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Salvage excavations at the site exposed a pillared house, characteristic of Iron Age I settlements in the Central Hill Country. The finds indicate that the ground floor of the building was used for storage, food processing and other daily activities and the residential space was probably on the second floor. A round oil press was unearthed in the western part of the building. It is a simple, domestic installation, typical of Iron Age I. Two bell-shaped pits, hollowed in the bedrock, were apparently used to store agricultural products. Seven cisterns recorded at the site probably belonged to the settlement and should be dated to Iron Age I. The silos excavated at the site are of a type considered to be hallmarks of Iron Age I sites. The discovery of a hitherto unknown eleventh-century BCE settlement at Kh. Za‘kuka adds another dimension to distribution patterns of rural settlement in the Jerusalem area during Iron Age I and to patterns of settlement in the Central Hill Country.

El-Qabu is a farmstead where wine was produced in the Roman period (second half of the second to the third centuries CE). Buildings arranged around a courtyard, winepresses, tabuns and vaulted tombs were exposed. Storage jars were inserted into the floors of two of the rooms—a phenomenon that was noted at other sites in the coastal plain and the Negev during the Roman and Byzantine periods, probably attesting to the function of the rooms as storerooms. Based on the latest coin (286–305 CE) recovered from the excavation, the site was abandoned at the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century CE. This is one of dozens of agricultural sites situated in the hinterland of Ashqelon, one of the major cities during this period.

A salvage excavation conducted at Horbat ‘Illin, on a hilltop in the Judean Shephelah, revealed the remains of burial caves, cisterns and underground installations. These were quarried out and used in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods (first century BCE–second century CE), suggesting the existence of a nearby settlement from the Second Temple period that has not been excavated. Some of the installations were in use in later periods, as shown by pottery finds from the Byzantine, Umayyad and Mamluk periods. The main excavated areas were located in the center of the western slope (c. 4000 sq m), revealing the remains of a settlement from the end of the Byzantine period (sixth–seventh centuries CE) until the end of the Early Islamic period (tenth century CE). The remains belong to four adjacent buildings, some of them built around central courtyards, with intervening alleys. The buildings’ abandonment should probably be attributed to the earthquake that struck extensive parts of the country in 747–749 CE. The site was abandoned at some time in the tenth century CE, and no evidence has been found of a later settlement.

Excavations at Khirbat el-Thahiriya exposed a complex consisting of a large building, with an oil press to its northeast and an irrigation system to its west; a refuse heap; and a plastered surface. Also found were a quarry and a juglet dating to Early Bronze Age IB, not related to the other finds. The building (c. 1500 sq m) was partially exposed and three phases were identified, dating to the Byzantine (fifth–mid-seventh centuries CE; Phase 1), Umayyad (650–750 CE; Phase 2) and Abbasid (750–tenth century CE; Phase 3) periods. The three phases of the building were dated by pottery, metal finds, glassware and coins. The building appears to have originally been a monastery that was converted into a farmhouse following the Arab conquest.

Underwater surveys near Ashqelon revealed a large number of different types of anchors, testifying to 3500 years of sea trade off the southern coast of Israel. Of the dozens of anchors found at Ashqelon, thirteen are inscribed. The large number of engraved anchors seems to derive from the region’s physical characteristics that made navigation difficult along the coastline, rendering its waters dangerous for shipping. Thus, the large number of engravings and inscriptions on the anchors was probably intended to assure the well-being of their users.

Underwater surveys on the seabed near Tel Ashqelon exposed the remains of basalt hourglass millstones (“donkey” millstones), limestone oil-press weights and a round kurkar stone. The millstones and oil-press weights were brought to the coast to be used for mooring the portable wooden winches, used to haul boats and small ships out of the water for docking and repairs. This system would have functioned between the Roman and Crusader periods, mainly during the Byzantine period, when the city of Ashqelon was a hive of economic activity.

An intact carnelian gemstone was retrieved from the fill of the western therma in the Roman civic center of Nysa-Scythopolis (Bet She’an), along with an assortment of pottery and coins from the Roman and Byzantine periods. The gem, originally set in a ring, depicts Heracles in a scene of one of his labors: the overcoming of the Nemean lion. Based on its workmanship, style and provenience, it seems most likely that the gem dates to the second century CE.

A magical amulet was found in the Roman-Byzantine civic center of Nysa-Scythopolis (Bet She’an). It is made of cobalt glass and engraved with an intaglio design on the obverse and an incised Greek inscription on the reverse. The amulet is related to digestive healing practices that prevailed in the Graeco-Roman world. Medical amulets of this type were widespread and are generally dated to the Roman period (second–third centuries CE); however, an early Byzantine dating for similar amulets has also been suggested. It seems reasonable that magical amulets of the Graeco-Egyptian type were still in use or even newly manufactured, either in Alexandria or in Syria-Palestina, throughout the Byzantine period.

A water-related construction from the medieval period was exposed, revealing evidence for a strong flow of water. This observation was further confirmed by the eroded edges of the potsherds uncovered in the destruction phase. It is likely that this structure operated by means of the driving force of water, which enabled the rotating movement of a vertical mechanical wheel. The large number of iron nails retrieved from the site suggests that the machinery was constructed of timber, and was destroyed or dismantled. The finds, almost exclusively pottery, point to a date in the Mamluk period (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries CE).