A trial excavation conducted in July–August 2018 was followed by a salvage excavation in January–May 2019 at a site to the north of Be’er Sheva‘ and west of Highway 40 (Permit Nos. A-8306, A-8444 respectively; map ref. 179955/577104; Fig. 1) as part of a study excavation undertaken on behalf of the Department of Archaeology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority. The excavation was prompted by a development and construction program and funded by the Ministry of Construction and Housing. The trial excavation was conducted by P. Fabian and E. Cohen Sasson on behalf of Ben-Gurion University, and the salvage excavation was conducted by P. Fabian, O. Marder and E. Cohen Sasson (Ben-Gurion University) and D. Varga (Israel Antiquities Authority), with the assistance of A. Dan, A. Lehavi and S. Bloch- Lifshitz (area supervision), Y. Alamor and A. Stromza (administration), Y. Ostrovsky (photography), E. Aladjem (surveying and drafting), Y. Farhi ( coins and metals ), R. Jackson-Tal (glass), R. Bouchnick ( archaeozoology ) and L. Einan ( stoneware ).
Fábián et al. (Tue,) studied this question.