Area A (Figs. 1, 2). Two and one-half squares that consisted of two construction strata (1, 2) were excavated. The remains in St. 1 comprised part of a structure, whose fieldstone-built walls (W7, W8, W10) were preserved c. 1 m high; to its north and parallel to W7, was part of a fieldstone-built wall (W5) preserved 0.3 m high. The pottery finds (Fig. 3:1–8) in this stratum were from the 2nd–3rd centuries CE and dated the walls to the 3rd century CE. A fragment of a mold-made ceramic figurine (Fig. 4) of a woman with hair cascading onto her shoulders was retrieved from the building, next to W8.
 
The walls (W1–4, W6, W9) of a structure that was attributed to St. 2 were built of two rows of fieldstones with a debesh fill core. It seems the building had two construction phases. Walls 3 and 4 belonged to the first phase; Wall 3 cancelled W5 from St. 1. In the second phase a layer of beaten soil fill was applied to bedrock (thickness 1.7 m) and the rest of the walls were constructed above it. The ceramic finds in the stratum (Fig. 3:9–11) were from the 3rd–5th centuries CE and dated the building to the 5th century CE.
 
Area B (Fig. 5). Two and one-half excavation squares were opened, exposing wall remains (W30–32, W34, W36). Wall 30 and its western extension W32, as well as W34 were built of fieldstones with a debesh fill core and were set directly on bedrock. They may have been the remains of a building, or terrace walls. Wall 31 was destroyed and W36, built on bedrock, was preserved to a maximum of two foundation courses. The ceramic finds in the area were scant and non-diagnostic. A coin dating to the reign of Constantius II (351–361 CE; IAA 77740) was uncovered in the area between Walls 30 and 34 (L304).
 
Area C (Figs. 6, 7). Two excavation squares comprised two construction strata (1, 2). The remains of St. 1 consisted of two structure walls (W61, W62) built of two rows of finely dressed ashlar stones and preserved 0.5 m high. A flat-stone pavement (L601) abutted the walls. The building was founded on a fieldstone fill (thickness 0.5 m) that was intended to level the area. The ceramic finds from St. 1 were scant, yet it seems to date to the 2nd–3rd centuries CE.
 
Two walls (W60, W63) at the same elevation were built of semi-hewn stones and ascribed to St. 2. Wall 60 was founded atop a soil fill (thickness 0.1 m) that was deposited on the remains of St. 1. The ceramic finds from St. 2 were meager and non-diagnostic.
 
Area D. A bedrock-hewn cist grave (0.65 × 2.60 m, depth 0.5–0.6 m) oriented east–west was revealed. The grave had been plundered and disturbed when found. It contained the bones of five individuals, three adults and two children, as well as other finds, including glass vessels dating to the 3rd–4th centuries CE (below), a bronze bell and a lead weight.
 
The Glass Finds
Yael Gorin-Rosen
 
Approximately 150 fragments of glass vessels, half of them diagnostic, were recovered from all the excavation areas. Numerous fragments of industrial glass debris were collected on surface, including glass drops, lumps of raw glass, overblows, glass pontil remnants, and others. The glass finds and industrial glass debris were dated to the Late Roman period and the beginning of the Byzantine period.
 
The glass finds were mostly dated to the 4th–5th centuries CE, except for three earlier vessels, which included a rim fragment of a cast bowl decorated with horizontal grooves (L304, Area B), dating to the end of the Hellenistic period, and two bowl fragments (Loci 105, 117, Area A) that have a hollow folded rim decorated with crimped trails on the rim’s edge, dating to the end of the 1st and the beginning of the 2nd centuries CE.
 
The cist grave (Area D) yielded the most important group of glass vessels; it included an intact jar and two intact bracelets, as well as other glass fragments. The jar (Fig. 8:1) was made of pale olive-green glass, initially mold blown, which created a pattern of vertical ribbing on the shoulder and base. The middle of the body was not decorated because the pattern blurred when the glass was subsequently reblown outside of the mold. The bracelets (Fig. 8:5, 6) were made of dark opaque glass; one was decorated with a pattern of diagonal ribbing around its circumference and the other was plain. The other glass finds consisted of bowl rim fragments adorned with a delicate trail below the rim, three different bases that probably belonged to bottles, a bottle rim, a body fragment of a bottle decorated with delicate ribbing on the shoulder and body, a jar rim made of colorless glass and another fragment of a plain bracelet. The grave is dated to the Late Roman period (the end of the 3rd–4th centuries CE).

 

Glass remains were discovered in other loci in the excavation. Locus 102 in Area A included a pressed tooled-out base of greenish blue glass (Fig. 8:3); Locus 103 in Area A contained a jar base similar to that in the grave and made in the same technique (Fig. 8:2), a high and hollowed base-ring of greenish blue glass (Fig. 8:4), a fragment of a plain bracelet similar to that found in the grave and rim fragments of bowls and cups. More fragments of bowls, cups and bottles from the Late Roman and Byzantine periods came from L304 in Area B.