The excavation was conducted next to the settlement of Umm Butein, c. 1 km northwest of the Shoqet Junction. Two foundations of an arch bridge, built in the Ottoman period above Nahal Sansanna, were excavated (Figs. 1–3). The bridge, aligned east–west, carried the road that connected Be’er Sheva‘ to Hevron. The full depth of the two bridge foundations in the east and west was exposed (Fig. 4). The western foundation was preserved for its entire width (6.6 m). The southern side of the eastern foundation was destroyed, probably when the modern Be’er Sheva‘–Shoqet Junction road, which passes nearby, was paved. The bridge foundations were built of three walls with soil fill between them. The outer face of the walls consisted of dressed limestone while the inner face was composed of wadi pebbles bonded with pale white mortar. A small section of the roadbed that extended atop the southern side of the bridge’s western foundation was exposed (L104; Fig. 5). The roadbed comprised large, densely packed wadi pebbles, set in a mortar surface. The plan of the bridge and the lime-based mortar used in its construction are characteristic of Late Ottoman bridges, e.g., the Ottoman railroad bridges leading from Be’er Sheva‘ to Nizzana and into the Sinai peninsula.
An installation for measuring the flow of the stream was built in the 1970s alongside the bridge’s foundation. The installation included a concrete dam (height 0.77 m), flanked on both sides by a brick column (height 1.3 m). A concrete floor (5.4 × 6.0 m) was poured in the streambed behind the dam. To facilitate the construction of the installation next to the ancient bridge, the corners of the bridge’s foundations were dismantled; after the installation’s brick columns were set in position, the corners were repaired using cement.