Rattenborg and Blanke (2017:19–21) and Blanke in Lichtenberger and Raja (2025:49–50) report that Trench 1 exposed a storeroom located in the southern sector of a residential building and opening onto a courtyard. Its stone-built walls were set directly on bedrock, and the floor consisted of compact yellow clay. Blanke et al. (2024:100) suggest that this storeroom was either newly constructed or heavily renovated following “the earthquake in the middle of the 8th century AD.”

The installation of piers along the northern and southern walls, together with the discovery of arch-stones, indicates that the room was covered by a vaulted roof capped with the same yellow clay used in the walls. According to Blanke et al. (2024:100), this storeroom collapsed during “a sudden catastrophic event— possibly an earthquake—which sealed the room below 1.5 m of wall tumble.” The structure was subsequently abandoned.

A deposit associated with the final use of the room and sealed by the collapse contained domestic ceramic vessels used for cooking and storage. The assemblage comprised c. 1,000 sherds representing 22 nearly complete vessels, with only a small number of additional sherds from other pots. Nine of these vessels were large pithoi-type storage jars, and the remaining 13 consisted of smaller jars, cooking pots, and several fine wares.

Blanke in Lichtenberger and Raja (2025:49–50) note the presence of cutware / Kerbschnitt and a “black polished beaker…comparable in shape and fabric to vessels found in ninth-century layers at Pella, Aylah, Jerusalem, Capernaum, and Nabratein.” Several vessels can be securely dated to the Abbasid period.

For chronological interpretation, Rattenborg and Blanke (2017:29) observe that “the available archaeological record of the 9th–11th centuries is notoriously meagre and marred by a dissatisfying degree of chronological control.” The Abbasid ceramics indicate that the destruction likely occurred sometime between the late 8th and 10th centuries CE.