Archaeological investigations continued in the area of the “Botteghelle” viaduct. Near the sanctuary, datable to between the end of the 4th and the end of the 3rd century B.C., a ditch over 15 m wide and 6 m deep was found. Difficult to interpret (drainage channel or collection of spring water?), it cut into a natural depression. Perpendicular to the ditch was a beaten earth road, laid down during the 3rd century B.C. Large squared tufa blocks and brick fragments emerged from the fill of the channel, probably relating to the destruction of the nearby sanctuary, as well as coarse ware and black glaze pottery, which dated the obliteration of the structure to between the 3rd and 2nd century B.C.

As regards the Neolithic phase, the identification, both on the surface and within the ancient ground level, below the “flegrea B2” eruption, of intersecting plough lines suggested the area was in continuous use for agricultural purposes. The area must have been at the edge of a village whose inhabitants dumped their rubbish there. The remains of the first phase of this settlement were also found. Below the ancient ground surface with the plough lines was a layer of earth mixed with the products of the “Mercato” eruption of Vesuvius (7900 B.P., VI millenium B.C.), which in turn overlay a surface formed by the ashes of the same eruption. In this surface there were four hundred post holes, numerous pits and holes, six hearths in pits and a curving channel which housed the foundations of a wooden enclosure of which traces of the entrance were visible.

The settlement must have been occupied for a long time, the wooden structures being re-managed several times, so much so that the close positioning of the very numerous post holes made it impossible to identify the shape of the huts with any certainty. The abundance of pottery and stone finds showed that, even in this earliest phase, the facies was still that of Serra d’Alto-Diana (4th millennium B.C.).