During December 2003, a salvage excavation was conducted at Jisr ez-Zarqa (Permit No. A-4048; map ref. NIG 19215–20/71553–8; OIG 14215–20/21553–8). The excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, was directed by K. Sa‘id, with the assistance of V. Essman (surveying and drafting), P. Gendelman (pottery reading) and M. Shuiskaya (pottery drawing).
An excavation square (Fig. 1) was opened in hard clayey soil along the eastern fringes of the settlement. The excavation was located c. 5 m north of a shaft that accessed the High Aqueduct to Caesarea (‘Atiqot 30:23*–43*). The remains of three walls (W101–W103) that formed a room were exposed in the excavation. The wall foundations, set on soil, were built of medium-sized fieldstones; the walls’ upper courses consisted of ashlar stones, only a few of which had survived. The soil fill excavated near the walls was mixed with a few potsherds that included jars from the first century CE (Fig. 2:1, 2) and amphorae that ranged in date from the fourth to the seventh centuries CE (Fig. 2:3, 4).
It seems that the remains were part of a single room that may have been connected to the activities in the High Aqueduct to Caesarea.