This campaign, undertaken by Milan University in collaboration with the Superintendency, concentrated on the vast complex, building Alpha, excavated during previous seasons (2011-2013), close to the curtain wall. The 2013 excavation area was reopened and extended into the surrounding quadrants.

Building Alpha
To date this building appears to be constituted by a row of three rooms A, B, and E (c. 5.50 × 12.50 m) on a north-south alignment, flanked to the west by two other rooms, C and G, one of which seems to be a portico© roofed with perishable materials. To the east was room D, which evidence for the use of fire and the presence of waste products suggests was a production area, and room F. It should be noted that the archaeological record was only completed in room A – which the presence of large storage jars for dry foodstuffs and good quality tablewares suggests was a larder/storeroom – and portico C, while the excavation of the other rooms remains to be completed.

The results from the 2014 campaign provided new data about the construction phases, of which there seem to have been two. Based on the dating provided by the pottery finds, the building’s first phase, with relative occupation layers, disuse and abandonment, well-documented in rooms A, C and D, dates to between the mid 6th century and the first decades of the 5th century B.C. (abundant monochrome and bi-chrome pottery, impasto, Ionian cups and residual mista and black glaze ware). The second phase, attested in room B trench 1, and the collapses of stone and brick/tile material, dates to the 4th century B.C., perhaps continuing to the first decades of the 3rd century B.C.

The existence of a second phase seems to be supported by the rebuilding of the wall crests in US 1023-1055-1029-1021using a different construction technique characterised by the use of smaller stones to form facings. This later phase probably saw a general reorganization of the building, with the addition of new roofing in durable material, as seems to be indicated by the substantial tile collapses documented in past and the present excavation seasons. The building seems to comprise a series of covered rooms (A, E, F, G) interspersed with open or semi-covered areas (B, C, D) with clear occupation evidence and where part of the production activities took place.

The continuation of the excavations should further clarify the building’s layout and the absolute chronologies for the occupation phases.