Excavations were conducted in 2000 and 2002 for the purpose of determining the periods of use.[8] The wall generally attributed to the Ottoman era was found to have been constructed earlier, in the Mamluk period (13th century).[8] A small number of fragments from the Iron Age were uncovered, but most remains were from the Roman and Byzantine periods.[8] Further excavation in 2011 found an area that had been closed off for the use of quarry workers, probably in the late Islamic period.[9]