Stratum 2 (Hellenistic period)
The layer was identified in three squares (C0–C2).
A wall stump (W921; Fig. 3) and stone collapse were exposed in Square C0. Wall 921 (length 1.2 m, width 0.5 m, height 0.4 m) was a foundation course, oriented northeast–southwest; it continued to the northeast beyond the bounds of the excavation area. Wall 921 was built of two rows of large kurkar ashlars (0.20×0.29×0.47 m), arranged lengthwise with fieldstones (0.15×0.18×0.36 m) in-between. Although very little of the wall had survived, the construction technique is reminiscent of the ‘box’ construction that was common to the Hellenistic period (BASOR 267, Fig. 2). Around W921 and at a lower level throughout the square, dark brown soil fill (L922–L924) was excavated. It contained fieldstone collapse, a few crudely dressed stones of different sizes that did not join to form a wall, and fragments of pottery vessels from the Hellenistic period (second century BCE; below). During the preliminary antiquities inspections, a small bronze nummus (IAA 119527) that is dated to the fourth century CE was found to the east of the collapse in L923.
Several kurkar stones were scattered in the southeastern part of Square C1 (Fig. 4); these were probably part of a collapsed building that was not revealed. Fieldstone collapse in Square C2 and pottery fragments dating to the Hellenistic period were discovered (Fig. 5).
 
The recovered potsherds included a plain bowl with an incurved rim (Fig. 6:1), rims of in-curved bowls with bright red slip (Fig. 6:2–5), base rings of bowls (Fig. 6:6, 7), jars (Fig. 6:8–12) and an amphora (Fig. 6:13), all dating to the second century BCE, as well as a fairly rectangular fragment (Fig. 7:1) with a shallow groove along either side, whose function is unknown, and three worn body potsherds (Fig. 7:2–4) that were probably used for burnishing pottery vessels.
Two fragments of millstones were found; the first (Fig. 8:1) has a depression whose sides slope toward the center and terminate at the bottom in an elongated hole. This should be regarded as the upper stone of an Olynthus-type millstone (Cathedra 110: 44–46 [Hebrew]), whereas the second stone (Fig. 8:2) could not be identified.

Stratum 1 (end of the Ottoman period–beginning of the British Mandate era)
A white road (min. length 8 m; Fig. 9), aligned east–west and composed of firmly tamped crushed chalk, overlying a few scattered small fieldstones, was exposed c. 1.5 m below the modern street level in Squares C3 and C4. Light brown fill (L912; thickness c. 0.2 m), overlain with two layers of soil (thickness 0.5 m) that were visible in the section (Fig. 2: Section 1-1), was excavated above the road.These layers were overlain with the roadbed of a street from the 1930s, which consisted of roughly hewn Jerusalem limestone placed on its narrow side and was covered with the asphalt of the modern road.  
The fill in L912 contained fragments of pottery vessels that dated to the Ottoman period, including a Gaza-type krater rim (Fig. 10:1), a jug rim (Fig. 10:2), a fragment from the top of a hookah with traces of red slip and burnish (Fig. 10:3), which is dated to the second half of the nineteenth century CE and a fragment of a roof tile (Fig. 10:4).The white road was not preserved west of Square C4 and was discerned once more at the western end of a probe trench, c. 0.5 m below the surface. An iron horseshoe (Fig. 11) was found in this region.
Below the road level, where it was not preserved in Squares C3 and C4, hard dark brown soil that contained potsherds from the Ottoman period, fragments of modern glass and an iron key (L908; Fig. 12) was excavated.
A large animal bone that could not be identified was discovered in the center of Square C3.A pit (L901) was discovered in the southwestern corner of Square C2; it penetrated into the dark hamra layer and contained a cluster of animal jawbones (Fig. 13; M. Sade, below), apparently from the end of the Ottoman period.
 
Faunal Remains
Moshe Sade
 
The archaeozoological material was found in nine loci, all dating to the end of the Ottoman period and the beginning of the British Mandate era. Apart from six common bivalve shells (Glycymeris violascens), the rest of the remains are those of domesticated animals (Table 1): cattle (Bos taurus), donkey (Equus asinus) and sheep and goat (Ovis aries/Capra hircus).
 
Table 1: Distribution of domesticated animal bones
 
Sheep/Goat
Cattle
Donkey
Total
Skull
 
2
 
2
Eye orbit
 
1
 
1
Mandible
12
4
1
17
Incisors
20
 
1
21
Molars
33
17
 
50
Premolars
29
5
5
39
Radius
 
1
 
1
Tibia
 
 
1
1
Unidentified limb
 
 
1
1
Phalanx II
1
 
 
1
Total
95
30
9
134
%
70.89
22.39
6.72
100.00
 
A radius(proximal part, right side) of a cow and a tibia (distal part, left side) of a donkey were the only recovered limb bones. Therefore, the MNI (minimum number of items) was based on the mandibles, which consisted of twelve whole specimens of sheep/goat, including seven left mandibles and five right mandibles, two whole mandibles of cattle, one right mandible and one left mandible, another fragment of a right mandible of a cow, and a donkey mandible (Table 2). Four cattle mandibles and nine sheep/goat mandibles were discovered in Pit 901.
 
Table 2: Minimum Number of Domesticated Animals
 
Species
Sheep/goat
Cattle
Donkey
Total
No. of items
7
2
1
10
%
70
20
10
100
 
Based on the components of the assemblage, which are mostly skeletal parts with little meat on them, it seems that these were discarded scraps, not used for consumption.
 
The excavation finds point, for the first time, to human activity in the Hellenistic period in the flat region away from Tel Yafo. The scant remains from this period may indicate that a building stood in the area, possibly a farmhouse that was only partially exposed and most of its remains are concealed beneath the asphalt in the vicinity of Jerusalem Boulevard and Yehuda Ha-Yammit Street’s intersection. A gap in human activity in this area, between the Hellenistic period and the end of the Ottoman period, was evidenced in the excavation.