Three excavation squares (Areas A–C; 4×4 m; Fig. 3) were opened along the JCB trench, which extended north–south on a steep slope, 792–783 m above sea level. Evidence of limited quarrying activity was found in two squares (B, C), probably dating to the Early Roman or the Byzantine periods. Meager remains of a wall were uncovered in the third square (A), together with potsherds dating to the first century BCE–first century CE.
Area A is the southernmost square (Fig. 4). A small segment of a wall (W10; width 0.8 m), preserved a single course high, was uncovered. It was aligned east–west, partly dry-built of undressed stones and partly hewn into bedrock. No associated floor was found. The pottery fragments discovered in the fills on either side of the wall included cylindrical jars with a high neck and a long out-folded rim (Fig. 5:1, 2), cooking pots with a globular body, a short neck and two small loop handles (Fig. 5:3), a juglet with a ring base and a wheel-thrown knife-pared lamp. The cooking pot and the lamp belong to types common to Jerusalem in the first century CE. The jars (Type J-SJ4) and the juglet (Type J-JT1A3) characterize the Hasmonean–Herodian period in Jericho (R. Bar-Nathan. 2002. Hasmonean and Herodian Palaces at Jericho III: The Pottery [Qedem 13]. Jerusalem). This assemblage can thus be dated to the first century BCE–first century CE.
Area B, located 9 m north of Area A, was opened to investigate a suspected cave's opening (Fig. 6). The excavation revealed that the cave was entirely natural, and devoid of any finds. However, some evidence of quarrying was found on the upper side of the cave's roof. Impressions left by two extracted stones were exposed (width 0.5 m, length of one stone 1.5 m; Fig. 7); the length of the other stone is unknown. The few potsherds recovered from this square belonged to a cooking pot with a globular body dating to the Early Roman period (Fig. 5:4), a Fine Byzantine Ware bowl decorated with an incised wavy line (Fig. 5:5) and a juglet with a ring-base attributed to the Byzantine period (Fig. 5:6).
Area C is the northernmost square, located 30 m north of Area B (Fig. 8). Limited evidence of quarrying was found. It included the impression left by one extracted stone (width c. 0.5 m; Fig. 9), and a straight groove (length c. 1.5 m, width 0.04 m, depth 0.1 m; Fig. 10), which probably was a separation trench between blocks to be extracted. A single pottery fragment—a cooking pot handle dating to the Early Roman period—was discovered in this square.
A rock-cut installation, possibly a winepress that could not be excavated (see Fig. 8), was discerned 4 m north of Area C.
Area C also yielded a few fragments of roof-tiles, which probably came from nearby houses. Most of these roof-tiles originated in the factories of the Roux family (Fig. 11:1–3), based at Saint Henry near Marseille (their mark was a heart), which exported roof-tiles to the Eastern Mediterranean from the late nineteenth century until the early 1930s (Y. Ratier. 1989. La terre de Marseille: Tuiles, briques et carreaux. Marseille. Pp. 236–240). Another roof-tile fragment (Fig. 11:4) bears the name [AN]TONIO, suggesting that it came from either a Spanish or an Italian factory.
The limited excavation revealed only evidence of stones extracted from the upper layer of the bedrock. Further excavations may indicate whether the area served as an organized quarry or only for sporadic stone extraction. Dating quarrying activities is difficult; however, the scarce pottery finds may suggest that it goes back to the Early Roman or Byzantine periods. If so, the width of the extracted blocks (c. 0.5 m) would have corresponded to one contemporaneous cubit.