Between October and November 2010, the first excavation campaign took place in the locality of Pagliarone near Otranto, on a rise west of lake Alimini Grande.

The excavation is part of a research project investigating the entire area of the Alimini lakes, settlement dynamics in antiquity and the environmental history of the two basins (Alimini Lake Project – PAL). This is a joint project between Salento University and the Istituciòn Milà y Fontanas.

The excavation investigated an area where a survey found Byzantine and Angevin pottery, a coin of Heraclius (610-614 A.D.) and noted the presence of several grain pits. Two trenches, A and B, were opened in the proximity of rock-cut rooms and abutting a line of un-worked stones. The removal of the humus in both trenches revealed that the line of stones was probably a post-medieval dry-stone structure delimiting the hill summit.

In trench A, the excavation reached a bank of rock along the south side of which there were traces of modern agricultural activity. The only evidence of earlier activity was a number of circular cuts in the rock bank situated along the southern edge of the trench. The pottery finds indicated that the area was occupied in the Byzantine period between the 8th-9th century, with a few fragments attributable to the 11th century.

Trench B was opened in correspondence with a crypt, and incorporated the remains of the dry-stone wall also seen in trench A. The wall was built on top of an accumulation of materials datable to the late medieval period (13th-14th century), corresponding with the site’s abandonment. These accumulations covered a series of walls belonging to a church that was already abandoned by the end of the 13th century.

The church, orientated east-west, had a apse with a double line of ashlar blocks. Its southern perimeter wall was traced for 4.50 m and was 0.60 m wide, built with a double facing of un-worked limestone alternating with ashlar blocks. The wall was interrupted to the west, where an outcrop of the natural bed-rock, probably used within the construction, was uncovered. The western perimeter wall was not identified. To the south of the southern wall, a structure in parallelepiped blocks was partially excavated. This was probably a room built abutting the church. It had a floor of limestone and calcarenite basoli on top of which lay the collapse of its tile roof.

During the excavation, a survey was made of the rock-cut space partially situated below the church. This was probably an earlier rock-cut church with two entrances, still visible, one on the west and one on the north side. The crypt (5.40 × 4 m) had a sort of “apse” cut into the rock on the east side and niches along the north and south sides. Incised crosses and patches of fresco were preserved on the walls.