[6] By the Middle Ages, texts from Christian pilgrims reveal Khirbet Qana was associated with the biblical Cana during that period,[7] including the account of the English merchant Saewulf in the 12th century.

[8] In the 17th century, Francesco Quaresmio concluded that Kafr Kanna was the biblical Cana, as it had a church, while Khirbet Qana did not.

However, the fact that the main road from Sepphoris to Tiberias passed Kafr Kanna rather than Khirbet Qana, may have been a factor in this decision.

[12] In addition to residential housing, Khirbet Qana includes a Jewish synagogue, a later Byzantine complex (possibly a “veneration cave”), and a series of tombs.

The altar or table made of the sarcophagus lid with the two stone vessels on its top, along with the carbon dating which places the major renovations at the time of the Crusaders, provide some evidence that the cave complex may have been used as a reliquary to celebrate Jesus's turning of water into wine.

[7] One particular pottery shard found at the site, a fragment of a cooking pot, proved to be an ostracon in Aramaic, which is considered to be the language spoken in the region of Galilee at the time of Jesus.

As per the publisher, this marks the first occurrence of an abecedarium in a Jewish village in the Galilee, potentially linked to a scribal exercise or a form of magical incantation.

[14] Industrial buildings were found on the outskirts of the town, including facilities for breeding doves, olive presses, fabric dying, and glass making.

The latest date for a coin found at Khirbet Qana is 613, and it was likely abandoned during the first half of the 7th century, during which time Galilee underwent invasion (614) and re-conquest (628) from Persia, prior to the Arab conquest (639).