During April 2009, a survey prior to development was conducted east of Elqosh (License No. S-111/2009; map ref. 231015–810/771150–683), prior to expanding the moshav. The survey, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and underwritten by the Ministry of Construction and Housing and the Ma‘ale Yoseph Economic Company, was directed by Y. Lerer, with the assistance of E. Stern (photography) and A. Shapiro (GPS).
The survey area extends south of Tell Rush; it is covered with vegetation and is used for grazing cattle. The survey was conducted on foot and fourteen sites were documented (Fig. 1). In addition, five of the seventy-three probe trenches that were dug with the aid of a backhoe yielded ancient remains. Remains of Khirbat Gharashliya had previously been documented in the survey area, including walls and an oil press, as well as potsherds dating to the Mamluk period that were collected nearby (IAA Reports 14 [2001]:36; Site 281).
1–8. The sites are within the boundaries of Khirbat Gharashliya, in which remains of walls built of dressed stones and potsherd scatterings from the Mamluk period were documented. Prior to the survey, a section of a wall built of dressed stones and potsherds from the Mamluk period were exposed in an unauthorized illegal dig at Site 6, for the purpose of widening a dirt road.
9 and 11. Plastered, rock-hewn cisterns.
10. Natural cave.
12. Various rock-cuttings.
13. A complex of four rock-hewn winepresses, each consisting of a treading floor and a collecting vat (Fig. 2).
14. Two rock-hewn cupmarks (Fig. 3).
Probe Trenches. Ancient remains, including dressed stones and potsherds dating to the Mamluk period, were discovered in five of the trenches (143, 151, 161–163), all within the precincts of Khirbat Gharashliya.