An archeological excavation ahead of advancing highway construction crews in southern Israel turned up an 8,000-year-old Bronze Age settlement. Contractors working on a new trans-Israel highway asked the authority to carry out an exploratory dig at Ptora, in the archeologically rich region east of the town of Kiryat Gat, before earthmovers started ripping into the ground.
     The authority said remnants found at the 1.75-acre Ptora site showed that its Bronze Age inhabitants engaged in agriculture, copper production and the making of ceramics, and that they occupied the settlement continuously until about 3,000 BCE

Source: Ha'Aretz, Associated Press (20 August 2003)