[2] The discovery of subterranean hiding complexes and mikvahs in the 20th and 21st century indicated that the site had become a Jewish settlement during the Second Temple period, and that its inhabitants were participants in the Bar Kokhba revolt.

The earliest evidence of human activity and inhabitation of the Khirbet el-Qutt site is provided by ceramics and structural remains dated to the Early Bronze Age and Iron II in a 1970s archeological survey.

However, Raviv, Har-Even, and Tavger argued that the nearby "presence...of several tombs belonging to the [Khirbet el-Qutt] necropolis" demonstrated a much stronger connection to the further site.

[3] The 2014 survey also looked at irregularly crafted subterranean hiding complexes, likely converted from storage caves and used by the Jewish residents during Bar Kokhba revolt.

[6] During the earliest surveys, a researcher attempted to connect the site with Lakitia, a village identified in Midrash as the location of a Roman garrison during the revolt.