A section (length c. 6 m, height c. 2 m) facing southwest was cleaned and recorded. Two ashlar-built walls (W1, W2) and floors that abutted them were discovered (Fig. 1). Wall 1 was curved and a white-mosaic pavement (tesserae size 1 × 1 cm) abutted its interior western face. Two floors abutted the exterior face of the wall. The upper was a plaster floor on a bed of small stones. Parts of two Gaza jars (Fig. 2) rested on the lower floor, c. 0.65 m below the upper one. The two floors were fragmented and did not abut W2. A floor that superposed fragments of marble slabs abutted W2 on the south.

 

The curved wall (W1) and the marble-slab fragments imply the presence of a church that may have existed here during the Byzantine period. Remains from this period in the region included tombs and a mausoleum (ESI 1:67).

A square (2 × 2 m) excavated to a depth of 0.7 m was opened in the center of the damaged area. A layer of soil, containing ceramic finds from the Byzantine period through the Mamluk period, extended from surface down to a depth of 0.2 m.