Since the demise of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, a single family has owned the parcel of land called Khirbet el-Araj. Today, that family has granted permission to a team of professors and 17 students from North Central University, along with Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, the Institute for Galilean Archaeology, and the Assemblies of God Center for Holy Land Studies, to begin an archaelogical survey of the site.
