Excavations have resumed on the settlement of Serra di Vaglio in connection with the restoration and development of the archaeological park. Excavations were conducted in the area of the north gate (previously explored in part) with the aim of verifying and defining the relationship between the city walls and the houses. The excavation area, which was given a preliminary examination by the geophysicists from CNR at Potenza, covered the areas on axis with the gate and in the proximity of the eastern part of the wall. The results showed that the gate had been positioned in an area occupied by dwellings. A small trench was opened in corrispondence with the eastern part of the gate, from which emerged the remains of a channel for draining rainwater, orientated on the same axis as the building discovered in 1988, cut and obliterated by the construction of the defensive walls. The trench was widened to the north and east revealing a large area of collapse comprising sandstone blocks from the fortifications which had fallen onto the remains of several houses. The collapsed tile roof and part of the walls of one of these houses were identified. The chronology ends within the first half of the 3rd century B.C., as in the rest of the Serra area.
The buildings were constructed sometime between the abandonment of the late-archaic necropolis (beginning of the 5th century B.C.) and the building of the fortifications (begining of the 4th century B.C.), which did not cause substantial modifications to the residential area, except for the destruction of the drainage channel. It should be noted, though with caution, that the orientation of this part of the settlement is analagous with that of the so-called “House of the Pithoi”, situated a few hundred metres from the gate but positioned on a different alignment from the structures which surround it. (Maria Luisa Nava)