From March 2020 until June 2022, a salvage excavation was conducted on the northern, eastern and southeastern margins of Tel Yavne, designated as in Area C (Permit Nos. A-8656, A-8913; map ref. 176250–461/641368–588; Fig. 1), as part of a large-scale excavation project in the eastern part of Yavne, prior to the construction of new housing projects. The excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, was directed by L. Nadav-Ziv, E. Haddad and J. Seligman, with the assistance of H. Torgë, A. Nagorsky, Y. Agmon, G. Tal, M. Viezel, C. Peterman-Lipschutz, A. Reiss, E. Zwiebel, S. Shaked, A. Massarwa, L. Rauchberger, A. Davidescu, I. Jonish , Y. Sheizaf, R. Koren and G. Vasyutin (area supervision), Y. Amrani, Z. Lotan, T. Uriel and T. Harpak (administration), S. Emmanuilov and Y. Shmidov (surveying, photography and photogrammetry), M. Kahan (surveying), Y. Gumenny (drafting), A. Peretz and D. Gazit (photography), I. Jonish and E. Aladjem (photography and photogrammetry), A. Dagot (GPS), S. Krispin, A. Tamir and E. Valdman (metal detection), Y. Tepper (guidance), D. Golan (Bronze Age pottery), D. Sandhaus (Iron Age and Persian period pottery), O. Tsuf (Byzantine and Early Islamic pottery), S. Terem (Ottoman pottery), Y. Gorin-Rosen and R. Lewis (glass), R. Kool, L. Sandberg, Y. Levi and G. Bijovsky (coins), L. Perry Gal and I. Ktalav (archaeozoology), Y. Weingarten and A. Zilberstein (stone vessels), Y. Asscher, I. Shapira and C. Elimelech (analytical laboratory), Y. Raskin (geomorphology), A. Weinberger (petrography), B. Yuzefovsky (metals), Y. Nagar and V. Eshed (physical anthropology), G. Stern and D. Weinberg (educational program), D. Tuval-Marx and G. Sameora-Cohen (copy editing) and D. Barkan, Y. Radashkovsky, D. Ben-Ami and A. Shadman (the Israel Antiquities Authority Central District). Workers and youth from several schools and premilitary programs participated in the excavations.
Nadav-Ziv et al. (Wed,) studied this question.