Highway 3: Architectural Remains from the Late Hellenistic, Late Roman–Early Islamic and Late Ottoman Periods

Excavations along Highway 3 revealed intermittent occupation, with remains from the late Hellenistic, Late Roman, Byzantine–Early Islamic and Ottoman periods, as well as earlier unstratified pottery from Iron Age II. The late Hellenistic period is represented by a winepress, likely associated with a rural farmstead. A winepress and a hypocaust, dated to the Late Roman–early Byzantine periods, may reflect the expansion of the settlement exposed in previous excavations to the east of the present excavation. Byzantine–Early Islamic remains include pottery-production facilities comprising potter’s wheels, levigation pools and slags. The latest remains date to the eighteenth–nineteenth centuries (late Ottoman period), reflecting agricultural processing. Across all periods, the area functioned mainly as an industrial or service zone on the periphery of settlements, its location likely tied to an ancient east–west route corresponding to modern Highway 3.