The investigations were undertaken by the Società Xenia along both tracks of the “Linea a monte del Vesuvio” to the north-east of Naples. These looked at both the highest part of this area, characterised by healthy dry soils, and the lowest part, which in ancient times was probably a marshy environment as attested by the presence of a number of parallel channels of Roman date. Placed on a north-south alignment these were 80 cm wide and 1.20 m deep (pile 198-202).

A series of large and small channels were already evident in the early Bronze Age ground surface, below the deposit from the “pomici di Avellino” eruption, whose agricultural use appeared to have been underway since the Eneolithic period, as attested by fragments of impasto pottery with the typical tenons. This cultivation was the work of the inhabitants of a village situated in the area immediately north of the prehistoric channels. One of the huts below the volcanic deposits was completely excavated. The rectangular structure, with an apse on the north-eastern side, was on a north-east/south-west alignment and measured 5 × 12 m (pila 218d).