During May 2005, an excavation was conducted at a site located in the Yattir Forest (Permit No. A-4473; map ref. NIG 20116/58514; OIG 15116/08514), prior to the construction of the separation fence. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and underwritten by the Ministry of Defense, was directed by M. Haiman (photography), with the assistance of A. Freiberg (area supervision) and A. Hajian (surveying).
Seven stone clearance heaps, two walls and a built installation were examined on a flat hilltop (c. 40 × 40 m), c. 600 m north of Horbat Yattir. Two cisterns and a winepress, located close to the hill, were not inspected.
Stone Clearance Heaps. The heaps (max. diam. 6 m, max. height 0.8 m) comprised different sized stones. Probes (c. 1 × 1 m) were dug in five of them: Heap 100 (elliptical; 2.5 × 3.5 m, height 0.5 m; Fig. 1); Heap 103 (round; diam. 2.5 m; Fig. 2); Heap 106 (round; diam. c. 3 m, height 0.4 m), in which body fragments of a jar from the Byzantine period were found; Heap 107 (round; diam. c. 3 m, height c. 0.4 m; Fig. 3); Heap 108 (elliptical; 3 × 5 m, height 0.6 m; Figs. 4, 5), in which potsherds that dated to the Byzantine period were found.
Walls. A cultivation plot extended across the southern slope of the hill and two walls that delineated its northern corner had survived (Fig. 6): a wall oriented northeast-southwest (W113; length c. 100 m) and a wall aligned south-southwest–north-northeast (W127; length c. 120 m). A square (3 × 3 m) was opened along the northeastern side of W113, near its juncture with W127. The excavation revealed that the two walls were built of a single row of large stones (max. length 1 m), set on bedrock.
Built Installation. A square installation (L109; c. 1 × 1 m; Fig. 7), built of a single stone course (up to 0.5 m long), was erected next to the northwestern face of W113. Remains of a hearth were found inside the installation, as well as fragments of pottery vessels from the Byzantine period, including a fragment of a baking tray that suggest the installation may have been used as an oven.
These installations and the agricultural installations near them, which are characteristic of the areas along the fringes of settlements from the Byzantine period in the hill country, belonged, most likely, to Horbat Yattir.