In year 2013, research took place in Broglio from September 12th to October 4th.
Excavation activity stopped in trench 7, focusing instead only over the “central hut” remains, i.e. trench D of 1979-1985 excavations, now renamed trench 13. This choice was determined by the activities for the realization of the Archaeological Park at Broglio, that required to provide definitive data about the area, before preparing it for the realization of the visitors’ facilities. A horizontal panel, bearing a clear reproduction of the underlying features, had to be installed over the excavation area, providing information for the public and sheltering the archaeological features underneath.

The “central hut” is the major habitation found on the so-called ‘acropolis’ at Broglio, i.e. the highest plateau of the geomorphological complex of marine terraces, hosting the site. The hut was built inside an artificially cut terrace, as typical of the Broglio settlement. Former research on the hut started in 1980 and lasted until 1982, providing the most relevant association of Aegean-derivative pottery of the Recent Bronze Age, discovered so far.

The excavation had stopped on the floor and a sub-rectangular potsherd pavement hearth had been left under the excavation fill. In the following years (1983-85) excavation was expanded on the same artificial Bronze Age terrace, identifying layers older, coeval and later than the hut (D west and D east trenches). SW corner of trench 2 of the 1990-1994 excavations was partially superimposed upon the D East trench (1983-85); present trench 13 included all the hut (trench D, 1980-82) and the western part of the D east trench (1983-85).

Excavation in trench 13 first exposed and cleaned the hut floor. The partial preservation of the use floor (layer “1B battuto”), as identified in the former excavations allowed its sampling for micromorphological analysis.

The structured hearth was seen decaying, and it was therefore carefully removed, with the help of Vincenzo Covelli (Soprintendenza archeologica della Calabria) for both future exhibition in museum, and in order to study the pottery association and the construction of the potsherd pavement, following established procedures. The potsherd pavement under the burnt beaten clay lining was rather rough in construction and, differently from all the other potsherds excavated so far, it contained a relevant percentage of open-shaped pots (e.g. bowls), and some wheel-thrown grey ware and Italo-Mycenaean pottery as well. Generally, potsherd pavements are realized with jar walls, tightly laid to form a compact layer.
Slightly west of this feature, a second potsherd pavement was identified, whose shape was elliptical, and that bare scanty superimposed traces of a formerly existing burnt clay floor. The feature was interpreted as a second hearth, that had been only partly identified in the 1980-82 excavations; it was clearly covered, and damaged, by the laying of the main hut floor, and thence older. This potsherd pavement was carefully organized, almost exclusively made of broken jar walls and it contained one single grey ware sherd, as for Aegean-derivative pottery.
It is rather clear that the terrace where the Central Hut was found had hosted a number of structures, rebuilt almost one over the former, but also some displacement occurred. More specifically, the rebuilt huts progressively “migrated” west from their earliest location, dating to the Middle Bronze Age, and the terrace slightly expanded northwards. On the north-western side of the terrace, an ancient collapse of the vertically cut natural slope was identified, as a consequence of localized erosion, probably caused by the ancient Bronze Age roof water discharge, during the use of the hut or immediately after its abandonment. A full cup in grey ware, lacking only the broken handle, was found in this erosional deposit. It is not possible at present to interpret this situation as a votive one, but the possibility has to be considered.

In trench B of the 1979-85 excavations (renamed as trench 1 in 1990), a sampling column was realized, in the eastern profile, corresponding to the eastern side of the 1979 trench. Samples for micromorphology, soil chemical and pollen analyses, were recovered.

Comprehensively, the new evidence helps understanding the complex history of the ‘central hut’ and, more generally, of the settlement terraces at Broglio.