In September 2018, after some years excavations resumed in the territory of Ferrandina (Mt), a small town in south-eastern Lucania. The birth of this site has remote origins and the first occupation dates to the 9th-8th century B.C. when a people of the Enotrian race (the Choni) began to settle there. The excavations are a collaboration between the University of Basilicata, IBAM-CNR Potenza and the local administration of Ferrandina.

SANT’ANTONIO A trench was opened at this site identified in 2006 during rescue excavations when water pipes were being laid.
The structures that came to light belong to an installation for oil production (in particular the area where the olives were pressed with channels and settling tanks), whose only phase of use is dated to between the 4th and early 3rd century B.C. by the materials recovered from the stratigraphy. The research group intended to re-examine this excavation area in order to evaluate the state of the structure (12 years on), to identify the installation’s extent, and to plan new excavations for the future. Based on what came to light, the structures appear to continue all around the trench area. In fact, the beaten earth floor extends to the west and south, while to the north other channels and walls seem to appear that are in some way connected. Immediately uphill from the area (c. 5 m), along the east side, the natural hill-wash has exposed in section part of a small stone wall, similar in construction technique to those of the cella olearius, and a layer of beaten earth similar to the one uncovered slightly downhill to the west.

However, despite their vicinity, there is a substantial difference in ground level height between these new structures that were not documented in 2006, and the previously excavated structures, which makes it very difficult, at present, to establish any stratigraphic relationships. In any case, it was decided not to intervene at this point precisely because it is crossed by the above mentioned drainage channel, which in the case of rain would have compromised any excavated remains. These considerations suggest that very probably the oil production installation is only a small part of a much larger rural complex of Lucanian date (4th century B.C.) made up of residential sector and a service-production sector. Moreover, given that the structures relate almost exclusively to the part of the installation where the pressing took place, it is probable that there must have been another structure in the immediate vicinity where the olives were crushed.