Five excavation areas (A–F; total area c. 900 sq m; Fig. 2) were opened on two adjacent kurkar hills to the west of Nahal Shiqma. Layers of heavy clay alluvium covered by a sand dune contained settlement remains dating from the Iron Age and the Persian and Byzantine periods, as well as a refuse pit that yielded finds dated from the Roman period. A trial excavation conducted nearby in 1997 revealed settlement remains dating from the Early Bronze, Middle Bronze, Late Bronze, Iron Age I–II and Persian periods (Shavit and Yassur-Landau 2005).
 
Area A (Fig. 3). Two settlement strata were uncovered on the eastern slope of the southern hill. The earlier stratum was founded on sand and contained remains of a wall (W113) and potsherds dating from the end of the Iron Age. In the later stratum, the excavation revealed part of a rectangular dwelling whose walls (W107, W108, W112) were built of undressed kurkar stones. The building contained a tabun and Persian-period pottery.
 
Area B (Fig. 4). Two strata were revealed on the southern hill’s eastern slope (excavation depth 1.5 m). The earlier stratum (thickness c. 0.4 m) contained an accumulation of clay soil with pottery from the end of the Iron Age. Remains of a building with at least four rooms were uncovered in the later stratum; several construction phases were identified, evident from the renovation of floors, the construction of new tabuns near the old ones, and the secondary use of stone artifacts incorporated in walls and floors. The room in the center of the building (L201) was full of pottery jars and was therefore probably used as a storeroom. An adjacent room (L247) contained a kitchen with four tabuns (L206, L219, L249, L250; Fig. 5). The building’s northern room (L218), which was probably the main room, contained stone paving and a stone plinth, probably for a central pillar; bronze arrowheads were also discovered in this room. The other rooms had tamped earthen floors. A pile of refuse (L220) was found in the northeast of the area. A burnt layer was discovered in the building. All the building’s rooms contained jars and amphorae that remained in situ on the floors. The finds from the building include Persian-period pottery, stone tools and metal objects. The burnt layer, the bronze arrowheads and the pottery left in situ on the floors of the rooms suggest that the site was abandoned in a hurry, probably as a result of a violent event that terminated the site’s settlement in the Persian period.
 
Area C (Figs. 6–8). At the top of the southern hill, near the houses of the modern moshav, the excavation uncovered two settlement strata, from the Iron Age and the Persian period, and tombs from the Byzantine period. The remains of the earlier, Iron Age settlement comprised walls (not on plan) founded on sand and built of uniformly sized rectangular mud bricks, found preserved to a height of three to four courses, along with Late Iron Age pottery.
The walls of the Persian-period buildings were built directly on top of the mud-brick walls from the earlier stratum, at times along the same alignment. A massive square tower (L323; max. preserved height c. 2 m) uncovered in the south of the area was solidly built, having no inner cavity. The exterior of the tower was built of kurkar stones, whereas the inner core was constructed of both kurkar stones and mud bricks. A courtyard paved with stones (L324) uncovered to the north of the tower had a stone-built threshold (W325; width 2 m) at its western end; four arrowheads were discovered beside the west end of the threshold. Courtyard 324 extended southward up to a partially preserved flight of stone steps that ascended to the upper part of the tower. To the north of the courtyard were the walls of a rectangular building with several rooms (W326, W333, W334, W340). Broken pottery vessels found in situ inside the rooms date the building’s final use to the Persian period.
Two cist graves (L313, L314) found to the southeast of the tower were dug into the ground and lined with kurkar slabs in secondary use. One grave contained a single burial, and the other contained five individuals. The graves are dated to the Byzantine period, based on the style of the burial and on the grave goods. A small tabun built on the remains of the tower, c. 3 m northwest of the graves, is also attributed to this period.
 
Area D (Figs. 9, 10). Four vaulted tombs (L401, L404–406) built alongside each other and sunk into the sand were discovered on the northern hill’s eastern slope. The entire vault of Tomb 406 was preserved. The tombs were already robbed in antiquity, and debris from the robbery was identified in the excavation. The tombs yielded Byzantine pottery and glass finds.
 
Area F (Fig. 11). Two sub-areas (upper and lower) were excavated on the northern hill, at the northeastern edge of the moshav. The upper, northern sub-area contained a refuse pit (L670) that yielded glass finds dating from the Roman period (Y. Gorin-Rosen, pers. comm.) and a few potsherds dated to the Roman–Byzantine periods. No Roman-period remains or finds had previously been discovered at the site. A Byzantine settlement layer (depth c. 1 m) overlying the refuse pit had been damaged by erosion. The layer contained the remains of walls and installations (W605, W608, L611) built of kurkar stones, as well as habitation levels and Byzantine-period pottery.
The lower, southern sub-area was damaged in the past, when the moshav’s perimeter fence was installed. This sub-area yielded remains belonging to two strata, dated to the Iron Age and the Persian period. The Iron Age remains consisted of damaged remnants of walls (W610, W616) and a tamped earthen floor (L615), as well as potsherds. The Persian-period remains comprised a wall (W603) belonging to at least one room with a tamped earthen floor (L604), on which about a dozen large jars were discovered in situ (Fig. 12), providing further evidence of the site’s abandonment in a violent event during the Persian period.
 
The Finds. The excavation yielded pottery, glassware, stone tools and metal objects. The pottery dates from Iron Age II and III (for an Iron Age III jug, see Fig. 13) and from the Persian (sixth–fourth centuries BCE; for a Persian-period jar, see Fig. 14) and Byzantine periods. The glass finds were discovered in the refuse pit in Area F where they dated from the Roman period, and in the vaulted tombs in Area D where they dated from the Byzantine period. Most of the stone tools were used to prepare household food and cannot be dated. The metal finds date from the Persian period and include, among other artifacts, 11 arrowheads (Fig. 15).
 
The excavation uncovered settlement remains dating from Iron Age II–III and from the Persian (sixth–fourth centuries BCE) and Byzantine periods, as well as glass finds from the Roman period. The Iron Age II–III remains extended across the two hills. The remains of the Iron Age mud-brick walls found in Area C at the top of the southern hill and below the fortified tower suggest the presence of a building on the summit that was probably used for observation and as a guard post during this period. It may belong to the series of coastal forts established in the eighth–seventh centuries BCE (Thareani 2016), which acted more as trade-control stations than as military posts (Shalev 2014:86).
The Persian-period remains, which also extended across the two hills, were probably part of a fortified road station that included a fort built on top of a hill (Area C) surrounded by storerooms and dwellings (Areas A, B and F). In this period, the settlement probably included also the area between Areas C and F, which has been destroyed in recent decades. The Persian-period settlement phase was lengthy, as repairs and building changes were evidently made to the installations, walls and floors. The fortified road station was built along the Via Maris, halfway between Ashqelon and Gaza, and was very likely part of a network of fortified settlements and road stations set up along this major sea route. The hill on which the road station was built dominates this route to the west and a fertile valley to the east. Nearby Nahal Shiqma runs near the Persian administrative border between Gaza and Ashqelon (Elayi 1982:104; Shalev 2014:9); the site’s proximity to the stream probably enabled control of the border. This settlement phase ended in a brutal and sudden event, as shown by the burnt layer, the arrowheads, the in situ objects, and the storerooms filled with smashed, in situ storage vessels. The violent destruction of the settlement may also attest to its importance and to the need to conquer it.
In the Byzantine period, the site was repopulated after centuries of being buried by dune sand, comprising both dwellings (Area F) and a burial ground (Areas C and D).