This season completed the exploration of the area inside the abbey church. Five tombs, cut into the earliest floor level, were excavated. They contained the remains of one or more individuals (a maximum of three) without grave goods. The date of the tombs should correspond with those of the burials found in the “common grave”, dated by the numerous coins present to the 16th century.
The exploration of the space situated next to the presbyterial platform also revealed the presence of a wall that was perpendicular to the alignment of the church. The wall was associated with an opus signinum floor surface. In this point there was a thin friable yellowish layer, not present in other parts of the building, directly in contact with the opus signinum floor and associated with numerous pottery fragments. This first abandonment layer produced materials dating to between the 6th-7th centuries and the early medieval period. The finds included a pierced lamp handle with traces of reddish brown slip – to be interpreted as a late African imitation – and the wall of a jug with a coarse surface and arched decoration. The association of this material to the phases of the opus signinum surface’s disuse indicates that the church structures had partly reused the structures and surfaces of a pre-existing building that was in a state of abandonment.
The stratigraphy at the central entrance to the church was of particular interest thanks to the completion of excavation inside the “common grave”. The excavation, mainly carried out close to the cut, exposed traces of craft-working activity, probably bell making, as suggested by the numerous fragments of over-fired pottery, metal waste and the presence of a pit cut into a coarse opus signinum floor surface. This palimpsest remains to be fully-explored as the stratigraphy relating to the pit is covered by the early church floor.