In 2015, the second campaign continued excavations in the three sectors opened in 2014. On the Castle hill, work continued in trench A, situated in the courtyard of the large porticoed building in insula I of the central quarter. A new pit and other remains associated with the minting of bronze coins in the 3rd-2nd centuries B.C. were discovered. The area occupied by these remains covered most of the courtyard.
The rondels/blanks found this year were of a superior quality module compared to those found last year, suggesting the regular production of an atelier , rather than a single minting.

The destruction of the building dates to the late 2nd or early 1st century B.C. Several missiles (catapult balls and points, arrows) were found that can be attributed to a wartime event, which remains to be identified among the different possibilities.

In trench B, on the south slope of the hill, work continued on the stratigraphy inside and outside the Hellenistic insula that was identified last year. To the north, the excavations revealed homogeneous layers from the first decades of the occupation of Heraclea, pre-dating the urban reorganization that occurred in the early 3rd century B.C.

A pit was excavated that was filled with fragments of pottery dating to the early 4th century B.C. including sherds from two large red-figure Lucanian bell craters. Also present were pieces from an eaves drip in the form of a lion’s head, of late archaic date, and the rim of a matt painted bi-chrome jug.
To the south of the insula, layers of Hellenistic fill were excavated below the perimeter road.
The abundant pottery from these layers was characterised by a very high percentage (90-99%) of residual fragments dating to the late 7th and first half of the 6th centuries B.C. (cups with fine grooved decoration, Corinthian aryballoi, jugs, hydria, banded lekanides, chytrai mortars, loutaria, transport amphora….).
Among the most interesting pieces were two wasters of grooved cups and one fragment from an Enotrian vase. The in situ archaic layers have yet to be reached.

In the Varatizzo valley, investigation of the “archaic” temple continued. The zone was completely cleared so that a photogrammetric survey could be made.
An examination of the foundations suggested the existence of two construction phases, the first attested by a row of coarse limestone slabs and the second by small blocks of pudding stone and cobblestones.
Evidence from two trenches opened in the cella dated the first phase to the late 7th or early 6th century B.C., which corresponds with that of the Rosettendach (type of rosette decoration on architectural terracottas) of the 580s B.C. No new elements were found that could date the building’s reconstruction, which ought to correspond with the phase identified by the trenches excavated by G. Pianu in the peristasis, as well as to the series of architectural terracottas of the Classical period associated with the building.