In December 2017, a salvage excavation was conducted on Sprinzak Street in Rishon Le-Ziyyon (Permit No. A-8155; map ref. 180142–207/652413–50; Fig. 1) prior to construction. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and financed by Zarfati Ltd., was conducted by A. Dayan, with the assistance of Y. Amrani and E. Bachar (administration), R. Moshe (preliminary inspections, area preparation and area supervision), A. Dagot (area supervision and GPS), A. Weimann and G. Tal (area supervision), S. Ajami (registration), I. Jonish (area preparation and field photography), D. Golan (area preparation), M. Kahan (surveying and drafting), A. Peretz (field photography), Y. Marmelstein (aerial photography) and P. Gendelman (pottery reading), as well as M. Ajami and Y. Radashkovski. Laborers from Bir el-Maksur, Kabul, Shefar‘am and Kafr Yasif participated in the excavation, as well as youth from Dekel Vilnai High School at Ma‘ale Adummim, from Amit High School at Petah Tiqwa and from the Melah Ha-Arez and ʽEn Perat pre-army programs.
The excavation area (1,563 sq m; Figs. 2, 3) was covered with topsoil and construction debris (c. 0.3 m deep) lying over a sand dune (1.5–3.0 m deep); these were removed with the aid of mechanical equipment. The ancient remains were preserved in the hard, clayey soil beneath the sand. A road made of tamped crushed kurkar (L152; 0.2–0.3 m thick, 7–10 m deep; Fig. 4) running from southwest to northeast was unearthed in the sand layer in the west of the excavation area. A section of the road was cleaned and documented.
Approximately 60 squares were excavated in the clayey soil and found to contain building remains: wall foundations (W128, W146, W147, W149; Figs. 5–7), floor beddings (L148; Fig. 8) and stone collapses (L151; Fig. 9). Most date from the Byzantine period (fifth–sixth centuries CE), and some to the Late Byzantine–Early Umayyad and Abbasid periods. In the east of the excavation area, near a stone collapse, was a clay tabun (L150; Fig. 10), which was placed in a pit dug into the natural soil. Near the tabun, to its south, was a circular installation (L164; Fig. 11) made of body fragments of pottery vessels that were inserted into the soil.
The building remains were found in the central and southern parts of the excavation area, which are topographically higher, as well as on the northeast slope. In the northwest were habitation levels that contained a large quantity of Byzantine potsherds from the fifth–sixth centuries CE. The depth of the remains varied according to the topography, and the further northwest the excavation extended, the deeper the remains were.
The finds included coins, animal bones, flint tools, glass vessels, stone tools and artifacts and pottery. The pottery finds are varied, and include locally produced tableware (bowls, cooking pots, pots and casseroles) and storage vessels (jars and jugs), in addition to imported vessels (bowls and amphorae). The finds attest to the existence of a residential area, possibly a farmhouse where the tenant farmers who managed the previously discovered winepresses lived.