The current excavation took place after many years during which the site was exposed to the ravages of time and weather. It included conservation and salvaging the remains of the synagogue and its surroundings (Fig. 2). Most of the work involved removing a layer of vegetation and soil from the floor of the synagogue and from the surface of the area that had been excavated in the past. The excavation revealed on the surface around the synagogue a small quantity of pottery fragments dating from the Roman and Byzantine periods. It also unearthed a small fragment of a clay tobacco-pipe mouthpiece from the late Ottoman period (L1, B105; Fig. 3). The fragment may have been associated with the village of this period at the site, whose inhabitants were Muslims from Algeria (Abbasi 2007). The excavation also uncovered two worn coins, only one of which was identified; it was dated to the fourteenth century CE, the period of Mamluk rule (IAA 166787).