The 2017 excavation comprised two squares (Fig. 2) opened adjacent to the remains of an Early Islamic structure uncovered in 2006 (Erickson-Gini 2016 [Area B]). The excavation uncovered three wall foundations (W202, W203, W211; 0.85–1.00 m wide, 0.4 m preserved height; Fig. 3) constructed of medium to large rounded wadi stones, delimiting several rooms. South of W202 were the remains of a plaster floor (L205; Fig. 4). The fill in the western room (L204) yielded ceramic and glass finds: a rim of a ‘Fine Byzantine Ware’ cup (Fig. 5:4), a small jar (Fig. 5:5), a casserole (Fig. 5:6) and the neck and rim of a glass bottle of the Umayyad period (Fig. 5:7). The foundations appear to have supported a mudbrick superstructure, which formed the continuation of the building uncovered in Area B in 2006 (Erickson-Gini 2016: Figs. 2, 9, Plan 1).
A probe (L207) excavated through Floor 205 in the southwest corner of the excavation below the level of the wall foundations revealed ashy soil mixed with Nabatean ceramic finds dated to the Roman period (L207, L209, L210; Fig. 6). These included Nabataean fine-ware painted bowls of the Early Roman (first century CE; Fig. 5:1) and Middle Roman (second–early third centuries CE; Fig. 5:2) periods and the upper part of a juglet dated to the Roman period (Fig. 5:3). It thus seems that the ashy layer was part of a Middle Roman-period midden detected in the 2006 excavation along the northern face of the Nabatean caravanserai (Erickson-Gini 2016: Plan 1 [Areas A and C]).