Three excavation areas were opened and the entrance to the cave was cleaned (Fig. 1).

Area 1

(6 × 7 m). Two parallel walls (W1, W2; Fig. 2) were exposed. Wall 2 was on the east side of the square and only its upper course was revealed. Wall 1 (4 m long), on the west side of the square, was preserved three courses high and built breadthwise on bedrock, across the slope. It seems the wall served as a retaining wall for a stone fill on its east, which was probably the collapse of an ancient building whose remains were not found. Another wall (W2a) was discovered at the northern end of W2.

Area 2

(4 × 5 m). Remains of an east–west oriented wall were uncovered. These included several partly dressed fieldstones and a line in bedrock that indicated the foundation trench of the wall’s continuation (Fig. 3).

Area 3

(3 × 5 m). Several partly dressed fieldstones, whose precise direction could not be ascertained due to the limitations of the excavation area, were found.

The close proximity to bedrock in Areas 2 and 3 affected the finds’ state of preservation.

The potsherds recovered from the vicinity of the walls dated from Iron Age II to the end of the Persian-beginning of the Hellenistic period (eighth–fourth centuries BCE). Only a handful of potsherds found close to surface dated to the Byzantine period (fifth–sixth centuries CE).

The survey conducted inside the cave after the modern fill was removed from its entrance, revealed a heap of small stones that had been discarded inside through a circular aperture in the cave’s ceiling. Two rock-hewn kokhim that were coated with mud plaster were noted in the southern wall.