During November 2002 a salvage excavation was conducted on the northwestern slope of Har Hozvim, along the bank of Nahal Soreq (Permit No. A-3782*; map ref. NIG 2194/6348; OIG 1694/1348; Fig. 1), in the wake of expanding Highway 4. The excavation, on behalf of the Antiquities Authority and funded by Z. Barashi, was directed by A. Eirikh-Rose (surveying), assisted by I. Berin (drafting).
A rock-hewn winepress (Fig. 2), consisting of a treading floor, a settling pit and a collecting vat, was exposed. The rectangular treading floor (2.2 × 2.5 m) was paved with small stones and plastered. It was hewn to slope gently toward the settling pit and collecting vat. Next to the southern corner of the treading floor was a hewn elliptical settling pit (diam. c. 0.8 m, depth c. 0.5 m), in whose floor was a small sump (diam. 0.15 m, depth 0.6 cm) for draining the waste and the remains of the must. A rock-cut channel connected between the settling pit and the circular collecting vat to its west (diam. c. 1.1 m, depth c. 1.6 m), which was entirely coated with a thick layer of plaster (c. 4 cm).
No datable finds were discovered.