As a result of a preliminary survey in 2000 a series of rescue trenches were dug in the vast area occupied by the ex-maintenance workshops of the “Cogne” company. In fact the area was next to the Porta Decumana and the pagan necropolis situated outside the walls, later reorganised into a cemetery and Christian cult area.
The structures found in the north-western sector belong to a late Roman building (4th century A.D.), probably a rural dwelling. A wall that had completely collapsed survived subsequent robbing and demolition preserving an opening defined by an arched lintel made of bricks, comparable to the openings in the towers along the city walls. The wall itself was constituted mainly by small stone elements: where the courses were still intact some tracts in a herring-bone pattern were visible, a technique also attested in the walls of the religious and funerary buildings that stood in the area around the same period.
Other investigations in the north-eastern sector brought to light a wooden cistern for tanning hides. This was situated inside a structure near a canal. The workshop, datable to the late 16th century, probably had a mill for the exploitation of water power. The course of the medieval rives, which replaced the Roman canals, was scattered with these structures. In particular the Colliard, marks in the close vicinity of the area under examination, the site of the Moulin du Rossignol. A mill seems to have continued in use in the area almost until the present day.
Earlier occupation of the area is attested by generic evidence of Roman date, to be linked with the presence of the late structure situated to the west and its probable predecessors. (Patrizia Framarin, Stefano Galloro)