The site of Petrosa di Scalea is situated on the coastal promontory of the same name, next to Capo Scalea and the Baia dei Carpini. The 2017 excavations on the hill of Petrosa di Scalea investigated a site known as an archaic hut settlement attributed to an indigenous Enotrian culture, unique in the panorama of settlement in southern Italy. In fact, today a number of necropolis areas, for example Tortora, Palinuro, Rivello, and other settlement contexts are known that are attributable to the Enotrians who arrived on the coastal promontories of the Gulf of Policastro during the 6th century B.C. from the Agri and Sinni valleys and the Vallo di Diana. The settlement model of Petrosa di Scalea was reconstructed based on the materials found in the layers of collapse and presumed floor levels, excavated in spits. The huts had stone footings with walls in perishable materials, as was the roof, perhaps plastered with clay, and a beaten earth floor. The site, according to P.L.Guzzo’s reconstruction was occupied from the early 6th century B.C. until its abandonment between 510 and 500 B.C., in correspondence with the end of the commercial empire of Sybaris, as is documented in other Enotrian contexts on the Tyrrhenian coast.

In order to gain further details, new stratigraphic and planimetric data about the presumed settlement model, and implement the results from the old excavations, it was decided to open new trenches in continuity with the two areas excavated in 1975.
The intervention started with one of the 1970s trenches, the so-called south trench, in which Guzzo identified a hut dwelling datable to between the early-late 6th century B.C. The old trench was extended to the south by about 2 m and to the west by about 5 m, exposing a stratigraphic sequence with levels of very compact reddish soil with gravel between them. The materials date the sequence to between the second half of the 6th century B.C. and the first decades of the 5th century B.C. (numerous fragments of Bloesch C type kylikes, Ionic-Massaliote amphora, Ionic cups type B2, in addition to numerous fragments of table and kitchen wares, and impasto, and a significant quantity of large impasto containers). Taking into consideration the substantial west-east slope these layers abutted a wall that was situated up against a notable change in height on the slope, accentuated by work carried out in the 70s for the creation of a road leading to a quarry. The wall, 3 m wide in the north section of Guzzo’s excavations and over 4 m wide in the south section and c. 1 m deep, was made up of an interior facing of small worked blocks and a compact émplekton of local Dolomitic limestone, resting on a natural rock outcrop, while the external facing was only partially discernible.

This structure, probably functioned as a containing wall but also delimited the inner space of the hill and must have enclosed the east side of the Petrosa hill forming the perimeter of the Enotrian settlement whose structures were perhaps situated on the hilltop that is now completely eroded.

In 2018 investigation took place on the hill summit and on the west side, which slopes gently, while to the south a large structure used as a discotheque in the 70s, occupies the central area of the plateau thus prejudicing the preservation of the site in this sector. The survey area was divided into 21 squares 40 × 40 and 20 × 20 m for a total surface area of c. 8400 m2. The ground was heavily eroded on the summit, and the visibility was not good which meant that only modest amounts of material per square were recorded, mainly archaic impasto and coarse ware pottery, in addition to wall plaster in squares Q14 and Q15, those with the most material and corresponding with the hill summit and the suggested residential area.