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Excavations undertaken on two hills and an intervening field revealed a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site. On the eastern hill, more than 300 flint objects were retrieved, mostly natural chunks and flakes; no traces of permanent human presence or activity were recorded. On the western hill, 565 lithics were collected, dating to Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA); outcrops of the raw material used for their manufacture were observed on the surface. Numerous flint objects also dating to PPNA were visible on the surface in the intervening field. This site is a new link in the chain of PPNA sites discovered in the Modi‘in area. All the sites are extensive in area, devoid of architectural remains and yielded a large amount of flint artifacts, especially bifacials.

A small-scale salvage excavation was conducted at the foot of Horbat Usha. Only meager architectural remains were uncovered, including wall and floor fragments. The finds comprised pottery, a basalt vessel and flint artifacts characteristic of the Chalcolithic period.

Nine tombs were excavated: seven dated to the Intermediate Bronze Age (IBA), and two, to the Early Roman period. The IBA tombs were all simple burial pits, dug into hamra soil. The Roman-period tombs were cist graves. The pottery finds from the IBA pits included a bowl, cups, jars, amphoriskoi and a lamp, all resembling Dever’s Southern Family. The finds from the Roman period comprised two pottery vessels and a rare bronze jug with a decorated handle.

A monumental, nearly square, two-story peristyle building was revealed, dating to the second century CE. It was flanked on the east by a row of shops and on the west, by additional architectural remains. The structure is a typical Greco-Roman peristyle building, consisting of a central colonnaded courtyard, a portico and 20 rooms. The strikingly meticulous craftsmanship of the building’s construction and the high-quality stone masonry attest that it was built by professional builders. The finds included large amounts of Early Roman potsherds; several basalt vessels, pestles, grinding stones and millstones; metal objects, mostly nails; and domestic glass vessels from the late first and second centuries CE. Twenty-five bronze coins were also found. In light of the building’s location, it probably fulfilled an administrative or public function, perhaps a mansion (caravansary) or a mutation (highway rest stop).

Seven tombs were excavated, belonging to three types: three loculi (kokhim) tombs, with clay coffins; three shaft tombs; and one pit grave. The first two types date to the Late Roman period, and the third type, to the Ottoman period. The burial goods found within the Roman-period tombs are typical of Phoenician burials, thereby identifying the ethnic identity of the deceased. This observation is further confirmed by historical sources describing the geographical border between the Jewish and Phoenician populations in western Galilee during the second and third centuries CE.

Excavations were conducted along the railway tracks from Tel Aviv to Haifa on the eastern fringes of Tel Shiqmona, located on the outskirts of modern-day Haifa. The finds from the excavation were extremely meager; however, they offered a new understanding of the nature and size of the site. The architectural remains represent a single occupation dating to the Byzantine period, based on ceramic and numismatic evidence. The excavation results determined that the site covered an area of no more than 50 dunams (12.5 acres) and was occupied by Jews. Thus, Shiqmona was identified as a large, Byzantine-period village.

Excavations at Khirbat Burin uncovered three strata: two (I, II) of the Mamluk period and one (III), of the Byzantine–Early Islamic periods. Sporadic remains of the Persian, Byzantine, Early Islamic and Ottoman periods were found, corroborating the evidence from earlier excavations at the site. The large, well-planned buildings uncovered in Mamluk-period Stratum II (late thirteenth–fourteenth centuries) survived to considerable height. The pottery related to the Mamluk strata represents the types that were in use during that period, including unglazed wares consisting of decorated and undecorated handmade wares, wheel-made wares and mold-made wares, as well as a large variety of wheel-made glazed types, including imported wares. The site was probably a Mamluk-period village that was abandoned in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century, conforming to our knowledge of a process of decline, depopulation and nomadization in the region during the fifteenth century.

A mosaic floor was uncovered, consisting of a square surrounding a medallion, in which a seven-line Greek inscription was preserved. It is suggested that the mosaic adorned the entrance to a monastery or a church that existed at the site during the Byzantine period.

Human skeletal remains were found in 83 cist graves in the Byzantine-period cemetery of Horbat Ma’aravim. At least 121 individuals were identified, including infants, children and adults of both sexes, as is expected in a normal civilian population. The morphological characteristics of the skulls indicate a local desert population, perhaps Nabatean in origin.

At the site, located north of the Rehovot–Yavne road, fragments of poorly preserved domestic structures and various installations were observed. The architectural finds relate to three strata, dating from the Persian (Stratum III), Roman–Byzantine (Stratum II) and Byzantine–Early Islamic (Stratum I) periods. The extent of the settlement is unknown; however, based on finds from previous excavations at the site, it seems to have been a large settlement in the late Byzantine–Early Islamic periods.

Meager architectural remains were exposed: wall segments, without floors, belonging to two phases dating to the Early Islamic period, and the foundation channel of what appears to have been a massive Crusader building. The stones of the later building were robbed in the Late Ottoman period. The pottery finds (studied by Miriam Avissar) date to the Early Islamic (second half of eighth–tenth centuries CE) and Crusader periods. Fragments of vessels from the Late Ottoman period were documented as well.

An excavation conducted to the east of Damascus Gate exposed the remains of a rampart and a moat, which had been dug into earlier, Second-Temple period quarries. Remains of a rampart and a moat, documented elsewhere along the Ottoman city wall, were mentioned as being part of the northern extra muros fortification system in various medieval sources describing the Crusader siege of Jerusalem in 1099. Therefore, they must have been constructed some time earlier by the Seljuks (1073–1098).

The site is located on the western side of the Ayyalon Valley. Four excavation areas were opened, exposing meager architectural remains, mainly comprising wall foundations dated to the Late Ottoman period. Some of the finds were dated between the Byzantine period and the Middle Ages. Most of the pottery finds (studied by Miriam Avissar) date from the Late Ottoman period (nineteenth century CE). Apparently, the site was occupied from the Byzantine period until 1948.