On the basis of the research undertaken to date and in order to provide answers to the many questions posed by the nature and lay out of the settlement, several areas in three different zones of the castle were chosen for investigation. The excavation was undertaken thanks to the effort of Ivano Fabbri in the picturesque surroundings of the Parco del Carné.

This year the archaeological investigation continued in the summit area (sector 1000), where a number of structures belonging to the late medieval and Renaissance castle were brought to light in 2007. These lay below collapse and abandonment levels dating to the end of the 16th century. The main aim of this trench was the identification of the structures connected with the castle’s first occupation phases. Research undertaken in other settlements of the same date, in nearby Tuscany, and the discovery of a large amount of residual pottery identified within the 16th century layers on the summit, indicated the possibility of recognising these first phases, documented by written sources, precisely in this sector of the excavation. In fact, trench 1000 produced archaic majolica to be associated with the construction of the castle in the 13th century, but also unglazed domestic ware datable to the 10th and 11th century.

In this sector (90 m2) structures pertaining to the castle’s courtyard and several perimeter walls of the 16th century building were uncovered. Inside the courtyard the entire system for water collection was found still standing. This comprised two cisterns covered by brick vaults separated by three vertical wells, with truncated conical sections, over 5 m deep. The courtyard was paved with cobbles and beaten earth.
These structures belonged to the late medieval and Renaissance castle.
The rooms inside were gradually abandoned from the last decade of the 16th century onwards. The deposit covering the structures comprised circa 2m of stratification. Below this were numerous burials, placed on the paving of the rooms. In most cases the skeletons were disarticulated, probably as a result of the amassing of bodies or parts of. Taking into consideration the associated pottery a preliminary interpretation of this event may be that the castle’s inhabitants were the victims of a military reprisal on the part of Papal troops in 1591, an event amply described by contemporary sources.
The stratigraphy below this occupation phase was not excavated and constitutes one of the main objectives for future excavation campaigns.

A sector of approximately the same dimensions (80 m2 – sector 2000) was opened within the western quarter of the fortification, at the base of the castle. In this area a long wall of chalk blocks and mortar came to light. This crossed the plateau and the settlement area from the summit to the south as far as the opposite end at the northern edge of the castle. Here, according to the plans published by G. Cavina in the volume “Antichi fortilizi di Romagna”, there stood a round tower.

The excavation also revealed the existence of a large building datable to the 13th century. Delimited to the east and west by two wide walls of plaster blocks bonded with strong mortar and articulated by imposing rectangular buttresses. The building occupied the entire western sector of the settlement and probably had a defensive function. Only next year’s excavations will provide a full understanding of the structure’s function and the identification of the flooring and possibly of the first strata to sediment in the area. The building seemed to have been abandoned from the 15th century onwards. In fact, there were no material finds of a later date, whilst there was an abundance of 13th and 14th century pottery.

The last sector (sector 3000; 40 m2), was opened in the eastern quarter of the settlement, near the edge of the plateau. It is suggested that part of the line of the castle’s defensive walls stood here. The excavation, together with the cleaning of a vast expanse of the walls in chalk blocks visible at the edge of the castrum, led to the identification of several late medieval dwellings and of an earlier fortification made of wood, of which negative traces were found cut into the bedrock. These were associated with several layers containing 10th century pottery, the period to which the first written documentation regarding the fortified settlement dates.