As part of the measures being taken along the line of the separation fence in the vicinity of the Elah Valley, two new Chalcolithic sites were recently excavated. The first, Horbat Tsur, is located east of the confluence of Nahal Gedud and Nahal HaElah. Four rock shelters were exposed at the site. Evidence of burials was discovered in three of the rock shelters. In one of them jars were discovered that were utilized in secondary use as burial containers. In another rock shelter a rock-hewn installation was exposed with pits and the remains of hearths.
The second site, Horbat ‘Illit B, is located on the banks of Nahal Gedud, c. 1 kilometer east of Horbat Tsur. It seems that the middle of the site, which extends across c. 10 dunams, is located on the northern bank of the river. The site extends across bedrock terraces descending to the middle of the river channel. In a sectional trench that was excavated prior to the beginning of the work at the site, two pits replete with fresh flint implements were located. Afterwards a sample salvage excavation was conducted whose preliminary results depict the following: in the pits were tens of thousands of items, from raw flint nodules to the tiniest of chips. The flint items were found in pits that were excavated into the levels of limestone that may have accumulated when the flint nodule concentrates were being quarried from the limestone bedrock. The walls of buildings were also exposed from the Chalcolithic phase, which was later than the limestone heaps, and near them were a number of flint and limestone axes and stone tools that are probably connected with quarrying activity. A field of cupmarks was located next to the site.