Continuation of work on the site involved the widening of trenches I and II that were opened last year.
A settlement came to light comprising huts with an apsidal plan, stone footings and walls in clay mixed with straw. The terminus ante quem for its construction can be placed in the 6th century B.C.
Inhumations, dating to the second half of the 6th century B.C., are present in the same area: one burial was excavated which contained a female in a fetal position. The tomb group was composed of local pottery with geometric decoration and Greek imports, as well as personal ornaments in bronze, silver, amber and glass paste. A second burial dating to the 6th century B.C. contained an infant, a third grave was very badly disturbed.
In the eastern sector of the excavation trench I was widened to the south. Investigations continued of a pit, of irregular plan, filled with a series of deposits which contained black glaze cups, plates and jugs and small heads and figurines representing female divinities, amongst which was a standing Aphrodite. The new finds confirm the dating of the sacred area to between the second half of the 4th century B.C. and the end of the 3rd century B.C.
In the northern part of the trench several stretches of wall and layers of collapse from the sanctuary were revealed; the southern side of the sanctuary has been uncovered together with the walls of a building which stood outside its limits. These walls delimit the square oikos.
These investigations revealed that this structure is not, as previously thought, a pair of buildings (square oikos and rectangular banqueting hall) but is more complex, comprising several porticoed rooms arranged in a “U” around the square building, which in this way was contained within a space that was closed on three sides, with covered rooms and narrow porticoes on the exterior. (Maria Luisa Nava)