In July 2008 the first excavation campaign took place at the Scogli di Apani within the territory of the Nature and Marine Reserve of Torre Guaceto. The Scogli di Apani are situated at circa 2.5 km south-east of the Torre Guaceto promontory and circa 400 m from the coast, covering an area of less than 2 ha. Paleo-environmental studies indicate that in this period the sea level was at least 3-4m lower than at present. Such conditions suggest the reconstruction of a context in which the present wide bay, south of the promontory of Torre Guaceto, would probably have been an extensive and lush coastal plain, with numerous pools of water fed by the Reale and Apani channels and with the islets (Torre Guaceto and the two forming the Scogli di Apani) being joined to the mainland.

The excavation looked at two different areas (circa 60 m2) revealing the presence of structures and materials belonging to a Middle Bronze Age village. Dwellings were indicated by post holes and abundant wall plaster, as well as by numerous fragmented impasto pottery containers on the floor surfaces. These huts, inside which numerous clay, bone, flint and semi-precious stone artefacts were also found, had been destroyed by a fire whose effects were clearly visible in the baking of the wall plaster, the presence of carbonised vegetal material and the re-firing and deformation of several pottery vessels.

Hut 1, of which only a small area (circa 3×3 m) was excavated in sector 1 of Trench A (quadrants D8/9), produced numerous impasto containers, mostly closed forms, fragmented in situ beside a large hearth slab. This had been renewed several times with the use of layers of pottery fragments and/or cobbles covered with a layer of clay. This evidence, associated with a small accumulation of carbonised acorns suggest that this space was destined for food conservation and/or preparation.

The remains of hut 2 occupied the whole of Trench B (quadrant G10), although the structure itself was certainly larger. Evidence of the hut comprised accumulations of plaster which had formed following the burning of the timber supporting structures, the presence of a beaten floor surface in which there were 5 post holes and, lastly, a large quantity and variety of artefacts found on the floor itself. The many impasto pottery vessels were mostly small and medium open forms used for food consumption. A number of bone spatulas and punches, bone and pottery spindle whorls, several flint implements and a number of semi-precious stone implements (hammerstones, millstones, small grindstones, small axes and a few objects of personal ornament) completed the finds. Two hearth slabs with a foundation layer of broken pottery were found side by side in an area that was perhaps marginal to the structure. A few metres to the south/south-west of hut 1 a stretch of what was possibly a cobbled pathway was uncovered running along the inner side of a dry-stone wall, presumably a defensive structure on the land side of the settlement. Today this wall is preserved for a length (north-west/south-east) of circa 15 m, has a maximum width (N-NE/S-SW) of just under 10 m and a maximum height of circa 3 m from foundation level. The remains of this structure can also be seen on the other islet of the Scogli di Apani.