The excavation was conducted near the cave’s opening (Fig. 2). The area to the north and southwest of the cave’s opening was levelled and bounded by two fieldstone retaining walls (W1, W2; height c. 3 m) founded on bedrock. Stone slabs that covered the water channel that led from the spring were visible near the entrance to the cave. Two trial squares were opened west of the cave’s opening, slightly to its north and south. A concrete vault (L114; exposed length c. 5 m, width c. 1.3 m) that covered the drainage channel leading from the spring (Figs. 3, 4) was exposed in the northern square, below a fill of large stones and dark brown soil (L110; thickness c. 0.5 m). In the middle of the vault was a small, round opening (L119; diam. c. 0.1 m) meant to prevent a build-up of pressure in the direction of the flow. A square gutter (L116; 0.5 × 0.5 m, depth c. 1.5 m; Fig. 5) led to the vault from the west; to this day, rainwater flows from the slope into the gutter via a small channel exposed to its southwest (L107; length c. 0.8 m, width 0.2 m, depth 0.15 m). A plastered, rock-hewn water channel (L115; exposed length c. 3 m, width c. 0.15 m, depth c. 0.1 m; Figs. 6, 7), bounded on the north by a hewn wall (W3) and on the south by a built wall (W4), was found below a layer of dark gray earth in the southern square, near the opening of the cave. Only the eastern part of W4 survived. Remains of a stone pavement (L117, L118) were discovered near the channel, on both its sides.
The ceramic assemblage from the excavation dates to the Iron Age, the Hellenistic (Hasmonean) period, the Late Roman period, and most prominently—to the Byzantine period. Sherds dating to the Late Iron Age belonged mainly to hole-mouth jars (Fig. 8:1, 2). Most of the finds from the Hellenistic (Hasmonean) period were jars with a thickened collar rim (Fig. 8:3, 4). A fragment of a juglet (Fig. 8:5) resembling an alabastron, dated to this period as well, was discovered in a soil layer above the stone pavement (L117). A fragment of a krater with a thickened rim and a ridged handle (Fig. 8:6), resembling vessels from the Late Roman period, was also found. The Byzantine-period assemblage comprised bowls with a ledge rim slightly drawn down (Fig. 9:1–4), bowls with a shaped or thickened rim and a rouletted decoration (Fig. 9:5, 6), large bowls with an everted rim (Fig. 9:7–10), plates (Fig. 9:11), a cooking pot with a plain rim (Fig. 9:12), an amphora with a rim exhibiting an inner gutter (Fig. 9:13) and a juglet with a ridged neck (Fig. 9:14). Some of the ledge-rim bowls might date from the Roman period.
 
Presumably, Channel 115 and the nearby stone pavement belong to an early phase in utilizing the spring’s water. A fragment of a juglet dated to the Hellenistic period was discovered above the pavement, but there was no other indication for dating this phase to the Hellenistic period. The walls, the gutter and the covering slabs of the channel should probably be attributed to a late phase in the use of the spring, and they continued in use, along with the concrete vault, until the modern era.