The present excavation was carried out after severe damage was caused to the site by operating bulldozers and building an 11 m high concrete wall that supported the upper portion of the village and the underlying tell. Four squares were excavated along a narrow strip that skirted the edge of the tell. The squares (western [1, 2] – 4.0 × 4.5 m; eastern [3, 4] – 3.0 × 3.5 m) were bounded on the north by the support wall and on the south by a drainage channel, thereby limiting the size of the excavated area.
 
The western squares yielded no in situ antiquities. Excavation of Square 1 ended upon reaching bedrock, 2.0–2.5 m below surface. Square 2 was closed at 2.5 m below surface with the uncovering of a thick cement platform that appears to be a supporting anchor for the cement wall. Fill material recently spilled down the slope after the construction of the support wall was found in the two squares. The fill contained stones, boulders and potsherds dating to Iron I and II and the Persian, Hellenistic, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods, along with modern finds, such as rubber, plastic and glass.
Squares 3 and 4 (Fig. 2) yielded similar material. The excavation was suspended at a depth of 2.5 m due to the precarious and unstable nature of the excavation balks and the topography that precluded any possibility of widening the excavated area. At this depth the matrix was still that of recently spilled fill. A small probe was undertaken by a backhoe, revealing bedrock at 4 m below surface. It would appear that in situ Iron Age material was present adjacent to bedrock.
The sole noteworthy find from the fill was the molded head of a bovine that apparently belonged to an Iron I kernos. The hollow neck and the well-formed head end with a perforated muzzle. The two horns and ears are broken but their scars are clearly evident. The eyes are unusually carved unlike the more common portrayal of the eyes as small clay pellets. The presence of bull heads as elements of Iron Age kernoi is not rare (‘Atiqot 22:121–124).