Recent archaeological investigations undertaken by the Superintendency of Agrigento brought to light part of a late antique and proto-Byzantine village in the locality of Canalicchio di Calamonaci.

The village is situated on a slight slope in the hills in the hinterland crossed by the river Verdura and its tributaries, in contrada Canalicchio, between the towns of Calamonaci and Lucca Sicula. A spring to the north-east certainly favoured settlement here.

Three structures were identified, all on a similar alignment. In the largest trench a single roomed unit and a complex of at least four rooms came to light. The final occupation phase of the complex can be dated by the latest finds from the layers of rubble from the upper parts of the walls and the layer of collapse, to between the end of the 6th and beginning of the 7th century A.D. (African amphorae types Keay 62, 61, 34, Sidi Jdidi , ARS Hayes types 91D, 99, 104 A e B). However, also present in the collapse, as well as in the surface layers, there were finds datable to within the 5th century A.D. (African amphorae Keay types 25, 35, 57, spatheia, ARS Hayes types 59, 61B, 80). Considering the stratigraphic data from one of the rooms, Room II, which documents the reuse of the structures, it may be suggested that occupation began in at least the 5th century A.D.

The presence of impasto pottery in the layers on top of which the late antique settlement was built suggests the hypothesis that the area was occupied from as early as the prehistoric period.

The site, certainly agriculture based, probably represented a small collection point for the local populations where dry foodstuffs were collected and goods from the outside were exchanged, as suggested by the large amount of amphora fragments, mainly African, found during the excavation. Several millstones imply that agricultural products were transformed for auto-consumption. The vicinity to the river and sea suggests that the village may have been part of a network of villages organized into an economic system that was projected towards the exterior through the various coastal sites identified within this geographical area, such as those of contrada Carabollace and
contrada Verdura at Sciacca.