Ferrario et al. (2020) measured 46 cm of vertical throw across a warped Byzantine wall located slightly west of the Southern Gate. From this deformation they inferred the presence of an approximately north–south trending fault. Just east of the warped wall and slightly west of the gate, Hartal et al. (2010) uncovered three stranded columns that were identified as Umayyad based on "a large amount of ash and potsherds from the Umayyad period" within a soil layer abutting the columns. The columns were interpreted as the remains of a vault that once extended west of the gate. Hartal et al. (2010) suggested that this vault collapsed during one of the 749 CE Sabbatical Year Earthquakes.

Hartal et al. (2010) report that the Byzantine wall was built in the sixth century CE and state that "it appears that this city wall was founded during the reign of Emperor Justinian I [r. 527-565 CE] (Procopius, On Buildings V, 9, 21)." Because the stranded columns from the collapsed vault were dated by Hartal et al. (2010) to the Umayyad period, a terminus post quem of 661 CE can be established. Abbasid constructions discovered above the collapsed vault by Hartal et al. (2010) provide a terminus ante quem sometime before the end of the tenth century CE, and likely considerably earlier.

Figure 6c - detail of the warped Byzantine wall. The wooded frame, holding the pedestrian bridge, is situated above the fault line. The dashed black line marks a down throw of an originally horizontal datum - Ferrario et al (2020)