Following geophysical and surface surveys, during the first season (2017) trenches were opened in three sectors, which revealed a pre-protohistoric, Roman, and medieval sequence. This season, research concentrated on two sectors. In sector B, the excavation continued of a quadrangular platform delimited by a dry-stone wall (identified in 2017); in sector D an early Bronze Age phase was investigated.

Sector B

In sector B, at the edge of the ridge close to a geotectonic fault, excavation continued in the area of the quadrangular platform (c. 8 × 8 m). Constituted by a mass of stones, it was delimited on the downhill sides by two dry-stone walls over 1 m wide, and had a rectangular pit at the centre.

The earliest layer, exposed but not excavated, was a floor surface (US 1120) that sloped from north-west to south-east and was paved with flat stones and eroded rock with yellowish clay. It was covered by another floor surface (US 1119) bordered to the south by several stones (two courses of rocks in situ and two stones from the later south wall of the platform US 1113). Towards the north, this layer continued below other stones placed in a circular arrangement that was not investigated further as it extended below a large hornbeam tree trunk that remains to be removed. Towards the east, it extended some way below US 1111 and then disappeared.
This floor surface (US 1119) that pre-dates the construction of the platform, was associated with fragments of coarse impasto, attributable to a prehistoric phase, which will be investigated during the 2019 campaign.

Sector D2

A trench was opened on the south terrace (625 m a.s.l.) that joined trench D opened in 2017. The new trench was rectangular (12.60 m2) and on a SW-NE alignment. The stratigraphy was formed by a sequence of four main layers, eroded on the downhill side, resting on a sterile layer (US 1311). The first was a surface layer (US 1300) containing little archaeological material. Once this was removed a sequence of two layers appeared across the area (US 1307, 1309) formed by brown compact gravelly silt. These layers contained a good amount of pottery fragments, that overall was not very diagnostic. These levels were probably linked with the substantial transformations that took place on the summit area of Monte Castello in a post-Roman phase.

Subsequently, a clayey-silt layer was exposed (US 1319) that was particularly dark in colour and rich in archaeological material, many of which large pottery fragments broken in situ. In addition to pottery, terracotta and flint artefacts were also present. Among the pottery were fragments of a pottery beaker with a low carenation and a fragment of a handle with an “elbow bend” that can be attributed to the Polada Culture. A pyramid-shaped terracotta spindle whorl attests the practice of spinning, while part of a flint scythe attests agricultural activity.
The attribution to the Polada Culture and consequent dating to the early Bronze Age (2200-1600 B.C.) were confirmed by a sporadic find a triangular dagger blade.