The tenth excavation campaign at the castle of Donoratico produced important new information to add to the substantial weight of data from the last ten years.
The excavation, undertaken during June and July 2009, continued exploration of the south-western section of the settlement close to the well, one of the site’s main water sources. A stratigraphy was exposed relating to the occupation phases predating the installation of the building site for the castle’s earliest stone structures, datable to the second half of the 9th century. Of significance the traces of a circular structure built of perishable materials and sunken into the ground.
Excavation also continued in an adjacent room where the remains of a large hut had been partially uncovered in preceding campaigns. Built of mixed materials and dating to the 10th century, it indicates the importance of the site in the early medieval period.