The Floor

. Two squares were excavated where the pottery cluster and the stones occurred. The earthen floor was found only in the northeastern part of the northwestern square. Along the southwestern border of the floor small grains of crumbling charcoal were discerned in the soil amongst the potsherds and below them. The small and sparse amount of charcoal precluded Radiocarbon dating or its botanical identification. The soil with charcoal grains superposed a natural straight bedrock surface that was overlaid with potsherds, similar to those above the floor.

 

The Western Pit

. A plastered bell-shaped pit (L3; width at bottom 5.2 m, preserved height 4.3 m) was discovered c. 15 m southwest of the excavation squares. It was damaged and only its northern half was partially preserved. The walls of the pit were built of medium-sized, carelessly dressed stones, bound with gray-white plaster (c. 4 cm thick), which was also applied to its bottom.

 

The Southern Pit

. The remains of another pit (L6; max. preserved height 1.6 m) were discovered c. 26 m southeast of Pit 3. The bottom of Pit 6 was a straight bedrock surface, plastered with a pale yellow chalky material (2 cm thick). Most of the pit was damaged and its walls were preserved only in the east and south. It was impossible to reconstruct its diameter; however, based on the incline of the walls it seems to have been also bell-shaped and built in a similar manner as Pit 3.

 

The Ceramic Finds

. The pottery assemblages from the pits and the floor are homogenous. The vessels are produced of local marl clay from the Moza Formation, which has a pink-orange hue and is mixed with small and medium-sized white temper. The fragments include bowls (Fig. 3:1–6), mortaria (Fig. 3:8, 9), kraters (Fig. 3:7, 10, 11), cooking pots (Fig. 3:12, 13) and jars (Fig. 3:14–17). The assemblage is similar to that from the Holyland site (‘Atiqot 40:7–11, Figs. 6–10; 17–19, Figs. 15, 16) and it dates to the sixth–fifth centuries BCE.

 

The Coins

. A YHD coin dated to the years 270–247 BCE (IAA No. 95639; Fig. 4; ‘Atiqot 41, II:288, Table 3) was found with jar body fragments on Floor 4.