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A farmhouse, equipped with agricultural installations, was uncovered; it was surrounded by an ancient road and agricultural terraces. Two main occupation periods were observed within the farmhouse: the Late Iron Age (Stratum 2) and the Second Temple period (Stratum 1). The Late Iron Age building was built in accordance with the four-room house plan. It was part of an agricultural/industrial complex comprising a vineyard, a winery and a cellar. The pottery indicated that it was built during the eighth century BCE and was used until the end of the Iron Age. The Second Temple-period building reused the earlier one, with some alterations. A new installation, typical of the Second Temple period, was cut in bedrock, and probably served for dyeing. This stratum was dated by Herodian artifacts, which were found sealed beneath a floor, to the first century CE.

The extensive survey and excavations at the site revealed remains from the late Hellenistic and Early Roman periods, including structures and installations—two ritual baths (miqva’ot), winepresses(?), cisterns, tombs and a columbarium—representing various aspects of rural life. These were probably part of a Jewish village set within the agricultural hinterland of Hasmonean and Herodian Jerusalem. The remains of the medieval village covered a small area on the summit. The economy of this village was based on oil production, as attested by the large oil press that was uncovered. Stone quarrying and the production of lime were also practiced at this site. The finds indicate that the site was probably a Muslim village, founded in the twelfth century CE.

The cave has one burial chamber. In its center is a rectangular, rock-hewn standing pit, flanked by three benches and six loculi (kokhim), and two repositories. All of the kokhim, save one, were sealed with their blocking stones. Found on the benches and in the kokhim were ten ossuaries with their covers and one single cover. One of the ossuaries (No. 1) was inscribed with Aramaic and Hebrew inscriptions; the others were incised, decorated or painted. Numerous objects were discovered in the cave, including pottery vessels, stone vessels, a stone spindle whorl, glass inlays, glass beads, a bone kohl spoon, metal vessels, a coin and human skeletal remains. The cave was used over a long period of time, from the end of the Hasmonean period (second half of the first century BCE) until the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. Most of the finds date to the Herodian period.

A salvage excavation in the Ramat Denya quarter, Jerusalem, uncovered agricultural installations, a miqweh, burial caves, cisterns and quarries dating to the Second Temple period, which were reused during medieval times. The various installations were dated on the basis of their architecture. Four winepresses were revealed; one, from the medieval period, was hewn within a Second Temple-period burial cave. The miqweh is typical of the Second Temple period, characteristically situated near agricultural installations; it was reused during the Mamluk period. Four loculi (kokhim) burial caves were excavated, characteristic of the Second Temple period. They were robbed in antiquity. The finds were most probably part of Jerusalem’s agricultural hinterland during the Second Temple and the medieval periods.

Three burial caves that were part of the eastern burial ground (necropolis) of Jerusalem during the Second Temple and the Byzantine periods were revealed. Two of the caves (Nos. 3, 4) were hewn during the Second Temple period and reused in the Byzantine period, and one (No. 2) was hewn and used during the Byzantine period. Cave 3 yielded wood remains and nails, probably attesting to burial in wooden coffins during the Byzantine period. Cave 4 yielded fragments of nine limestone ossuaries, decorated in patterns well-known from the Jerusalem area. Three of the ossuaries bore inscriptions of Jewish names in Hebrew script. Cave 2 is an arcosolia cave with plastered walls and ceiling. Byzantine-type crosses were painted in red and yellow on the ceiling and near the burial troughs.

The cave has a square burial chamber with three arcosolia hewn in its walls; two burial troughs were hewn in each arcosolium. Inside the troughs were the remains of 51 individuals, mostly children. The finds included 63 clay lamps and 18 glass vessels, mostly intact, dating the first use of the cave to the third century CE and its last use to the seventh century CE. Jewelry, spatulas and chicken eggs were found as well. The chicken eggs probably symbolize the Christian belief in incarnation, and thus may attest to the burial of martyrs, who were possibly massacred by the Persians in 614 CE.

The excavation revealed a burial cave containing three arcosolia, each with two or three burial troughs. Twenty-one complete clay candlestick lamps and numerous fragments of other lamps were retrieved, all of them dating to the Byzantine–early Umayyad periods. Two of the lamps bear Greek inscriptions. Also found were 300 fragments of glass vessels, of which only 23 were diagnostic. The glass vessels, free-blown and decorated in a variety of techniques, are characteristic of Byzantine-era Jerusalem; several vessels might also date later, to the early Umayyad period. Thirty glass beads were retrieved, one of which was made of mosaic glass (millefiori). Although they are typical of the Late Roman period, the beads seem to have been interred in the cave during the Byzantine period. The burial cave was probably part of the cemetery of Horbat Gores (Khirbat al-Juarish), which was a small village in the agricultural settlement along Nahal Refa’im during the Byzantine–Early Islamic periods.

The excavation, conducted outside the Old City wall of Jerusalem, northwest of Jaffa Gate, revealed five strata. The earliest, Stratum V, yielded finds dating to the Iron Age, Hellenistic, Early Roman and Byzantine periods. In Stratum IV, drainage channels were uncovered, leading to a reservoir, which was dated to the Byzantine period. In Stratum III, a later channel was constructed, dating to the Early Islamic period. Stratum II revealed the foundation courses of the western outer wall of a square tower from the Ayyubid period (end of twelfth–beginning of thirteenth centuries CE). Stratum I is the Ottoman city wall, built in the second half of the sixteenth century CE, which is built in part directly atop the remains of the Ayyubid fortifications. Numerous clay pipes were found in this stratum. The Ayyubid tower was probably part of the reconstruction work carried out along the city wall between the Jaffa and Damascus Gates, which was initiated during the days of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin (1191–1192 CE).

A fortification line, comprising a wall and a tower, was exposed outside the Jerusalem Old City wall and parallel to it, northwest of Jaffa Gate. The lower part of the wall was rock-cut, while its upper part was constructed of stones set in a grayish mortar (preserved only in the eastern part). The finds include pottery dating from the Roman-Byzantine periods and mainly, to the twelfth–early thirteenth centuries CE; stones bearing mason’s marks, mostly geometric, in secondary use; and two coins. Also found were stone architectural elements; fragments of wall paintings (frescos) depicting the head of the Madonna, and a Halo and monogram; and two stones bearing Latin inscriptions—all probably originating from a destroyed Crusader church. Based on stratigraphical and archaeological considerations, the fortification was constructed after the Crusader period and destroyed before the Mamluk period.