Excavations were undertaken between the 28th May and the 29th June over an area of about 150 m2 on the north-eastern and south-eastern sides of the site. Excavation inside the breach in the north-eastern curtain wall revealed part of the fill and the wall’s construction technique showing that it was built directly on the bedrock. The pottery found in the earth that had accumulated on the lower course of the internal curtain wall and on the bedrock at the western end of the breach did not provide any definitive dating for the structure. Further digging in the interior of the perimeter wall ascertained the presence of a parallel structure, built of large squared boulders on the south side and of uncertain identification. An almost complete miniature olpe was found in a patchy area of the lowest layer abutting the perimeter wall. However, it was not possible to distinguish a sequence of occupation layers. Further south, below the covering of sediment, the excavation exposed a more substantial deposit possibly relating to an abandonment or destruction horizon. This covered a post hole and occupation evidence (or perhaps dumps used to level the uneven surface of the bedrock). This layer contained a fragment of an iron javelin or sauroter head, a bronze coin of Dionysius I of Syracuse with a head of Athena/seahorse (405-367 B.C.) and a bronze utensil (a fork or perhaps a surgical instrument?). Another coin from Syracuse and a large quantity of the same types of pottery, including both kitchen wares and transport amphorae with thickened lip and almond-shaped rims, presumably made at Locri, were found in the lowest layers overlying the bedrock. Also of note the presence of tegula and imbrex fragments, mainly small, whose rarity in the surface layers seems to be due to robbing which continued until recent years.

Lastly, the extension of the excavation identified a stretch of the south-eastern perimeter wall, of the same width (circa 2.5 m) as its parallel on the north-eastern side. This evidence and the remains of the defensive wall on the eastern side of the summit, suggest that the settlement of Monte Palazzi (now identified as a phourion, according to the hypothesis formulated by S. Settis in 1972) had a quadrangular plan covering an area of over 1000 m2. The pottery found in the layers covering this wall did not go beyond the mid 3rd century B.C., which probably represents the site’s final occupation phase. The increasing quantity of amphorae (presumably from Locri) supports the attribution of the complex to Locri Epizeferi and of the extension of the chora of Locri to the north of the Vallata del Torbido from the beginning of the 5th century B.C.

For a comprehensive account of the archaeological investigations at Monte Palazzi, please visit the online exhibition at: www.digcalabria.org (under: Gallery)