Ten years ago the Società Friulana di Archeologia and the Civic Museums of Udine began a series of excavations in the upper castle of Attimis. The investigations uncovered the walls below the modern 1979 reconstructions. To date two phases of masonry walls have been identified.

The castle, mentioned for the first time in 1106, overlooked a road leading to the part of the patriarchy of Aquileia that was situated in the present day Slovenia and delimited the territory of Udine. Already in the first excavation campaign waste material from metal working and crossbow points were found in room A. The external wall had been rebuilt, in an area where the hillside was particularly steep. Two fragments of Hispano-Moorish pottery were also found in the room.

What was uncovered at the north-western end of the room denominated D proved to be of particular interest. Originally situated outside the castle perimeter due to a steep drop of many metres in the height of the bed-rock, the curtain wall was extended – not before the 14th century – to incorporate this space. The natural drop in floor level must have been filled by dumping many cubic metres of earth and rubble. Towards the north these dumping operations reached a height of 3.10 m. The dumps, perhaps also the result of restructuring following earthquakes or military action, contained worked stone already used in the construction of walls. There was also a large amount of pottery, at present being studied, with forms also dating to the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. There were a number of hearths in the various occupation levels, attesting that this space was residential. In 1998 a Frisacense coin of Eberhard I (1147-1164) was found, then in 2003 a Venetian scifato coin of Sebastian Ziani (1172-1178) and another of Orio Malipiero (1178-1192) together with a small 13th century coin from Padua were found. The room also produced glass and metal artefacts and pottery, including archaic majolica which provided important dating evidence (full 14th century).

A number of pottery classes have been partially published, in particular the monochrome glazed pottery (Cassani 2003b) and coarse ware (Cassani 2003a). Together with the large number of metal artefacts (see Vignola 2003) this material attests the particular importance of the castle, especially in the 14th century.

In room A, in 2008, the rudimental covering of a small channel was excavated. The channel drained towards the exterior, where a tank had been constructed within the supporting wall of this side of the castle. Discovered in 2006, this tank may have been destined for the collection of organic and liquid waste from the residential sector and for the water used in iron working processes. During cleaning, amongst the large amount of waste metal, numerous fragments of partially reconstructable coarse ware jars were recovered. Decorated “a scopetto”, the forms and decoration date them to within the 12th century. Laying amongst the pottery was a gold bulla of Alessio I Comneno, perhaps thrown there when it had already been separated from its parchment. It is 20-23 mm in diameter and weighs 8.45 gr. On the front is the usual figure of a nimbate Christ, with tunic and colobium and the Gospel in his left hand, with the legend IC-XC. On the reverse is a standing Emperor Alessio I Comneno with standard and orb with a cross on top. The legend, in the dative case, bears his name with the title d(es)pot(es) to Ko(mnenos).