The site—situated south of Bethlehem—is nicknamed Tel Beit Betzi and includes the remains of an elaborate fortress dating back to the Hasmonean dynasty during the Roman period. Excavations completed in the 1980s uncovered a bulwark constructed following the battle of Elasa in 160 B.C.E., in which Hasmonean rebel leader Judah Maccabee was killed.

Yaron Rosenthal, director of the Kfar Etzion Field School, said that although “diplomatic agreements left the former settlement in Area A (which is under PA control), there’s no reason for our nation to abandon the cultural legacy from the time of the Maccabees’ rebellion.”