In 2010 as part of the programme for the study and protection of the archaeological remains of ancient Aveia, a laser scan was made of the south-western section of the curtain wall protecting the “high” part of the town and built along the steep slopes of Monte Circolo. This stretch of the fortifications, built in opus caementicium, preserved for a length of circa 250 m and standing to an average height of 3 m, had not been previously recorded in detail, despite the fact that the facing, built in a sort of “small polygonal masonry”, has survived almost intact. A small trench, dug at the point where the wall bent to form an obtuse angle, demonstrated that this anomalous alignment had been conditioned by a notable change in the level between the “lower” and “upper” parts of Aveia (from 575 to 600 m a.s.l.), which in fact isolated the summit, probably constituting the arx.

The clearing back of the dense vegetation which had formed over the last thirty years revealed, behind a stretch of the Roman fortification completely robbed in the medieval period, the remains of an earlier substructure in polygonal walling. On the basis of the construction technique and the stratigraphic relationship with the cement fortification, this structure can be dated to the pre-Roman period, although at present it is not possible to be any more precise regarding construction date and function.