This season excavations took place in the Western and Southern quarters that occupy the south side of the city on the lower slopes of the acropolis.

South Quarter

Research concentrated on the phases between the Hellenistic and early imperial period.
Trench 02.15, opened in 2016, was completed with the investigation of the phases of use and construction of a wall in parallelepiped blocks of flysch, which divided two rooms of a dwelling situated in the northern sector of insula A.III. The rooms, identified in the 1980s, presented an opus signinum floor, of which only a few traces were preserved, on top of which was a second phase in gravel.

Trench 02.16 was opened in correspondence with the last north-eastern stretch of the via di Porta V, in order to investigate the road’s phases. There was no evidence for a stone-paved road surface. The stratigraphic sequence was disturbed by alluvial events. The chronology reached the middle imperial period.

Trench 03.5 confirmed the presence of insula A.IV, to date only suggested as part of the nucleus of Hellenistic buildings situated in correspondence with a section of the fortifications “B west”. The small excavation area revealed a very close alluvial sequence, analogous to those seen in other trenches excavated in the area. The structures appeared coherent with the alignment of the adjacent insulae A.I-A.III and the via di Porta V. Although little of the walls was preserved, the construction technique using small parallelepiped blocks of flysch was the same as that documented in the Hellenistic houses in the lower city.

Western Quarter

Trench 11000, which was opened in 2016, revealed evidence of a road. In order to better define the topography and stratigraphic sequence, the trench was extended towards the east. The excavations identified the eastern edge of the road (badly preserved), constituted by reused sandstone blocks, which followed the same curved line as the west side that was identified in 2016. The gravel/stoney road surface, extremely patchy due to the action of hill wash, was laid over levels of soil mixed with gravel and brick/tile fragments that levelled the surface of the natural sandstone bedrock, which was concave probably due to the action of unregimented water. The road seems to date to between the mid to late imperial period.