The water cistern and the subterranean spaces (I; 3.5 m deep, 30 sq. m;
Apparently date to the first construction phase. The opening of the cistern is flush with the leveled rocky ground around it. To the north and west, two interconnected, rectangular troughs are cut in the rock so as to drain into the cistern. They were most probably intended for cleaning the water of silt and other impurities before it flowed into the cistern. The cistern was at some later stage adapted as a cellar (?).
South of the cistern, a stepped courtyard measuring 3.2 x2.8 m, with
walls up to 2.8 m high, was cut in the rock but was not uncovered in the
excavations. Access was by a large, arched opening within a receding, stylized frame in the northern side. A niche (60 x20 cm) was cut in the south-western wall of the courtyard. In the area around the courtyard there remain walls poorly built of large field-stones of which only the lower course set directly on the bedrock survives. The walls of the yard were covered with several layers of a white plaster. The smoothened walls of the underground passages show traces of having been covered with a thick layer of a gray hydraulic plaster in which many pottery fragments and gravel are imbedded. About 4 m southeast of the cistern, another such element was identified but was not cleaned out.
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