Two superposed plaster floors (L105, L106) were documented in a section created during the development work at the site (Fig. 1: Section 1-1). The floors abutted a stone that protruded from the section, which was probably part of a wall, damaged during the work (W201; Fig. 2). A layer of gray mortar with a rectangular outline (L107; Fig. 3) that may have been the remains of an installation or a robber trench was discerned next to the floors and the wall. The layer of mortar was abutted by a plaster floor (L108). The straightening of the section uncovered potsherds dating to the ninth–tenth centuries CE beneath the floors.
Modern fill that covered a row of posts, which were poured prior to the construction (L101–L104), was first excavated in all the squares. Potsherds and fragments of roof tiles from the Ottoman period and potsherds from the Early Islamic period were discovered in this fill. An accumulation of gray soil mixed with lime debris (L110, L111, L113) was excavated below this fill in Squares 1–3. Similar accumulations that covered ancient remains are known from other excavations in Ramla.
Soil fill (L115) was exposed below Accumulation 113 in Square 1; beneath it were scant remains of a wall foundation (W202), built of small fieldstones and set on brown soil. A single ashlar that had been preserved from the wall’s stones was discovered on the foundation (Fig. 4).
Fill (L116) was exposed beneath Accumulation 110 in Square 2, and below it was more fill (L118) that reached the natural sand.
Accumulations (L111) were excavated down to the level of the natural sand in Square 3. At the bottom part of the accumulation, slightly above the sand, fragments of zir-type jars were discovered, dating to the ninth–tenth centuries CE, including a base placed on top of the sand (Fig. 5). It seems that several jars, which broke over the course of time, were placed at this spot.
Black and white colored ash debris (L109; thickness 0.5 m) was excavated beneath Fill 104 in Square 4; the ash covered large parts of the square. Below the ash was the bottom part of a hearth (L117; Fig. 6), built of flat fieldstones. Below the ash debris was light colored soil fill (L112) and below it was more soil fill (L114), lying on the sand.
The ceramic finds discovered below the modern disturbances in the excavation squares included a variety of vessels, well-known in Ramla and dating to the ninth and the beginning of the tenth centuries CE. Noteworthy among these finds is the paucity of glazed potsherds; therefore, it seems that the construction in this region occurred when glazed pottery first appeared at the beginning of the Abbasid period. At the bottom of the exaction, near the sand, several potsherds that dated to the eighth century CE were discovered. Four illegible coins were found in the excavation.
The Glass Finds
Fifty-eight fragments of glass vessels were recovered from the excavation, of which forty are part of plain and decorated, blown vessels, including bowls, beakers, bottles and lamps, dating to the end of the Byzantine and the Early Islamic periods (seventh–ninth centuries CE). These vessels are known from other assemblages in Ramla, for example the excavation in the Begin quarter (Permit No. A-5989). Eighteen of the glass fragments are body fragments that cannot be identified, including those of modern-day vessels (L113, L115). The earliest vessels in the assemblage date to the transition from the Byzantine to the Umayyad periods, and are made of greenish blue glass. These include a large quantity of hollow stemmed oil lamps (L101); a bottle with a thickened rim that is everted and flat (Fig. 7:1); a tiny handle, probably of a lamp from the Umayyad period (Fig. 7:2); the bottom part of a small beaker that is pinched around its base (L103; Fig. 7:3); and a fragment of a cylindrical neck of a bottle decorated with numerous glass trails that belongs to one of the most common types found in the country (L111). About ten fragments of cups or bowls were identified among the vessels dating to the eighth century CE; these have rounded or folded rims and flat or slightly concave bases, some of which are decorated with a brown-yellow trail on the end of the rim (L109–L111, L113; Fig. 8). Some of the vessels in the glass assemblage date to the Abbasid–Fatimid periods, including a curved rim of a cylindrical bowl made of colorless glass (L101), a bottle made of bluish green glass with a broad folded rim that is everted (L110), a bottle made of pale green glass with a rounded horizontal rim and a cylindrical neck (L113), a bottle made of colorless glass that has a bell-shaped body and remains of delicate polishing around the shoulder (L103) and two side fragments made of decorated greenish blue glass, one with an unclear pattern, possibly a tonged decoration (L104) and the other with mold-blown decoration in a pattern of a large protruding circle (L113).
A flint artifact (Fig. 9) was discovered while excavating Fill 112. It is probably an ‘Amuq point that is broken at both ends. The ventral side of the artifact is shaped by full pressure flaking; the retouching is executed with flat lateral pressure. The dorsal side, however, is retouched with convergent pressure on its center ridge, limited to its base. Such artifacts are common to the Pre-pottery Neolithic C and the Pottery Neolithic (the Yarmukian culture and even earlier).