The first excavations took place on the hill of Palecastro di Tortora between 1990 and 2007 and were reopened in 2016. The investigations involve large sectors of the Lucanian city of Blanda and the Roman colony of Iulia at Blanda, a small town that was the administrative, political and commercial hub of a larger territory at the mouth of the river Noce, occupied from the archaic period until the first half of the 5th century A.D. It was the seat of the bishop’s see until at least 743 A.D. The Enotrian and Lucanian phases are first represented by residual stratigraphy, and then by the remains of houses situated along plateia A and by the fortifications, which ran along the edge of the summit plateau, enclosing an area of 5 hectares.

The forum was built in the mid 1st century B.C. Its perfectly aligned piazza was bordered by buildings on three sides: on the north and south sides there were quadrangular shops with a portico in front and a fountain; the basilica stood on the south side. The Capitolium, with three temples of the Italic podium type (A, B, C), stood on the fourth side. The third temple, A, smaller and better-preserved, faced south and was set back compared to the facades of the other two. The temples and shops showed clear signs of destruction and partial rebuilding, presumably following an earthquake. In the residential area to the west of the forum (C, D, E), almost two entire insulae have been uncovered, separated by secondary roads, at right angles to the main west-east road.

The 2018 excavations saw work in the north-east and east sectors of the forum and also in the western sector outside the so-called Temple A. Here, the Enotrian phases of the settlement, datable to between the mid 6th and first half of the 5th century B.C., were uncovered for the first time.