With the completion of work relating to the creation of the Ecomuseo dei Paesaggi di Pietra di Acquarica di Lecce an excavation campaign was undertaken on the Messapian-Roman settlement in the locality of Pozzo Seccato at Acquarica di Lecce, Vernole (LE). The excavation was carried out by the University of the Salento under concession from the Archaeological Superintendency.

The Messapian settlement of Pozzo Seccato is a fortified farm dating to the end of the 4th century B.C. It is completely surrounded by a substantial wall just under 4 m wide, dry-stone built and faced with large, squared limestone blocks.
Inside the walls a residential building was uncovered. Some of the rooms had domestic functions (reception room, kitchen, storeroom etc) and other rooms were destined for craft-working activities. The building had a two-story tower in its central part which was used for keeping watch over the surrounding territory as far as the sea, at least five kilometers away.
Another large room, 16 m long and about 8 m wide, situated up against the fortifications to the west of the main building, must have functioned as a warehouse for the conservation of agricultural products from the surrounding fields.

The most recent investigations undertaken by a team from the University of Salento, directed by Prof. Francesco D’Andria, Prof, Grazia Semeraro and Dr. Corrado Notario, uncovered the southern side of the fortifications on one of the pieces of land recently acquired from the local administration as part of the project (lot 115, sheet 52 of the Cadastral plan of the municipality of Vernole).

With the excavation of the southern wall the total extension of the settlement is now known and covers a surface area of just under 5,000 m2 (east-west side 72 m, north-south side 67 m). On the eastern side of the fortification the gate to the settlement was uncovered, next to which was a small room, or porter’s lodge, for controlling access.

At present part of the fortifications are under reconstruction so as to provide visitors with a better understanding of the settlement’s form. This involves the north, west and eastern fortifications in particular, which had already been partially investigated and reconstructed in previous years. On the north side of the fortifications the lowest levels of collapse from the external facing were reached. The facing comprised small tufa blocks (tufina) which are still visible along the alignment of the walls; only one block in very bad condition is still visible in the eastern zone. On the eastern side of the fortifications recently formed layers of earth and stones were excavated. The absence of archaeological evidence can be put down to ploughing.

On the western side of the fortifications a modern dry-stone wall was dismantled (U.S. 30 = 1066), and the layers of stones from the collapse of the internal wall of the fortifications were excavated. The north-south and east-west walls in the western area of the warehouse were identified and abandonment layers with elements still in collapse were excavated in their interior,

To the south of this building an arrangement of smoothed stones, similar to a paving was visible (1081) together with further layers of collapse, on which archaeo-botanical analyses have been undertaken. In the warehouse area a number of soil samples were taken and tested for high phosphate levels. The results were negative and thus confirmed the absence of animals within the structure and reinforced the hypothesis that it was in fact used as a warehouse.

Following the excavation, work on the reconstruction of the fortification’s internal dry-stone walls began. Reconstruction of the northern structure was completed, whilst the east and west sides are almost completed. On the west side a stretch of the external facing was reconstructed with the putting into place of four rows of large limestone blocks, quarried for this purpose. The work is due to be completed in December 2010 and the site opened to the public with the creation of a visitors route with information panels.