VENERATION BELOW. A cave complex on the south slope of the site—found by accident at the end of the first excavation season—solidifies Khirbet Cana’s identification as the New Testament Cana, according to author McCollough. The opening of the cave complex, which lay at the base of a fig tree, revealed a first cave covered with layers of plaster dating from the Byzantine through the Crusader periods (415–1217 C.E.). While only the first cave has been excavated, archaeologists discovered that the cave was part of a larger complex of at least four interconnected caves.