During the 2017 campaign, work took place in two distinct sectors of this settlement, which has a long and multi-layered settlement history. Trench III began the exploration of so-called Insula XIX of the Roman town of Salapia. The excavations documented evidence relating to the latest occupation phases in this part of the town (from the late 6th century A.D. onwards), when huts built of perishable materials were built on top of the layers of collapse and abandonment of the earlier Roman structures. Two distinct re-occupation phases were identified, characterised by entirely timber-built structures, with beaten earth floors and hearths. Traces indicating intense robbing of the pre-existing Roman structures were of interest: numerous robber trenches for the removal of stone and brick used in the Roman walls were found across the investigated area.

Trench IV was excavated on the so-called Monte di Salpi, a manmade rise on whose summit plateau the local community, perhaps already in the 10th-11th century, reorganised its spaces and lived there until the threshold of the Modern age. In particular, the excavations uncovered a part of Salpi’s 13th century urban fabric, characterised by the presence of a probable via publica, which from the south hill slope headed towards the interior of the settlement. The road had undergone numerous maintenance interventions and it was at least 6-7 m wide. On either side of the road, two large buildings with substantial walls were identified and partially excavated. At present, it is not possible to establish whether they were private dwellings (tower houses?), public complexes, or part of the system of the perimeter fortifications that probably surrounded the entire civitas, as attested by the sources. It is certain that by the mid 14th century, the buildings in the entire sector collapsed: the characteristics of the related layers and, above all, the way in which the walls themselves collapsed seem to indicate traumatic and sudden damage caused by an earthquake.