In October 2008 two trenches were excavated in order to investigate evidence found during thee 2007 survey in an area north-west of the Masseria Tredicicchio.

Trench 1 uncovered levels of collapse from a kiln used for pottery and tile production, analysis of which dated its period of activity to towards the end of the 4th century B.C. The kiln was probably completely destroyed, perhaps due to land slippage phenomena, which are still the main geomorphological agents in this territory, and which caused the dispersal of the related finds across a rather wide area. The size of the layers of collapse and the substantial dimensions of the kiln’s structural elements (unbaked brick and other building elements in baked clay) suggest that this was a sizable structure. It must have been used for both pottery and tile production, mainly to satisfy the needs of the numerous rural settlements of Hellenistic date scattered across the territory, as shown by the surveys undertaken in previous years.

In trench 2, slightly north of trench 1, a circular kiln, diameter circa 2.40 m, came to light. The firing chamber was constituted by a thick layer of over-fired pottery and tile fragments. The thermoluminesence dating of a number of samples dated the structure to the Renaissance period. Its function remains uncertain (bread oven, for the preparation of live coals or for lime) as no materials were recovered.