The 2008 campaign on the defended site of Fondo Paviani undertaken by the University of Padua’s Dept. of Archaeology concentrated on two fronts. Firstly, the opening of two sectors of open area excavation at the points which the analysis of the east-west section undertaken in 2007 had identified as key to the full understanding of the site’s occupation phases and the evolution of the perimeter system. Secondly, the extension of the survey and intensification of surface checks in adjacent areas.

The first sector (sector 1) covering an area of 49 m2 was opened across the inner face of the great embankment and the strip that was presumably occupied by the outermost dwellings. Given the complexity and importance of the archaeological evidence which emerged in the other area (sector 2) the investigations here were interrupted immediately after the removal of the modern plough soil and postponed. Despite this it was seen that the levels relating to the final occupation phase, locally datable to the Recent Bronze Age, were perfectly preserved. Although partial, this data is significant as it clearly indicates that, with the transition to the Final Bronze Age, the internal organisation of the site underwent a substantial transformation. Sector 2 (55 m2) was opened in an internal area of the site, where, thanks to the presence of a deep alluvial deposit, the levels relating to the settlement’s final occupation phase had not been touched by ploughing. Given the complex stratigraphy it was not possible to reach the sterile substratum and an analysis of the first settlement was postponed until the 2009 campaign.

Although it was not possible to define the characteristics of this occupation horizon, it was seen that during the Recent Bronze Age the area was not occupied by dwellings but by a substantial number of hearths and work surfaces of baked clay, presumably relating to production activities. It was also shown that during the Final Bronze Age this area was occupied by vegetable gardens and/or fields. The systematic survey, in this case also undertaken using a grid of 5 × 5 m squares, covered an area adjacent to that surveyed in 2007, covering a total of 11,500 m2. However, numerous surface checks were also carried out in bordering areas. From a chronological point of view the materials recovered date to the transition from the Middle Bronze Age 3/Recent Bronze Age and the beginning of the Final Bronze Age, thus confirming the precision of the dating proposed on the basis of the analysis of materials from the east-west section 2007. However, the most significant result from the survey was the recovery of vitreous semi-finished pieces and waste materials and, above all, of a further sixteen fragments of Aegean-Myceneaen plain ware pottery.