The remains of a large, late Neolithic hut (of the Diana – Bellavista type), a hearth and channels cut into the paleolithic strata below came to light on a plain at 640m a.s.l, situated below modern town and bounded to the west by the torrent Alli. At about 140m to the east, an area of circa 375sq.m has been investigated, revealing a stratigraphic sequence composed of late Neolithic (Diana-Bellavista type), early Bronze Age and Hellenistic levels (4th-3rd centuries B.C.) Thirteen pits of varying form and dimension, filled with fractured, calcified stones and substantial amounts of charcoal, date to the late Neolithic period. These may have been used for cooking large sides of meat, drying fish or meat, for smoking food, toasting cereals or firing pottery (as open-air kilns). These finds, spread over such an extensive area must indicate the presence of a late Neolithic settlement. A cemetery area, comprising 11 tumuli (2-6m in diameter), of which only the stone bases remain, dates to the early Bronze Age. The graves, housing mostly single burials, are shallow pits (20cm deep), dug into the Neolithic layer below. Most of the bodies were buried in a fetal position, lying on their left side, on a N-S axis, with the head to the south. The grave goods (impasto vessels which fit within the “Palma Campania” chronology), found in seven tombs, date the complex to the early Bronze Age.
The Hellenistic occupation of the the site is attested by the remains of a rural complex datable to between the 4th to 3rd centuries B.C. The structure was built without mortar, with a foundation of local limestone blocks placed upon a bed of small stones and cobbles, with insertions of brick fragments. (Maria Luisa Nava)