During the 2010 campaign at Fondo Paviani the survey of the northern part of the site and excavation of sector 2+2.1, previously investigated in 2008-2009, continued.

The survey, carried out using 5 × 5 m grid squares, covered an area of 550 m2. In line with what emerged during previous surveys, the material recovered seems to date to the period between the passage from the Middle Bronze to the Recent Bronze Age and the Final Bronze Age, with a prevalence of material dating to the later part of the Recent Bronze Age. Excavation took place in sector 2, situated in a key-point for the understanding of the overall evolution of the site, in fact it overlies an area where, thanks to the presence of a thick alluvial deposit USS 17 and 17b, presumably datable to the Iron Age, the levels relating to the final occupation phase and abandonment of the settlement are preserved. Here, excavation removed level US 19b covering and incorporating the dumps and clusters of pottery fragments which were the object of operations in 2009, thus exposing US 19c which presented numerous pyrotechnical structures, the main characteristic of this sector. In the central-northern part of the area the removal of US 19b exposed US 19c, which in correspondence with the sector in question presented the characteristics of a floor surface. In the central-southern part of this area a large cumuliform midden (SC1007) was uncovered, characterised by dumps of pottery, parts of fragmented vases in situ, large pieces of charcoal and baked clay and intact Unio shells (bivalve mollusc). This domestic midden showed no evidence of a floor surface and was thus probably related to palafitte structures. Chronologically it certainly falls within the late Recent Bronze Age. Whilst US 19b was being removed excavation continued of the hearth structures and hole US 318. The structure, characterised by a stepped profile, contained fill US317 constituted by large pieces of charcoal. This suggests that it may originally have been a post hole with an earth packing that was later used as a midden. Also within Sector 2, in correspondence with the northern edge, spits were dug in US19c mainly to check the relationship between this level and the sterile substratum US23. This led to the identification of the traces of several post holes, which could confirm that, in the site’s early phases, the area under examination was occupied by palafittes.

As regards Sector 2.1, the excavation concentrated on extending the cultivated layer US19a. Spits were dug revealing a sequence partially differing from that observed in Sector 2. In fact, in the area in question level US19b seemed more or less absent. However, the chronology was the same as that for Sector 2. In fact, US19a in Sector 2.1 was characterised by the presence of materials both from the later Recent Bronze Age – recovered from the underlying levels – and the Final Bronze Age. Of note is the fact that this level produced a nodule of un-worked amber, attesting the working in loco of this material, and a fragment of a figurine in red-painted plain ware pottery, perhaps a small idol a psi of the Mycenean type.