Stratum IV (Byzantine period). In Area A3, remains of a small room (c. 1.5 × 2.0 m; Fig. 2) were exposed: two wide walls (W116, W117) and a tamped-earth floor. Three steps (width 1.7 m, run 0.2–0.3 m) descended east from the top of W116 toward the floor (Fig. 3). The western face of W116 was built of small and medium-sized fieldstones, and the southern part of the wall curved to the west (the wall was not excavated). It seems that the room was underground (a storeroom?) and that an adjacent room was located to its west. The ceramic finds recovered from the room date to the late-sixth and early-seventh centuries CE. These include bowls from Phokaia (Fig. 4:1–4) and from Cyprus (Fig. 4:5–7), Syrian mortaria (Fig. 4:8, 9), a cooking pot (Fig. 4:10), an LRI-type amphora (Fig. 4:11), bag-shaped jars (Fig. 4:12–14) and a wheel-made lamp common in the Byzantine period and the beginning of the Early Islamic period (Fig. 4:15).
In Sq 6 in Area A4, a stone pavement (L139; Figs. 5, 6) was exposed. It abutted a wall that was robbed (L138), except for two stones preserved in its southern part. The wall’s stones were likely used in the construction of another wall (W120), which was constructed next to the robber’s trench, to its west. Ceramic finds dating to the Late Iron Age were discovered in the square: a Cypriot bowl (Fig. 7:1) and two bag-shaped jars (Fig. 7: 3, 4) that were discovered while excavating the stone pavement, and a krater fragment (Fig. 7:2) that was recovered from the wall’s robber trench (L138).
 
Stratum III (Early Islamic period). Sq 7 in Area A4 revealed a wall (W119; length 5 m) that continued south, beyond the excavation limits. A stone pavement that probably served as a work surface was revealed in the center of the square. Beside the work surface was a jar inserted into the ground (Fig. 8); another jar was discovered outside the square. The work surface might have been part of the adjacent courtyard that extended east of a residential building; only the eastern wall was of the building was excavated. The ceramic artifacts discovered in the excavation of the square date to the Early Islamic period and include a Mafjar-type bowl (Fig. 7:5), a handle of a zir jar (Fig. 7:6), a Mafjar jug (Fig. 7:7) and a fragment of a lamp from the Abbasid period (Fig. 7:8).
In in Sq 6 in Area A4, pottery and two coins dating to the Early Islamic period were discovered. An intact lamp from the seventh century CE (Umayyad period; Fig. 7:9) was found while straightening the sections of the square and a coin dating to the years 450–550 CE (IAA 142544) was discovered while cleaning the walls. A gold solidus of Heraclius, which was minted in Constantinople in 638/9 CE (IAA 142545), was discovered on the surface outside the square.
 
Stratum II (Ottoman period). In Sqs 2 and 3 in Area A1, remains of a building constructed of limestone founded on clay soil (Figs. 9, 10) was unearthed: sections of two of the building’s walls (W114, W115), which probably delimited two rooms, and a stone pavement extending to their north (L121). The eastern part (width 0.55 m) of Wall 114 was built of two rows of medium-sized fieldstones without mortar, and its western part (width 0.65 m) consisted of a northern face built of large stones and a southern face of small stones. The wall was preserved to a maximum height of five courses. The easternmost stone in the wall was a dressed threshold stone (0.28 × 0.35 × 0.36 m high). A pillar built of dressed stones (0.35 × 0.40 m) set inside clay soil and preserved five courses high was incorporated in the southern face in the western part of the wall. Wall 115 was constructed of two rows of dressed stones, some of which were triangular with their apex pointing toward the inside of the wall; the core between the two stone faces was made of fieldstones and was preserved to a height of three courses. Floor 121 was founded on a level layer of hamra (thickness 0.2 m). Several floors, situated one above the other, were discerned in the western section of the squares. It seems that the differences in the construction between the two sides of W114, as well as the floors that were discerned one on top of the other in the section, indicate that changes were implemented in the building and that it was used continuously over a long time, from the Ottoman period until the present.
 
Stratum I (Late Ottoman period and the British Mandate). In Area A2, a section of a sidewalk (road? exposed length 14 m, width 1.3–1.8 m; Figs. 11, 12) aligned in an east–west direction was exposed; it ran parallel to the modern sidewalk and street. It was built of two rows of neatly dressed stones arranged lengthwise along each other, which delimited a tamped surface of small- and medium-sized fieldstones arranged on a bed of plaster. It seems that the sidewalk extended to the east and west. A plaster floor was revealed north of a wall, at the eastern end of the sidewalk, possibly an earlier and wider section of a sidewalk or road that passed there. The sidewalk was probably built in 1945 by the Yahudiya (‘Abbasiyya) village council which initiated the paving of the streets. Pottery from the Late Ottoman period and the time of the British Mandate was discovered south of the sidewalk (L126) and included a krater (Fig. 13:1), cooking pots (Fig. 13:2, 3), a ledge handle (Fig. 13:4), two Gaza type jugs (Fig. 13:5, 6) and a nargile (Fig. 13:7).
 
Other artifacts discovered in the excavation include pottery sherds from the Chalcolithic, MB II and Persian periods (Fig. 14). Among the finds ascribed to the Chalcolithic period are two bowls with a red stripe on their rim (Fig. 14:1, 2), one of which is a V-shaped vessel (2), two hole-mouths (Fig. 14:3, 4), a chalice base (Fig. 14:5), a churn (Fig. 14:6), a cornet (Fig. 14:7) and lug handles (Fig. 14:8–10), one of which is adorned with a thumb ornamentation on the back of the handle (10). The MB II finds include a jar (Fig. 14:11). The Persian period finds include an amphora base (Fig. 14:12) and a locally produced wheel-made lamp (Fig. 14:13). The ceramic artifacts from these early periods may very well indicate that additional ancient settlements were situated there and were covered with alluvium from the nearby river channels over time.
 

 
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