Stratum II. Two pits (1, 2) and a drainage channel (L250) hewn in limestone bedrock were discovered (Fig. 3). Pit 1 (width 1.9 m, depth 1.7 m) was piriform and had an irregular shaped opening (0.9 × 1.3 m). The pit was filled with layers of brown earth (L206, L209) containing numerous Mamluk-period potsherds.
Pit 2 was round (diam. of opening c. 1 m, diam. of cistern 1.4 m, depth 1.5 m; Fig. 2). It was filled with layers of fieldstones and brown soil (L210) that contained Mamluk-period potsherds and a fragment of a basalt household millstone (Fig. 4). At the bottom of the pit, below Fill 210, was a thin layer of brown soil mixed with ash (L212) that contained Mamluk-period sherds, including a jug (Fig. 5:1) and an intact lamp (Fig. 5:2).
The drainage channel was irregular (width 0.5–0.9 m, depth c. 0.7 m), open and rock-hewn. It was oriented in a southeast–northwest direction and was connected to the upper part of Pit 2. The channel included a settling pit of sorts (L211), which probably served in the maintenance of the installation. A sloping hewn pipe (diam. 0.10–0.15 m) led from the settling pit to Pit 2 (Figs. 2: Section 1–1; 6). Channel 250 apparently drained a water system of a nearby dwelling, the remains of which were not preserved.
The fill layers within the pits and drainage channel contained Mamluk-period pottery sherds, including an imported plate (Fig. 7:1); blue and white glazed plates of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries CE that come from a pottery workshop in Syria (Fig. 7:2–4); locally manufactured blue and white glazed plates (Fig. 7:5); a yellow and green glazed bowl (Fig. 7:6) from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries CE; and a glazed bowl with an external ridge, which was made in Italy (Fig. 7:7) in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries CE.
 
Stratum I. A wall (W204; length 5 m, width 0.8 m; Figs. 2, 3) oriented along a north–south axis was preserved to a height of two courses. It was constructed of limestone blocks, some of which were coarsely dressed, which were set on a fill of brown soil (L202, L205; thickness 0.8 m) that was deposited over the bedrock, the cistern remains and the drainage channel. Pottery sherds from the Mamluk and Ottoman periods and a fragment of a pipe from the seventeenth century CE (Fig. 8) were found in the fill of Stratum I.
 
Faunal Remains
Nimrod Marom
 
The excavation at Er-Reina revealed a small number of identifiable animal bones (N=9) from the fills in the pits and in Channel 250, which were dated to the Mamluk period, as well as from the fills that sealed them and served as a foundation for the Ottoman-period wall (N=12). The remains include the bones of sheep/goat (N=5, 24%), bovine (N=11, 52%) and equidae (N=5, 24%). One tooth was identified as that of a horse, and another was a tooth of a donkey.
The skeletal parts that are represented in the assemblage (Table 1) are characterized by a relative predominance of lower limbs and teeth. Two bones displayed signs of gnawing, probably by dogs, but no evidence of cutting was observed. Except for one bovine tooth of a young individual, all the bones represent adult animals. The assemblage does not reveal much about the settlement’s economy in the Late Islamic period, because the bones seem to represent mainly slaughtering waste of older work animals, which was discarded on the outskirts of settlement and later moved for the purpose of construction fill.
 
Table 1. Breakdown of skeletal parts in the faunal assemblage
Skeletal part
Sheep/goat
Bovine
Equidae
Teeth
 
3
2
Vertebrae 
2
 
1
Radius
 
 
2
Tibia
1
1
 
Calcaneus
 
2
 
Astragalus 
 
1
 
Rear feet (metapodial)
2
1
 
Toes
 
3
 
Total
5
11
5
 
The two pits and drainage channel unearthed in the excavation, all dating from the Mamluk period, were probably part of a building complex, which did not survive. The wall in Stratum I was apparently part of an Ottoman-period building complex, which did not survived either. The excavation results are significant, as this is the first time that evidence a Mamluk-period settlement was revealed of in Er-Reina. The numerous imported pottery vessels are indicative of the village’s strong economy.