Archaeological investigations continued in the area of the “Botteghelle” viaduct. Close to the sanctuary, dating to the between the end of the 4th and the end of the 3rd century B.C., a ditch over 15 m wide and over 6 m deep was discovered. Of difficult interpretation (drainage channel or collection of spring water?), it cut a natural depression. At a right angle to it there was a beaten earth road, made during the 3rd century B.C. Large squared tufa blocks and brick fragments came out of the channel, material probably relating to the destruction of the sanctuary, as well as coarse wares and black glaze pottery which dated the obliteration of the structure to between the 3rd-2nd century B.C.

As regards the Neolithic phase, the identification, both on the surface and within the ancient ground level below the “Flegrean B2” eruption, of the remains of intersecting plough furrows suggests that the agricultural use of this area was continuous. The zone must have been on the edge of a village whose inhabitants dumped their refuse here. The remains of the first phases of this settlement were also found. Once the ancient plough soil was removed, below a layer of earth mixed with material from the Mercato (7900 B.P., 6th millennium B.C.) eruption of Vesuvius, a floor was revealed constituted by the ashes from this eruption. Within the floor surface were four hundred post holes, numerous pits and ditches, six hearths in pits and a curved channel forming the housing for the foundations of a wooden enclosure, of which traces of the entrance were visible.

The settlement must have had a long life, with various alterations to the wooden structures, so much so that the proximity of so many post holes made it impossible to identify with any certainty the shape of the huts. The large quantity of pottery and evidence for stone working attested that, in this earliest phase also, the facies was that of Serra d’Alto-Diana (4th millennium B.C.).