This season’s excavation, like those of 2016 and 2017, investigated the sector of public land situated west of the building constructed in the late 5th century B.C. in the area occupied in the archaic period by the sanctuary dedicated to Cavatha.

Previous excavations had revealed a chronological sequence, which from the sacred building of 530/20 B.C. continues until the Hellenistic period. A wall which, together with one found in 2003-2004, was identified as a slipway for dry-docking boats, situated inside a building with long narrow rooms that can probably be identified as a neorion.

Four trenches were opened in 2018 (L extension, LVI, LVII and LVIII). The previously documented sequence was present in the trench denominated L extension. The earliest phase dating to the last twenty years of the 6th century B.C. relates to the construction of a monumental building, still only partially legible in the robbing trenches that were opened a century later. In fact, the dismantling of its monumental structures (phase II) dates to the last decade of the 5th century B.C. The excavation revealed that the large wall, aligned N-W/S-E(US -5/18= US -162/18 saggio LVI), was dismantled first after which the entire area became a building site. Several structures were built directly on the macco stone floor make-up of the archaic temenos. These structures were probably built of perishable materials (UUSS da -152/18 a -159/18, -167/18, -168/18), and may be interpreted as a light structures (roofs?), or more probably as devices for raising blocks of dismantled macco stone.

At the same time as the robbing was taking place, craft-working/ construction activities also took place on the site, as several shallow pits (US – 152/18, circular hollow at the centre of the south edge of cut US -/18) in the macco floor, filled with detritus, burnt earth, sand, clay mixed with terracotta materials seem to suggest. The macco level was badly deteriorated and in some points fires were lit on it, which left slight traces of burning. In a subsequent period, the area was covered by a substantial layer of sand in turn sealed by large quantities of dumped earth mixed with charcoal and slag (US 20/18=US 108/18, US 111/18, US 4/187), the result of metalworking activity (also documented in trench LI in 2015), which closed this building site phase.

The third phase dates to within the 4th century B.C. and coincides with the levelling (US 19/18) that sealed the late 5th century B.C. raising of the ground level. The fourth phase (late 4th century B.C.) can be identified with a raise in the ground level (US 18/18) in phase with the construction used for housing boats (UUSSMM 51/15, 52/15, 53/15, 5/16, 6/16) mentioned above.