The excavation was conducted on the ground floor of a private residential building at the intersection of Casa Nova Street and Greek Patriarchate Street; the building’s entrance is today located in its southeastern corner. An excavation square was opened in a rectangular room in the eastern half of its ground floor (Figs. 2, 3). The excavation uncovered remains of a medieval building (Stratum II; twelfth–fifteenth centuries CE) that were overlain by remains of a building that was originally used in an industry associated with liquids, and is dated to the Ottoman period (Stratum I; eighteenth–twentieth centuries CE). Four construction phases were identified in both buildings. The excavation was preceded by works undertaken without archaeological supervision, when later strata were undoubtedly removed.
The building is located c. 150 m north of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Excavations at the Church of St. Nicholas near its northeastern side uncovered architectural remains dating from the Byzantine period to the present day, including the ground floor of the Crusader church (Yeger and Re’em 2019; Fig. 1: A-7609).
 
Stratum II (Middle Ages; twelfth–fifteenth centuries CE)
Phase 1. The room (4.5 × 5.0 m, max. height 2.5 m) was probably constructed in this phase; it was enclosed by four walls (W14–W17) built of fieldstones and small–medium-sized dressed stones bonded with grayish-white mortar containing abundant black and white grits. The chamber has a barrel vault built of fieldstones held together by bonding material similar to that of the walls. A niche was built in W14 and an opening facing Casa Nova Street was set in the room’s western side.
 
Phase 2. A hearth containing black ash and horizontal white levels attesting to fire is attributed to this phase (L12; Fig. 4). The hearth was surrounded by medium-sized fieldstones (L11) that abutted W16 to the north. The hearth yielded a bowl with a sgraffito decoration (Fig. 5:2) and a cooking pot (Fig. 5:3) dated to the Crusader and Ayyubid periods (thirteenth century CE). The hearth also yielded three hammerstones (L12), two of which are made of flint (Fig. 6:1, 2; Baskets 106, 133 respectively) and one of limestone (Fig. 6:3; Basket 134).
 
Phase 3. The hearth was covered by a surface of light brown soil (L9; thickness 0.3 m; Fig. 7). This surface yielded a monochrome green-glazed bowl (Fig. 5:1), dating from the Crusader and Ayyubid periods, and Mamluk pottery including a hand-made bowl decorated with a geometric pattern (HMGW; Fig. 5:4), a slip-painted bowl (Fig. 5:5), a cooking pot (Fig. 5:7), a Syrian underglaze soft-paste vessel (Fig. 5:8) and an HMGW jar (Fig. 5:9).
 
Phase 4. The level in the room was raised with a fill of gray rendzina soil (L5; thickness 0.2 m; Fig. 7). The fill yielded fragments of Mamluk pottery, including a monochrome green-glazed bowl (Fig. 5:6) and HMGW jars (Fig. 5:10, 11).
 
Stratum I (Ottoman period; eighteenth–twentieth centuries CE)
Phase 1. A tamped earthen floor (L2) installed on top of Fill 5 was set on a bedding of small, closely packed fieldstones (L3; Fig. 7). When floor 2 was dismantled, vessel fragments were recovered dating to the Ottoman period (eighteenth–nineteenth centuries CE) and including a brown-glazed bowl (Fig. 5:12) and imported bowls (Fig. 5:13–15). Three coins from the floor and the bedding were identified: a worn Mamluk fals from about the fourteenth century CE (IAA 174662), and two Ottoman manghir coins (IAA 174660, 174661) that were probably minted in the sixteenth century CE. A lead disk perforated with four holes (L3; Basket 114; Fig. 8) that was also found in the floor bedding is probably a pendant or a button.
In the southeast of the room, a rectangular plastered pool (L4; 1.0 × 1.5 m) and a round collecting vat (L7; diam. 0.5 m, depth 0.7 m; Fig. 9) may be part of an industrial installation involving liquids.
 
Phase 2. Collecting Vat 7 was filled in with gray rendzina soil and fieldstones of various sizes (L6); the fill yielded a fragment of a conical metal item (L6, Basket 120; Fig. 10). Small pits (L8, L13) dug in the room’s floor penetrated the earthen floor and its bedding. These pits yielded artifacts from the late Ottoman period (nineteenth–twentieth centuries CE), such as a porcelain coffee cup (Fig. 5:16), a Gaza Ware jar (Fig. 5:17) and a tobacco pipe (Fig. 5:18).
A small probe in the center of the room yielded a new white plaster floor (L18; Fig. 11). The floor certainly postdates Phase 1, but it is not clear if it should be attributed to Phase 2 or later.
 
Phase 3. The level of the room was again raised with soil fills, which were removed during antiquities inspection work; the western entrance to the room was blocked up and a new entrance was opened in the room’s southeastern corner.
 
Animal Bones
Tehila Shadiel
 
Twenty-four animal-bone fragments were found in the excavation, 15 of them from Stratum II and nine from Stratum I (Table 1). Among the identified bones are 20 bones of sheep/goat (capra/ovis), three of medium-sized animals (sheep or goat) and one of a large animal (cattle or horse).
 
Table 1. The bones from the excavation
Species
Locus 2
Locus 5
Locus 8
Locus 9
Total
Sheep/goat
9
1
 
10
20 (83%)
Medium-sized animals
 
3
 
 
3 (13%)
Large animals
 
 
1
 
1 (4%)
Total
9
4
1
10
24 (100%)
 
The breakdown of skeletal parts in the assemblage shows a high percentage of limb bones, long bones and ribs, and a relatively small number of meat-poor body parts such as toe and skull bones (Table 2), indicating the exploitation of meat-rich parts.
 
Table 2. Breakdown of skeletal parts in assemblage
Skeletal part
Sheep/goat
Medium-sized animals
Large animals
Total
Head
1
 
 
1
Limb bones
3
 
 
3
Ribs
10
 
 
10
Toes
3
 
 
3
Long bones
3
3
1
7
Total
20
3
1
24
 
Sixteen of the bones in the assemblage are fused (40%); no unfused bones were identified, but it should be taken into consideration that the epiphyses of many of the bones were not preserved. Only one tooth was found in the assemblage, and its level of wear is consistent with that of a young animal. Most of the individuals appear to have been slaughtered as mature animals as well as having been used for by-products such as wool and milk, although the small number of bones with epiphyses affects the data. No cuts or predators’ gnawing marks were observed on the bone fragments. Three bones from L5 are burnt; they may have been burned during cooking, as the locus showed no signs of a fire.
 
It is impossible to determine exactly when the room where the excavation took place was built, but it is probably no later than the twelfth century CE. During the eighteenth–nineteenth centuries CE, an industrial installation involving liquids was apparently built inside the room. The bone finds from the two strata show that sheep/goat was commonly consumed by local residents. Some of the industrial processes in antiquity were accompanied by bad odors and were therefore banned from the city’s residential areas. During the Ottoman period, the northeastern part of the Old City was sparsely populated and therefore deemed a suitable location for the development of such industries. Similar installations, including a shallow pool leading to a collecting vat, have been found in the Christian Quarter. One such installation was excavated on Djabsha Street, where the archaeologist suggested that it was linked with the processing of skins or cloth and dated it to the Early Islamic period (eighth–eleventh centuries CE; Barbé 2018:144). An excavation at 11 Churches Street (Yeger 2022) dated a similar installation to the Ottoman period (eighteenth–nineteenth centuries CE).