Hirschfeld and Gutfeld (2008:2) noted that toward the end of the Fatimid period the residential structures of Stratum II were destroyed and the area was completely abandoned. They observed large "piles of rubble covering the courtyards of the houses and their rooms" together with "fissures in the walls of the water tower and other structures," and concluded that "the destruction was caused by an earthquake." Stratum II was dated to the 10th–11th centuries CE, while the overlying Stratum I was dated to the 12th–14th centuries CE.