Area A. Remains of a dwelling in which three phases were discerned, were exposed in the eastern part of the area (Fig. 2). Part of a square structure (4 × 4 m), which dates to the Abbasid period, was ascribed to the early phase (3). Only the foundation courses were preserved in most of the walls of this building (width c. 0.5 m). In the middle phase (2) changes were made to the interior of the building: two internal walls were constructed and joined to form a corner at an oblique angle. A surface (0.5 × 2.5 m) built of fired-brick material was exposed in the corner of the building, and on it were fragments of a casserole, which dates to the tenth–eleventh centuries CE. The late phase (1) primarily consisted of structural repairs. A thick chalk floor was laid on some of the remains of Phases 2 and 3. Some of the walls were repaired and rebuilt, and two large pillars were erected in the north and west. It is possible that another pillar once stood in the south. The pottery from this phase dates to the eleventh century CE.
A pipe made of terra cotta sections and covered with a mixture of mortar and small stones was exposed south of the building; the direction of the flow was west–east. Remains of a wall aligned east–west were discovered slightly west of the pipe. The wall closed off the southern end of an alley (width c. 2 m), which was made of tamped earth.
A few architectural remains and many pieces of terra cotta pipe were discovered west of the building. This was probably an agricultural area, perhaps an orchard. In addition, a large built drainage channel covered with stone slabs and oriented east–west was discovered in this area. Collapsed stones were uncovered in the westernmost part of the area. Apparently they originated in another residential building, which was located just outside the limits of the excavation. Fragments of pottery dating to the Fatimid period were discovered while removing some of them.
Area B. Most of the squares were disturbed by work of mechanical equipment. Walls, a water channel and chalk floors were discovered in only two squares. Fragments of pottery were found in situ on some of the floors (Fig. 3). Two construction phases were discerned in the remains: the earlier dated to the Abbasid period, and the later to the Fatimid period. Sand containing metal-smelting debris was found beneath the floors.
Area C. Remains of a residential building with three phases were exposed. The remains of the early phase (3) consisted only of the foundations of two sections of walls that were set in the sand; no diagnostic pottery was found. Remains of robber trenches of the walls of a square room and a covered water channel (Fig. 4) were ascribed to the middle phase (2; Fig. 4), which dates to the Abbasid period (ninth–tenth centuries CE). A covered water channel and a floor bedding made of small stones, which was laid on top of the remains of Phase 2, were ascribed to the last phase (1). Also in the late phase, the water channel from Phase 2 was canceled, and a wall was built above it. This phase dates to the Fatimid period.
Area CD. Installations and a residential building (Fig. 5) were exposed, and three construction phases were discerned. The early phase included a wall oriented northwest–southeast, and part of a water system. The latter included a pipe made of terra cotta sections, which ran parallel to the western side of the wall, leading to a zir jar that was used for filtration. A pipe, covered with gray mortar, extended from the jar at an angle of 100° to a round cistern in the west. The jar dates to the early ninth century CE and dates the construction of the system.
A new water system was ascribed to the middle phase (2). It included a deep, narrow cistern, and a pipe covered with mortar that exited from its upper part, and conveyed surplus water to a covered channel. Plastered basins were built at both ends of the channel. The basins at the western end were tilted and broken, perhaps as a result of an earthquake. An open channel leading from the eastern basin conveyed the water in a southwesterly direction back to the cistern. This channel canceled the use of the terra cotta pipe of Phase 3; the original entry point of the pipe into the round cistern was sealed and plastered. The eastern basin was built into the foundations of the wall of Phase 3, and canceled it at its southern end. It is possible that during this phase, an industrial installation, which comprises two flat basins and two deep basins, was constructed near the deep cistern; it may have continued outside the excavation area.
An ashlar-built dwelling is ascribed to the late phase (1). Only one of its rooms was exposed. A square basin, made of mortar and small stones, was constructed slightly southeast of the building, and a gutter drainage pipe was installed in its center. The room and basin cancelled the open channel from Phase 2.
Phases 1 and 2 date to the Fatimid period and it seems that the earthquake that struck in 1033 CE occurred between them.
A smelting furnace built of clay bricks was exposed in the southwestern part of the area (Fig. 6). The furnace included a square firebox (2.1 × 2.6 m) with stone-slabs floor, and a stoking passage oriented northeast–southwest. The finds in the furnace included crucibles containing residues of iron ore. It is not clear with which phase the furnace was associated, because it was disassociated from the other remains and no pottery was found close to it.
Area D1. A long narrow strip of sixteen squares (width 3 m) was excavated along a northwest–southeast axis. At the southeastern end of the excavation a square fountain (Fig. 7) built of clusters of small stones bonded with mortar (debesh) was exposed. Two phases were identified in the floor of the fountain: the early floor was made of white tesserae, while the later floor was of marble and stone slabs. A bronze pipe wrapped in lead emerged from the center of the floor. A drainage pipe was installed in the southwestern corner of the fountain’s wall. A terra cotta pipe conveyed water to the fountain from the west. It was composed of several sections pointing in different directions, with zir jars in the corners between the sections, connecting them (see Fig. 7). These zir jars, which date to the tenth–eleventh centuries CE, were identical to the jars that were exposed in the industrial waste in Area D2 (below). A cistern, a drainage channel made of terra cotta pipes, and a section of a wall, of which only three stones were preserved, were exposed in the square northwest of the fountain (Fig. 8). The terra cotta pipe that reached the fountain, cut the wall and the drainage channel north of it, and cancelled them; thus it seems that the wall, the drainage channel and the cistern belong to an early phase (2) while the fountain belongs to a late phase (1). Remains of walls that crossed the excavations squares from north to south were also exposed in this area, and they may be part of a residential structure that was situated there. A corner of two walls, and an adjacent plaster floor were exposed at the northwestern end of area. Numerous fragments of Fatimid-period pottery (eleventh century CE) were found on the plaster floor.
Area D2. Twenty squares were opened in a long narrow strip. Remains of a dwelling were exposed in the northern part of the area. Alongside it were a water channel and numerous courtyard installations, including tabuns and water basins. Two refuse pits were also discovered in this area. One pit contained many large bones of animals (Fig. 9); the other was large and contained production-waste of zir jars manufacture, from the tenth–eleventh centuries CE.
Area E. The remains of two dwellings were exposed beneath the remains of modern residential buildings. An early, Abbasid-period phase, and a late, Fatimid-period phase, were identified in the dwellings. The northern part of the area was damaged during the construction of the modern buildings. The remains of the two dwellings in the central and southern parts of the area included fragments of walls, robber trenches, a cistern, well-made plaster floors, and installations which are usually associated with the courtyards of residential buildings, such as water basins, pipes, drainage channels and tabuns.
Habitation remains were exposed in the excavation, which included residential buildings, domestic and industrial installations and water systems, as well as finds indicating that the settlement was affluent. The remains date from the Abbasid period (early ninth century CE) until the Fatimid period (eleventh century CE), and it seems that the settlement was destroyed in the earthquake that struck in 1068 CE. It is possible that the settlement was first damaged by the earthquake of 1033 CE, was subsequently rebuilt, and then destroyed again in 1068 CE and abandoned. The buildings were not constructed prior to the ninth century CE, an indication that the city of Ramla spread from the nucleus around the White Mosque to the northern outskirts toward the city of Lod. In this period the Abbasid caliph Harun ar-Rashid built the Pool of the Arches. It seems that the buildings that were uncovered in the excavation were constructed at about the same time as the pool, which may have served the population in its vicinity.