Tell el-Kheleifeh

According to his results, largely reconfirmed and expanded on in 2014 by Israel Finkelstein, two main phases of habitation can be assumed, with one or two additional minor ones:[1][2] Sparse ceramic findings without associated architectural remains might hint at a small settlement existing at the site or nearby during the 12th century BCE, and possibly into the 11th.

[2] Marta Luciani argues that old and newly identified samples of Qurayya ware at the site indicate that it was occupied during the Late Bronze Age.

[1][2] A 45 × 45–metre offset-inset, or "salients and recesses" wall was abutted on the inside by a continuous row of rooms, these constituting the "casemate" element from its name.

[1] The earlier fortress was replaced by a radically different fortified settlement of much larger proportions, 56 × 59 × 59 × 63 m.[1] This was protected by an offset-inset wall and a four-chambered gateway.

[1][2] Pottery and Aramaic ostraca attest to the presence of a settlement during the Persian period (5th–4th century BCE), but there is no certainty whether the fortress walls were still standing or if the buildings, of which not much remained by the time of the excavations, were erected on top of its ruins.