This season excavations took place in an area of the walled cemetery, adjacent to the 2006-’08 excavations, outside the island’s military curtain wall, parallel to the south wall, an area close to and at one time communicating with the island’s church (S. Bartolomeo). The excavations aimed to check the peripheral position of the cemetery area, which in some circumstances such as the two great plagues that occurred in Venice in the 16th and 17th centuries, must have been used as a common grave, the perimeter wall forming a large container. Studies have shown the substantial quantity of human remains it held. Future excavations will investigate the lower stratigraphy and reconstruct a demographic profile for the site, identifying the cemetery’s perimeter wall.

As regards the trench in the area of the “casello della polvere” (gunpowder deposit), the excavation aimed to extend the research undertaken between 2010 and 2014, inside the wall separating the gunpowder deposit from the rest of the island that was used as a lazaretto.
The archaeological research undertaken over the years in this area, which is situated in the south-eastern part of the island, seemed to indicate it was the site of the early medieval settlement of Vigna Murada. This is also suggested by the presence of the nearby cemetery and relative vicinity of the entrance with the “cavana” (covered boat shelter), visible in some historical representations of the island.
The latest structures, attributable to the “camere di contumacia” (quarantine quarters) and the wall delimiting the first courtyard of the gunpowder deposit, stand on these earlier structures.

The excavation of trench 4, begun in 2015, aimed to check the continuation of the walls of the “camere” uncovered in previous years, clarify their relationship with the military building and check the effective entity of the earliest sandstone structures, defining the relationships between the different sections that were uncovered in the church area.
The excavations removed the levels pertaining to the latest phases, relating to the military use of the island, which from the Napoleonic and Austrian occupation continued until the 1970s, when the island returned to the public domain.