), a gray Gaza jar (Fig. 6:2) and a smoking pipe (Fig. 6: 3), dating to the Ottoman period. Three iron nails, two from L107 and one from surface, were also found.

 

Square B, located east of Square A, contained the meager remains of two walls that could not be dated with certainty.

The olive press at Horbat Damon belongs to the southern type of presses in the Land of Israel that was operated by a press beam, inside a structure that included two piers on either side of a collecting vat. This type was also common to the regions of the Galilee and Mount Carmel (R. Frankel, 2003, Olives and Olive Oil in Israel and the Southern Levant in Antiquity, in Estudios Sobre el Monte Testaccio, Roma Vol. III, pp. 637–662). The numerous jars among the potsherds point to their association with the olive press.