Flint Quarry (F1). Rock surfaces containing a large number of flint nodules were discovered in the western part of the hill (Fig 2). Some of the nodules were located inside depressions, which may be “quarry fronts” that were created in an attempt to reach high quality raw material (Fig. 3). The flint nodules are of medium quality, in shades of brown. Some were fractured, maybe as a result of the knappers having tested their quality. Flint items (below) discovered in the vicinity of the hill were knapped from raw material identical to that discovered in the quarry; they are ascribed to the PPNA and probably date the use of the quarry.
 
Cupmark Clusters (F3, F4, F13, F17; Figs. 4–7). Clusters of small, round cupmarks (max. diam. 01 m, depth 3–5 cm) hewn in rock surfaces were discovered all over the hill. The clusters comprised between three and eighteen cupmarks. Clusters of cupmarks were also hewn in detached boulders (F4; Fig. 8), which were sometimes turned on their side or incorporated in the walls of agricultural terraces. More such boulders had obviously existed, but they were taken for secondary use and there is no sign of them today. Several flint tranchet axes (Fig 9) were discovered near the clusters, apparently dating them to the PPNA. The rocks with the cupmarks contained no flint nodules, and were far from Quarry F1. It seems therefore that the cupmarks were not related to the mining of the flint nodules.
Various cupmarks are known from ethnographic research and prehistoric sites, and they are apparently related to a variety of activities, such as collecting water, preparing food, quarrying flint, play, burial, and symbolic and ritual activities (Miller et al. 2014). In our region, cupmarks were discovered in sites from the end of the Epipalaeolithic period onward (Natufian culture; Rosenberg and Nadel 2014), although they were recently found also at a Middle Paleolithic site (Yaroshevich 2016).
 
Winepresses (F9, F12, F14). Winepresses F12 and F14 were simple installations, consisting of a treading floor and a collecting vat (Figs. 10–13). Winepress F9 included a square treading floor that sloped to the north, two square collecting vats in the east and west, and an elliptical collecting vat that was hewn in the center of the treading floor (Figs. 14–16). Three phases were discerned in this winepress. The treading floor and the western collecting vat were hewn in the early phase. In the second phase the walls of the western collecting vat were destroyed, and the eastern collecting vat was hewn in its place. In the last phase the elliptical collecting vat was hewn in the treading floor. Elliptical depressions were chiseled in the treading floor in an east–west direction (Fig. 17), and these, in conjunction with marks of stone quarrying (Fig 18), indicate that after it went out of use, the winepress was quarried for limestones. Cupmarks of various sizes and an incised reticulated pattern, which apparently postdated the use of the winepress, were also found on the treading floor.
 
Flint Items were systematically collected in a a grid 50 × 50 m. The area richest in items, and where most of the diagnostic tools were discovered, was located between the flint quarry F1, and cupmark cluster F3. A total of 811 items were discovered in the excavation, including tools, most of them non-diagnostic, and debitage (Tables 1, 2). The debitage included cores—many of them with no definable shape (Fig. 19:1–5)—from which flakes and blades were produced. In addition, axe trimmings were discovered (Fig. 19:6). The tools include bifacials, among them an axe (Fig. 20:1) and tranchet axes that date to the PPNA (see Fig. 9), and ad hoc tools such as a scraper (Fig. 20:2), a drill (Fig. 20:3), an awl (Fig. 20:4), and a burin on an axe (Fig. 20:5).
 
Table 1. Composition of the assemblage
Item
Quantity
Percentage
Primary items
61
7.5%
Flakes
290
35.8%
Blades
12
1.5%
Bladelets
9
1.1%
Cores
42
5.2%
Core trimmings
118
14.5%
Burin spalls
1
0.1%
Bifacial debitage
1
0.1%
Tools
90
11.1%
Chunks
187
23.1%
Total
811
100%
 
 
Table 2. Tools
Tools
Quantity
Percentage
Retouched flakes
53
58.9%
Notches/denticulates
17
18.9%
Bifacial tools
13
14.5%
Truncations
2
2.2%
Scrapers
2
2.2%
Drill
1
1.1%
Awl
1
1.1%
Burin
1
1.1%
Total
90
100%
 
 
A quarry of flint nodules and clusters of cupmarks were discovered in the excavation. These were dated to the PPNA on the basis of the flint-stone finds. The bifacial tools that were recovered may have been used to mine the flint nodules, or to hew the cupmarks. In addition, winepresses hewn in limestone outcrops were revealed, and one of them was later converted into a quarry. Other finds include field walls, cupmarks and rock-cuttings, all of them apparently from later periods.