[1] Interesting findings from the Neolithic, classical antiquity and Crusader period have been made during salvage excavations caused by the construction of a modern highway and a new railway line cutting through the site.

[1] It is situated at the foot of a hill rising steeply north of it, and stretches over an area of about 400 x 200 metres (c. 60 dunams), with a small tell on its western side and a five-metre deep well, surrounded by a structure, at the centre of the tell.

[1][5] The "good spring-well" seen by the British surveyors in the 1870s used to provide drinking water even in times of drought, but has dried up in recent years due to overpumping that has led to a fall in the groundwater level.

[7] This road only became important from the Crusader period onwards, connecting the coast and Acre to Damascus via the Daughters of Jacob Bridge and the Golan Heights.

[10] They include a group of ceramic stands that supported oil lamps, storage jars decorated with colourful menorah patterns, and a cave with Jewish burials.

[11] Houses were rather dark, oil lamps were the common solution, but they didn't hold enough fuel as to last through the entire day of rest, the Sabbath.

[11] The remaining empty space around the support would function as an additional, external oil reservoir for the lamp, offering several options for how to position a long wick that would allow the flame not to go out.

[11] The Mishna, redacted about a century and a half earlier, dealt in one of its tractates (Shabbat 2:4) with the interdiction of moving a lamp or adding oil to it during Sabbath, and offered instructions on what means would be allowed.

[10] Crusader pottery from the early part of their rule in the 12th century could be found, when the place was known by the Franks as "Hadia", their way of pronouncing the Arabic 'Ayadiya.

[10] The Frankish farmhouse which stood there was destroyed during the fighting, only to be rebuilt in 1254, along with a new Crusader village now called "La Hadia" by Western chroniclers.