Following a campaign of core sampling, “L’Orientale” university began work in the area of the northern fortifications, opening three excavation areas to the west of the central gate.

In area 1, corresponding to the central gate, the paved surface of the via Domitiana and a vast square, extending in front of the aulé of the ancient gate, came to light. A Roman mausoleum and a fountain served by a large underground cistern were also uncovered. The cistern had subsequently been transformed into a mausoleum. The northern head of the forepart, delimiting the aulé to the west and datable to the Hellenistic period, was also excavated. Next, the edge of the gate from the period of Aristodemus, was uncovered, whilst to the east of the entrance an L shaped structure was investigated. This perhaps related to an earlier gate. An enormous sewer dating to the period of Aristodemus was also examined.

Area 2 revealed the complete system of fortifications, heavily robbed in the pre-modern period, with a tower that projected with respect to the curtain of the Aristodemian period. The tower had a cruciform plan and was later incorporated into the construction of the Hellenistic doubling of the wall. The wall was abutted on the south side by a vast rectangular structure with a shaped base. This may have supported a stairway providing access to the walkway used by patrols inside the town. In the Graeco-Gothic period the structure was transformed into a workshop.

The opening of three trenches in area 3 revealed the line of the walls and the stratigraphy north of them: a substantial layer of earth had been placed up against the Hellenistic curtain wall, before it was robbed in late antiquity. South of the walls, a stairway of Republican date, over 50 m long and abutting the inner Aristodemian wall, functioned as a buttress and provided fast access to the walkway. When the walls lost their function a road was constructed in the space occupied by the stairway which obliterated the structure itself.