During June 2005, an excavation was conducted in the Yattir Forest (Permit No. A-4509*; map ref. NIG 1995/5850, OIG 1495/0850), prior to the construction of the separation fence. The excavation, carried out on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and funded by the Ministry of Defense, was directed by M. Haiman (photography), with the assistance of A. Freiberg (area supervision) and A. Hajian (surveying and drafting).
The excavation was undertaken in an ancient cultivation plot (c. 110×120 m), which was delimited by a stone wall. Within the cultivation plot were shallow farming terraces (length 3–30 m). Probe trenches were excavated along the wall (W3; Figs. 1–4) that delineated the area and in one of the farming terraces (W2). Wall 3 was built of a single row of large stones (length c. 1 m), placed on bedrock (depth below surface c. 0.2 m). Wall 2 (length 23 m, width c. 1 m; Figs. 5–7) was built of different sized stones (max. length 0.2 m). The maximum depth of the soil in the terrace was 0.4 m. No datable artifacts were discovered in the excavation. Similar cultivation plots in the region were dated to the Byzantine period, based on the ceramic finds and it is therefore, possible to ascribe the current excavated area at the site to the same period.