During work on the construction of the high speed railway (TAV), occupation was identified dating to various periods. Between the 1st century A.D. and the late antique period the zone was crossed by a road. Alongside a road cut into the hillside in the 3rd century B.C. the remains of a sanctuary (4th-3rd century B.C.) came to light. The earliest phase was characterized by an open area with a well and a number of pits containing numerous small black glaze cups, unguentaria, fragments of choroplastics and statuettes datable to the second half of the 4th century B.C. The second phase of the sanctuary was distinguished by the construction of a structure of tufa blocks, perhaps a portico, bordering an open area in which a tank, bordered with edgewise placed tiles, had been excavated. A large quantity of pottery, coins and a cup incised with a two letter graffito dated to this period (4th century B.C.). In the third phase the courtyard was paved with _opus signinum_, and for this period the pits produced many fragments from choroplastics and of black glaze pottery. During the last phase, towards the second half of the 3rd century B.C., when the portico was replaced by a closed space, the building may have maintained its cult function. An ancient cultivated ground surface with parallel furrows, obliterated by the “Flegrea B” eruption, revealed a notable quantity of terracotta and stone archaeological material, datable to the mid-late Neolithic period, related to the Serra d’Alto-Diana _facies_ (4th millennium B.C.). The pottery assemblage was characterised by reel handles, bowls of levigated impasto, plain ware painted with simple bands, by ribbon handles with zoomorphic projections representing domestic animals (pig) and with simple spiral projections. Lithic working was represented by an abundance of complete flint, obsidian and some jasper tools.

Archaeological investigations continued in the area of the “Botteghelle” viaduct. Near the sanctuary, datable to between the end of the 4th and the end of the 3rd century B.C., a ditch over 15 m wide and 6 m deep was found. Difficult to interpret (drainage channel or collection of spring water?), it cut into a natural depression. Perpendicular to the ditch was a beaten earth road, laid down during the 3rd century B.C. Large squared tufa blocks and brick fragments emerged from the fill of the channel, probably relating to the destruction of the nearby sanctuary, as well as coarse ware and black glaze pottery, which dated the obliteration of the structure to between the 3rd and 2nd century B.C. As regards the Neolithic phase, the identification, both on the surface and within the ancient ground level, below the “flegrea B2” eruption, of intersecting plough lines suggested the area was in continuous use for agricultural purposes. The area must have been at the edge of a village whose inhabitants dumped their rubbish there. The remains of the first phase of this settlement were also found. Below the ancient ground surface with the plough lines was a layer of earth mixed with the products of the “Mercato” eruption of Vesuvius (7900 B.P., VI millenium B.C.), which in turn overlay a surface formed by the ashes of the same eruption. In this surface there were four hundred post holes, numerous pits and holes, six hearths in pits and a curving channel which housed the foundations of a wooden enclosure of which traces of the entrance were visible. The settlement must have been occupied for a long time, the wooden structures being re-managed several times, so much so that the close positioning of the very numerous post holes made it impossible to identify the shape of the huts with any certainty. The abundance of pottery and stone finds showed that, even in this earliest phase, the facies was still that of Serra d’Alto-Diana (4th millennium B.C.).