Several excavations conducted near the current excavation in recent years uncovered an industrial installation related to leather and textile processing dating from the Early Islamic period (eighth–eleventh centuries CE; Barbé 2018:144; Fig. 1:A); a stone building established in the late Fatimid–early Crusader periods (twelfth–early thirteenth centuries CE) with evidence of an abattoir (Clamer, Prag and Humbert 2017; Fig. 1:B); and remains of a building with several phases that date from the twelfth century CE to the present day (Zelinger 2013; Fig. 1:C).
The current excavation took place in the building’s basement (7.6 × 9.0 m, max. height 3 m; Fig. 2) and uncovered a cistern and meager building remains from the Ayyubid–Mamluk periods, in which five phases were discerned (Stratum III); remains of an Ottoman building, in which two phases were identified (Stratum II); and the fill on which the current building was built in the second half of the twentieth century CE (Stratum I). During antiquities inspection prior to the excavation, modern walls were dismantled, revealing the remains of earlier walls (W100–W104) that apparently belong to the Stratum II building, on which the later building was founded.
 
Stratum III (Ayyubid–Mamluk; thirteenth–fifteenth centuries CE)
Phase 5. A water cistern (L41) uncovered in the basement’s northwestern corner is attributed to this phase. The capstone was found lying 1 m lower than the level of Phase 2 of Stratum III (below). The cistern was not documented due to safety considerations, but it appears to have been hewn into the rock. The cistern is the most ancient feature encountered in the excavation.
 
Phase 4. A tamped bedding of soil and small fieldstones (L37; Fig. 3) was overlain by a plaster surface (L34) that abutted a row of small and medium-sized fieldstones (L35). When Bedding 37 was dismantled, it yielded a rim of a white slip-painted bowl (Fig. 4:1) dated to the thirteenth century CE.
 
Phase 3. Surface 34 was cut into by a pier (W2; 0.6 × 0.9 m, preserved height 1 m; Fig. 5) built of dressed stones and coated with white plaster.
 
Phase 2. Two ashlars (W38, W39; see Fig. 5) were added to W2, flanking it on the north and south.
 
Phase 1. Pier 2 was abutted on the west by a wall (W36) built of two rows of small fieldstones, which were laid on a foundation of fieldstones and plaster (L32). A fill of brown terra-rossa soil (L33), uncovered to the south of the wall, yielded potsherds dating from the Mamluk period (thirteenth–fifteenth centuries CE), such as a bowl glazed with green monochrome glaze (Fig. 4:2), a Handmade Geometric Ware bowl (Fig. 4:3) and a frying pan  (Fig. 4:4), as well as a fragment from the neck of a blown-glass bottle dated to the Mamluk period (not drawn).
 
Based on the stratigraphy and the finds, the pier and the ashlars can be dated to between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries CE.
 
Stratum II (Ottoman; sixteenth–twentieth centuries CE)
Phase 2. Pier 2 and the ashlar adjoining its northern side were abutted on the east by a wall (W4; length 5 m, width 1.1 m, excavated height 1.5 m; Fig. 6) built of two faces of dressed stones interspersed with a core of fieldstones bonded with gray mortar. To the south, the pier was abutted by another wall (W19; length 3 m, width 0.3 m, excavated height 0.3 m) built of a row of medium-sized dressed stones. Between these two walls was a floor of thick white plaster (L12) bedded on densely packed fieldstones (L20; Fig. 7) set on a fill of gray-brown rendzina soil (L29). It appears that Walls 4 and 19, together with Walls 100–102 documented in the inspection work that preceded the excavation, enclosed a square room (3 × 3 m), and that Floor 12 abutted all the room’s walls. A niche (L107; Fig. 8) identified in W100 was blocked on its southern side. A sack of concrete left over from the renovation of a basement room during the twentieth century was discovered among the blocking stones. Remains of two adjacent walls (W105, W106; Fig. 9) were uncovered to the east of W102; W105 supported a vault that sprang southward. Upon dismantling Floor 12, a nineteenth-century CE tobacco pipe (Fig. 4:6) and a pebble (Fig. 10:1; B143) were recovered. Fragments of Mamluk pottery (not drawn) and a nineteenth-century CE pinched lamp (Fig. 4:9) were found in Fill 29. A shell of a bittersweet clam (Glycymeris nummaria; Fig. 11:3) was also recovered.
To the west of W19 was the built opening of a rectangular cistern (L11; 1.5 × 2.0 m, depth unknown) coated with a thick layer of light gray plaster; a built channel (L21; Fig. 12) on its northern side was covered with stone slabs. An oven (L10; diam. 0.7 m, height 1 m; Fig. 13) uncovered to the north of the cistern and the channel comrised a circular firebox built of small fieldstones, coated with white plaster and capped with a dome, and a stoking channel (L40; excavated length 1 m, width 0.5 m, height 0.7 m; Fig. 14) built in a similar style and covered with stone slabs; the dome of the firebox abutted Pier 2. A shell of a bittersweet clam (Glycymeris nummaria; Fig. 11:4) was found when the plaster layer in the firebox was dismantled.
The firebox and the channel cut into fills of rendzina soil and fieldstones (L6, L17, L18, L23, L26, L27, L30) that yielded Mamluk potsherds (not drawn) as well as a pithos (Fig. 4:5) dating from the Ottoman period and a nineteenth-century tobacco pipe imported from Istanbul (Fig. 4:7). These fills also yielded a glass fragment of a base and stem of a Venetian wine glass dating from the Mamluk period (not drawn) and a fragment of a worked-bone item (L120, B18; Fig. 15). Fill 6 yielded a piece of lead slag was found at the bottom of a jar (B111; Fig. 16) and a heavily worn Mamluk fals (IAA 174842), minted sometime around the fourteenth century CE.
Walls 103 and 104 (Fig. 17), documented during the inspection work, are also attributed to this phase, and appear to have enclosed a rectangular room. A plastered installation, possibly connected to Cistern 41 (Fig. 18), was partially uncovered at the northern end of W104. Although no connection was preserved between Channel 21 and Cistern 41, the direction of the channel toward Cistern 41 suggests that Channel 21 drained excess water from Cistern 11 to Cistern 41, or alternatively was used to fill Cistern 11 with water from Cistern 41.
 
Phase 1. The oven and Cistern 11 fell out of use and were filled with rendzina soil (L9) and fieldstones (L14). The rendzina fill yielded two fragments of worked mother-of-pearl shell (Fig. 11:1, 2) that were probably part of an inlay in a wooden box. The fill of fieldstones contained a milling stone (B135; Fig. 10:2).
 
Stratum I (twentieth century CE)
During the construction of the current building, a pier from the building (W3) cut into W4 and possibly another wall that abutted the northern side of Pier 2. The area was raised with a fill of quarrying chips and yellowish soil (L8) that provided bedding for a tiled floor. This fill yielded a lily-shaped tobacco pipe (Fig. 4:8) dated to the nineteenth century CE.
 
Archaeozoology
Tehila Shadiel
 
The excavation yielded 167 animal bone fragments (Table 1), of which 126 are sheep/goat (Capra/Ovis), 8 cattle (Bos taurus), one donkey (Equs africanus asinus), one dog (Canis lupus familiaris), 15 cat (Felis silvestris catus) and 9 chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). The remaining fragments were identified to the level of the animals’ size: six bones of medium-sized animals (sheep or goat) and one of a large animal (cattle or horse).
The cat bones in the assemblage are interesting. According to the MNI index (Klein and Cruz-Uribe 1984:26), two individual domestic cats were identified, which probably belonged to the household or came from nearby. No cut or burn marks indicating human use were observed on the cat bones.
 
Table 1. Breakdown of bones by species
Locus
Sheep/goat
Cattle
Dog
Cat
Chicken
Equines
Medium-sized
mammals
Large
mammals
Total
1
26
2
 
 
 
 
 
 
28 (17%)
3
2
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2 (1%)
4
3
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3 (2%)
6
6
2
 
 
2
 
 
 
10 (6%)
8
5
1
 
 
1
 
 
 
7 (4%)
9
2
 
 
15
 
 
 
 
17 (10%)
12
4
 
1
 
1
 
 
 
6 (4%)
15
7
1
 
 
 
 
 
 
8 (5%)
17
 
 
 
 
 
 
1
 
1 (1%)
18
11
 
 
 
2
 
 
 
13 (8%)
26
3
2
 
 
 
1
 
 
6 (4%)
27
33
 
 
 
1
 
 
 
34 (20%)
29
10
 
 
 
1
 
 
 
11 (7%)
31
 
 
 
 
 
 
2
 
2 (1%)
32
1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1 (1%)
33
10
 
 
 
 
 
3
1
14 (8%)
34
1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1 (1%)
37
2
 
 
 
1
 
 
 
3 (2%)
Total
126
(75%)
8
(5%)
1
(1%)
15
(9%)
9
(5%)
1
(1%)
6
(3%)
1
(1%)
167
(100%)
 
The distribution of skeletal parts in the assemblage (Table 2) clearly indicates the utilization of meat-rich cuts since a high percentage of meat-rich bones was observed, including limbs, long bones and ribs, with a low percentage of bones that have little meat, such as toes and skulls.
 
Table 2. Breakdown of skeletal parts (after Stiner 2002)
 
Sheep/goat
Cattle
Equines
Dog
Cat
Chicken
Medium-sized mammals
Large mammals
Total
Head
22
 
 
1
 
 
 
 
23
Limb bones
42
5
 
 
3
2
 
 
52
Ribs
45
1
 
 
8
 
 
 
54
Toes
4
2
1
 
 
 
 
 
7
Long bones
13
 
 
 
4
7
6
1
31
Total
126
8
1
1
15
9
6
1
167
 
In most of the bones in the assemblage, the epiphyses enabling the individual’s age to be determined were not preserved, but in some bones they were preserved: 27 bones (16% of the assemblage) are fused and therefore belong to adult individuals, whereas 7 (4% of the assemblage) are unfused and therefore belong to immature individuals. The picture arising from the abrasion degree of the examined teeth is less conclusive: 11 teeth (6% of the assemblage) have a low degree of abrasion, indicating young individuals, and 9 teeth (5% of the assemblage) have a high degree of abrasion, indicating mature individuals (Grant 1982). It can thus be suggested that most of the individuals in the assemblage were slaughtered when mature, having also been used for secondary products such as wool and milk.
No marks made by predators are visible on the bones, but two bones bear marks of butchering: a cattle radial bone was cut precisely across its full width, probably deliberately to remove the bone marrow; and a rib of sheep/goat exhibited signs of butchering. Three long bones discovered at Fill 18 were charred, possibly from cooking.
 
Most of the remains in the current excavation are attributed to the Ottoman building, comprising two rooms, a cistern and an oven. The building incorporated an earlier pier, from the thirteenth–fifteenth centuries CE. The Ottoman building was probably demolished at the end of the Ottoman period (twentieth century CE), and the building that stands in the area today was constructed on top of its remains in the 1970s. The archaeozoological finds from Strata III and II show that sheep/goat was common in the diet of the local population, whereas cattle and chicken were less common.