Jazzo Fornasiello is the name of an old farm ( masseria ) with extensive structures for the sheltering of the flocks built in the 18th century at the feet of the cliffs of the Murgia at about 512 metres above sea level, between the territories of Gravina in Puglia and that of Poggiorsini in the National Park of the Alta Murgia. The site, along the provincial road SP 230 which links Gravina to Poggiorsini, lies on a karstic plain which marks the natural boundary between the high plain of the Murgia and the flat valley of the channel of the river Bradano.

The archaeological potential of the area was first highlighted by the survey conducted by the British School at Rome between 1968 and 1970. Air photography later confirmed the presence of a village, with a large walled circuit enclosing an area of circa 10 hectares. In recent years (2004, 2006, 2008) the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Puglia has carried out a series of exploratory excavations under the direction of dott.ssa Giuseppina Canosa.

Fieldwork, by the Università degli Studi di Milano in collaboration with the local Soprintendenza, recommenced in the autumn of 2009 aimed at a better understanding of the dimensions, the chronological development and the function of the vast building. Part of the latter (room A) had been brought to light in 2008, full of fragments of large dolia decorated with a band of relief decoration just under the rim of the vessels. This year excavations of room A continued and revealed that the total size of the structure was 4,20 × 5,60 metres, next to which two new rooms (B and C) were brought to light. Both rooms were covered by a substantial layer of collapsed masonry (40-80 metres thick), formed by the natural collapse of the structures of the building following its abandonment.

The removal of the collapsed masonry led to the recovery of numerous pottery fragments, some of which could be recomposed, above all relating to vessels of medium-large dimensions (mortars, basins and jugs), as well as a notable number of dolia fragments (at least four vessels). Open forms were much more rare and seem for now to consist of cups and skyphoi in black glaze, probably of metapontine production. The contemporary presence in the collapse layers of local monochrome and bichrome pottery and of ceramiche a fasce and in stile misto (pottery with bands of painted decoration and in a mixed style, together with some examples of ionic cups “B” of colonial production, allows us to date the phase of abandonment of the building to between the middle and the end of the 6th century BC. The same association of material is in fact well documented in the Peucetic area at Monte Sannace, Turi, Gravina, Altamura, and Polignano. The removal of the collapsed levels has revealed the dimensions of room B (5.60 m x 5,20 metres), while only the length of room C, which is still partially buried, has been brought to light, a wall measuring 11,20 metres in a NW-SE direction. Rooms A and B, are parallel to each other and linked by a threshold. The walls are constructed in roughly cut limestone blocks which have been smoothed on the visible faces, arranged so as to form two wall faces, filled on the interior by small, unworked stones bound together with silt. The investigation of the building will continue in autumn 2010.