A small-scale excavation carried out next to the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation compound in Nazareth exposed the remains of three building strata: Stratum III, from Iron IIA–B (tenth–early eighth centuries BCE); Stratum II, from the late Hellenistic to the Early Roman period (late second century BCE–first third of the second century CE); and Stratum I, from the Crusader to Mamluk periods (twelfth–fifteenth centuries CE). The late Hellenistic to Early Roman-period dwelling incorporated a three-level complex of subterranean pits or silos. Within the pits, many potsherds were discarded, perhaps attesting to the Jewish practice of ritual defilement of ceramic vessels that were rendered impure. Similar findings were documented at other Jewish villages of the Early Roman period in Galilee.