The excavation of the southern section of the walls of Aveia, undertaken in July 2011, confirmed that, in antiquity, the meeting point between the stretch delimiting the “upper city” and that coming from the “lower city” made use of a substantial natural difference in height. In fact, the foundation of the sector coming from the “lower city” was reached at 2.30 m below present ground level, which was artificially created by modern agricultural terracing. The same agricultural operation also completely uncovered the deep foundations (average height 2.50 m) of the wall surrounding the “upper city”, presumably the site of the arx of Aveia. In the post-antique period, one or more landslides buried most of the stretch of wall coming from the “lower city”, guaranteeing its preservation prior to the systematic robbing to which all this part of the walls was subjected. Unlike the walls of the “upper city”, made of small polygonal blocks, the facing of this sector – perfectly preserved in the excavated part – was built in uniform opus reticulatum. This indicates that diverse building sites were working at the same time and operated in complete autonomy, choosing from among the revetments in fashion at the time those deemed most suitable to the building’s function: the decorative type on the stretch in the “lower city”, more structural than that used to enclose and support the arx.

Lastly, the excavation uncovered a lime-kiln, created to deal with the stone robbed from the corner formed by the meeting of the two sections of wall. Thanks to the excavations undertaken between 2009-2011, the walls of Aveia have been inserted into the plan for the recovery of Fossa’s monuments: the town at present is still abandoned due to the damage caused by the earthquake of the 6th April 2009.