Richard et al. (2020:599) report that in Square C06 they uncovered "a layer of mudbrick and ash lying beneath the Phase 1 surface," which they interpret as collapse material concentrated mainly in the southern part of the square, while noting that in the north "there was some alignment of mud bricks." On this basis, they conclude that "it is almost certain now that this pre-Phase 1 layer witnesses the destruction of the EB III settlement encountered everywhere in Area B below EB IV remains."

The destruction belongs to the broader collapse of EB III urbanism in the southern Levant. Richard et al. (2023) notes that revised radiocarbon chronologies place the EB III/IV transition at ca. 2500 cal BCE, rather than ca. 2300 BCE. This earlier date effectively rules out both 5th- 6th Dynasty Egyptian raids and the ca. 2300/2260 BCE 4.2 ka BP climatic event as causes of the EB III collapse. Richard et al. (2023) characterize the regional decline as a prolonged and probably multifactorial process rather than due to a single catastrophic event.