22 A SALVAGE EXCAVATION AND SURVEY IN THE ENVIRONS OF MAZOR Itamar Taxel During July 2003 a salvage excavation was carried out on the southwestern slope of a hill on the southern fringes of the city of El > ad (Map Ref. 14568-14574/16168-16173) in an area designated for construction (Fig. 1). The excavated area, which covers ca. 75 m 2 , lies ca. 550 m east of a site previously excavated by the author (Taxel 2006). The current project was directed by I. Taxel on behalf of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University (License No. B-277/2003) with the financial backing of the Orot Ha-Ma > arav - Yoreh Bina Yeshiva. Once the boundaries of the area under investigation were defined, several points were chosen for excavation – some according to elements seen on the surface, and others arbitrarily. The area that lay beyond the boundaries of the excavated area was surveyed. Photographs were taken by I. Taxel and plans drawn by D. Porotsky were prepared for publication by Y. Smertenko. Pottery was restored by R. Pelta and drawn by A. Perry. INTRODUCTION The excavated site belongs to a cluster of small and medium-sized sites located within the modern city of El >ad, situated on the western slopes of the Samaria highlands (Kochavi and Beit-Arieh 1994:9*, 60*, 69*-72*). Remains found all over the southern slope of Mazor, including those unearthed during other recent excavations (Amit and Zilberbod 1998a; Taxel 2006), are connected to the large site of Mazor, in its northwest. The natural landscape of the hill slope includes bedrock surfaces, which slope slightly to the southwest, natural bedrock steps and pockets of terra rossa soil. In a survey conducted at the site by the Israel Antiquities Authority prior to the current investigation it was found that there are patches on the hill slope dense with ancient remains, most of them hewn into the bedrock. These include tombs, agricultural and/or industrial installations, agricultural enclosures, stone heaps, cisterns, rock cuttings and quarries. The results of the preasent survey join those of another recent excavation in the same area (Taxel 2006: 15-20). Fig. 1: General map of the area. ▲Site of present excavation.