During July 2011, a trial excavation was conducted in Tirat Karmel, c. 0.3 km west of Tel Tirat Karmel (Permit No. A-6248; map ref. 19795–9/74098–103), prior to paving a road. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and underwritten by the Tirat Karmel municipality, was directed by A. Masarwa, with the assistance of Y. Armani (administration), R. Mishayev (surveying and drafting), P. Gendelman (pottery reading), M. Shuiskaya (pottery drawing), A. Gorzalczany (guidance), and K. Sari and L. Talmi (IAA Haifa district).
The excavation area is located within the precincts of the
Tirat Karmel antiquities sites. Previous excavations carried out at the site (
ESI 14:50–52,
HA-ESI 118,
HA-ESI 121; License No. B-259/2002) revealed settlement remains dating from the third century CE and onward, as well as aqueducts, winepresses, olive presses, built and hewn tombs, prehistoric flint tools, and potsherds from the Middle Bronze Age and the Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader and Ottoman periods.
Three squares (A1–A3; Fig. 1), oriented northeast-southwest, were opened n the current excavation and remains of a wall from the Ottoman period and Muslim tombs were discovered, one of which postdated the wall.
Remains of a wall (W200; length 2 m, width 0.5 m, height 0.2 m; Fig. 2), oriented southeast northwest, were exposed in Square A1. The wall, preserved a single course high and set on a foundation of mortar mixed with small stones, was built of fieldstones bonded with gray soil and small stones. A Muslim tomb built of different size fieldstones was exposed next to the northwestern end of W200 (Fig. 3). The tomb postdated the wall and the excavation in the square was suspended.
The pottery finds recovered from the fill between the stones of the wall included bowls from the Ottoman period (Fig. 4).
The excavation in Squares A2 and A3 was suspended in the wake of discovering tombs (Fig. 5).