Area E (Fig. 2). A farming terrace covered Cave A, which was exposed by means of mechanical equipment. A rectangular courtyard (L506; 2.4 × 3.8 m), on whose floor a layer of black ash was discerned, fronted the cave. A rectangular entrance (0.4 × 0.6 m; Fig. 3), whose blocking stone was discovered nearby (Fig. 4), was hewn in the northern side of the courtyard. The entrance led to a burial chamber (2.5 × 2.6 m) that had three rectangular kokhim (I–III; Fig. 5) in its northern side. The entry to Kokh I was c. 0.4 m higher than the floor of the chamber and its blocking stone was lying alongside it, unlike the blocking stones of Kokhim II and III that were found in situ. All the kokhim were empty. Four stone ossuaries, two fragments of ossuary lids and scattered human bones that were not examined were discovered in the burial chamber, mostly along its eastern side. Two of the ossuaries were intact (1—0.15 × 0.34 m, height 0.16 m; 2—0.25 × 0.52 m, height 0.24 m; Fig. 6) and contained human bones. Ossuary 1 is especially small and one of its long sides is decorated with two incised complete rosettes and two half rosettes within a ring frame. Ossuary 2 has an arched lid. An intact lamp decorated with seven crosses and dating to the third–fourth centuries CE (Fig. 7) was discovered in the northwestern corner of the burial chamber, as well as a bronze earring (diam. 1.6 m, thickness 0.1 m; Fig. 8) next to it. The plan and the stone ossuaries indicate that the cave was apparently hewn in the Early Roman period and continued to be used until the third–fourth centuries CE.
Cave B consisted of just a rectangular courtyard (3.5 × 5.5 m) that had two hewn sides. The beginning of an entrance (0.6 × 0.7 m, depth 0.1 m) was discerned in the northern side of the courtyard and remains of plaster, composed of ground chalk and small fragments of stone, were discovered on the eastern side of the courtyard. The proximity to Cave A and the plan of the courtyard indicate that this cave should also be dated to the Roman period. Burial caves from the Early Roman period had been documented nearby in the past (A. Kloner, 2000, Survey of Jerusalem, the Southern Sector, Site 33) and this region seems to have been a large burial field during this period.
The southern part of a wall (W1; length 4.8 m, max. width 0.3 m; Fig. 9) was exposed in an area of farming terraces above Cave A. The wall, built of medium and large fieldstones, was preserved a single course high. This was probably a retaining wall of a farming terrace that was part of the farming terraces system in the region.