This season, the University of Naples “L’Orientale” continued the exploration of the late archaic domestic building, which, discovered in 1987 and investigated in 1994 and 1996, was partially re-exposed in 2017.
In 2018, the fill was removed from the only known room of the domestic complex. This large room, 8 m N-S x 4.50 m W-E, was built in double rows of small limestone blocks and the entrance was positioned to the south. This room had already been identified as an andron as it contained the remains of a banquet and pottery assemblage attributable to a symposium.

The exploration inside the room identified the level at which the 1994 excavations halted. In fact, the archaeology still corresponded with the final occupation phase of the Greek house (c. 500-480/70 B.C.) as attested by the numerous fragments of black glaze pottery visible at the surface. The latter were part of the furnishings present in the room at the time of its abandonment that has been dated, based on earlier excavations, to the first half of the 5th century B.C.

In the southern part of the room, the trench excavated in 1987 was emptied: it had led to the discovery of the entrance to the room, a stone bench abutting the south wall and the beaten earth floor datable to the structure’s first phase, within the late 6th century B.C.

Several occupation levels were identified east of the andron, which had not previously been explored, containing pottery (cooking wares, coarse wares and black glaze ware, both local and imported Attic vessels including fragments of kylikes and two miniature unguentaria) datable to the first decades of the 5th century B.C. However, it is not clear whether these layers belonged to a room adjacent to the banqueting hall or an open area, as suggested by the presence of a stone channel. The latter, identified in 1987 and uncovered this year, had in fact been dated to the first decades of the 5th century B.C. In the same zone, slightly further east, another length of a stone channel emerged, running north to south and parallel to the room’s east wall, which appeared to join the other one. This feature appeared to relate to the water supply structures of Roman date that were explored, in 1996, in the sector north of the archaic room, rather than to the archaic house.

The aim in continuing the excavations is the systematic exploration of the room/_andron_ down to the level of the first construction phase, dating to about the mid 6th century B.C., and the identification of the western and eastern limits of the domestic building. Based on a series of clues that emerged during previous investigations, the perimeter of the building should be marked by two parallel walls on a north-south alignment, positioned a few metres west and east of the banqueting hall.