Neolithic Phase B
According to the reports, Phase B (located in brown along the eastern side of the VWP site plan) was exposed over an extensive portion of the site, covering approximately 775 square meters. Unfortunately Phase C construction did much to obliterate the architecture of Phase B. Nevertheless, a total of 18 buildings of varying size witness to this phase of occupation. The houses here are all subterranean, as we saw in Phase A, and arranged in three clusters. Unlike Phase A, the buildings are not primarily circular, but sub-rectangular and rectangular in design. As one would imagine, they also show signs of improved construction techniques, such as in plastering, and the presence of well-built steps at entrances.
Building 60, at the northern edge of the settlement, is one of the better-preserved structures of Phase B. This coarsely designed, elongated semi-subterranean building measures 2.3 m. x 3 m. in size. Its interior wall was preserved to a height of 1.2 meters above the once-plastered floor; its double wall, filled with rubble, ranges from 40 cm. to 60 cm. in width and follows an irregular line. According to the reports, two small niches found toward the top of the east and west walls probably served as sockets to support a primary roof beam spanning the longer axis of the building. Access was gained through a half-meter wide stepped entrance on the northern side.
Building 61 is located slightly toward the south of Building 60 and appears to be somewhat contemporary with it; however, its layout reflects Phase B developments toward rectangular construction plans and is deemed to be of somewhat later construction. This building is not truly rectangular in that its corners do not form 90-degree angles; however, its corners are somewhat more sharply angled, and its walls are fairly straight. That this semi-subterranean building was built slightly later than Building 60 is also evidenced by the fact that it seems to rely on Building 60’s adjacent southern wall for support. Its floors are some 45 cm. higher than Building 60’s and its walls are preserved to a higher elevation—nearly 90 cm. in some places.
The walls of the building were constructed of stone cobbles and blocks The northern wall was two-stones wide, spanning some 60 cm. The rest of the walls appear to have been just one-stone wide, but excavators suggest the possibility that the subterranean portions were single-stone, and that above ground portions were double. As is typical of Phase B construction, the building stones are much smaller than those used in the circular buildings of Phase A. According to the reports, wall plaster was preserved only near the level of the floor. The floor itself was plastered, although its surface was poorly preserved. The plaster floor lipped onto the base of the walls and sloped upward at the corners. Apparently, several features and artifacts were discovered in this context, including a well-constructed rectangular platform, 50 cm. x 90 cm., was found west of the entrance against the northern wall. A smaller and rougher platform was found a meter to the southwest. Last, but not exhaustively, a stone bowl was recovered from the northwest corner of the building.
Entrance to Building 61 was gained at the north, next to the eastern side, which was disrupted by Nabatean terracing activities some six millennia later; so, while the north-south axis of the building measures 3.2 meters in length, we can only say that the east-west axis is at least 3.5 meters long as its exact length cannot be determined.