The current excavation—a long and narrow tract of land—was situated on the northern fringes of the site, above the modern cemetery and close to the hill summit. A rectangular area (3×7 m; Fig. 1) was opened and four occupation strata, dating to the Ottoman, Mamluk, Hellenistic, Iron and Early Bronze Ages, were identified.
Stratum 1: A badly preserved and distorted terrace wall was exposed close to the modern surface with Mamluk and Ottoman potsherds in its vicinity. This wall retained a farming terrace and was preserved a single course high; it was removed at the early stages of the excavation.
Stratum 2: This level consisted of a badly preserved wall (W11), another wall (W10) and a small segment of a stone floor (L105). Wall 11 (length 2 m) survived to a maximum of two courses high; Floor 105, associated with this wall, was overlain with large quantities of Hellenistic pottery. This stratum is the only surviving remains of this period in the area.
Stratum 3: A large wall (W12; Fig. 2) was exposed underneath the Hellenistic stratum and below a rubble layer that included sporadic potsherds of the Middle Bronze Age.
Wall 12 (exposed length 4 m, preserved height 2 m), built of medium-sized fieldstones and oriented north–south, was the façade of a large building. Two openings within W12 were probably windows, blocked with stones and rubble.
The pottery assemblage dated the building to the ninth century BCE.
Stratum 4: Wall 12 was built directly upon an Early Bronze II layer (L106; Fig. 3), which was only exposed in a very small area due to the depth of the excavation. Some evidence of building remains, including a stone pillar of white chalk, was noted in the layer
The current excavations at Fassuta indicate that the site was occupied not only during the Bronze Ages and the Hellenistic period, as known from previous excavations, but also during the ninth century BCE. This occupation is represented by the remains of a large building in a good state of preservation that could possibly have fulfilled a public capacity.
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}