In June 2004 work for the creation of a commercial hub in the south-western sector of the territory of Frosinone led the Archaeological Superintendency for Lazio to begin a programme of research and rescue excavations in the locality of Selva dei Muli. Evidence for an Eneolithic settlement had previously been noted on this site.

From 2006 the Superintendency has undertaken a systematic and extensive excavation of the site which to date has investigated an ample portion of the Eneolithic settlement. The excavation revealed numerous remains relating to hut bottoms, external service structures and accessories, together with a ditch and lines of post holes relating to palisades.

A series of factors have heavily affected the site’s state of preservation: the high susceptibility to soil erosion, the natural phenomena of erosion and hill wash favoured by the settlement’s position at a height slightly above that of the lower terrain in front of it, the thinness of the layer covering the archaeological level and the intense agricultural use.

The ditch and palisades

The ditch delimits the settlement from south-west to south-east on a linear and slightly curving course.
At the time of the excavation it presented a “funnel-shaped” section throughout, but with notable differences in the section, with an opening circa 3.00 m wide and a maximum depth which reached 2.40 m. The fill was made up of two sub-horizontal or slightly concave levels which were continuous along the stretch investigated. The dark brown silt-clay sediments, were very homogeneous in structure, texture and colour. The pottery and rare stone artefacts present in the fill were more abundant in the upper levels, decreasing gradually in the lower levels to finally disappear.

The ditch appeared to combine the functions of water collection and drainage on the one hand and defence on the other, the latter reinforced by the construction of wooden palisades along the internal embankment.
Immediately north of the ditch the excavation revealed three sub-parallel rows of post holes relating to three palisades, probably representing as many phases of re-organisation or reconstruction of the defensive structure.

The dwellings and connected structures

Numerous post holes, probably relating to dwellings, were concentrated in the zone investigated to the north/north-east of the palisades.
There were also many pits, of varying sections and sizes, whose use is still not clear. Often, the pits were associated with small semicircular enclosures which may have functioned as shelters.
Another type of evidence was represented by a series of small non-habitable structures, with circular or elliptical plans (diameter circa 2 m) of which only the post holes for the perimeter posts were preserved. In some cases these structures appeared to function as service structures connected to the other structures described above.