The first excavation undertaken on the summit of Monte Palazzi between 14th June and the 4th July, aimed to establish the presence of walled structures on the site, a quadrangular plateau of 40 x 60 m. In the chosen area on the north-eastern edge of the plateau a line of stones on an east-west alignment was clearly visible on the surface, interrupted by a vast lacuna. Two long trenches and numerous holes across the entire area seemed the result of recent digging. A survey of the summit area with a metal detector gave a negative result. The excavation of three contiguous 5 x 5 m squares exposed the inner face (40 cm wide) of a dry-stone wall of granite blocks, on an east-west alignment, of which five courses were preserved. A fill of cobbles and small stone chips along this axis probably constituted the _emplekton_ of a defensive wall with a double curtain, built directly on the bedrock. The central part of the wall appeared to be cut by a recent breach at least 3 m wide. At the eastern end an ‘a sacco’ construction was seen, interpreted as a repair to the structure’s inner face. To date no patches of beaten surfaces or paving have come to light within the perimeter wall. The pottery finds were datable to between the end of the 6th and the mid 3rd century B.C. They included the rim of an Ionian cup, fragments of miniature kitchen ware forms ( _chytra, kotyle_ ), numerous fragments of black glaze _skyphoi_ and a lamp fragment. There were also fragments of amphorae with a thickened lip and almond-shaped rims, probably made at Locri, and abundant kitchen and cooking wares. A single fragment of choroplastic may belong to a draped figure. A small portable millstone was also found. Overall this initial data confirms the presence of a settlement of Classical date, with pottery from the Greek centres closest to the Ionia coast (Locri Epizefiri and perhaps Kaulonia), whose layout and functions have yet to be defined.

New trenches opened on Monte Palazzi between 22nd May and 7th July exposed the external curtain wall of the perimeter on the north-eastern side of the site. This was preserved to six courses and was built of medium sized quadrangular ashlar blocks (30-40 cm). The lower course was positioned directly on the bedrock without any foundation trench, at a lower level than the inner curtain wall. The wall was between 2.3 and 2.5 m wide where the upper courses of the outer curtain had bulged. The _emplekton_ was over one metre wide. The excavation did not produce any elements providing an absolute date for the wall’s construction. The presence of charcoal in the collapse and discovery within the latter of a bronze arrow head with a triangular section and the remains of its wooden shaft, may indicate the violent destruction of the complex. Inside the curtain wall, continuation of the excavation in the squares explored in 2005 did not reveal any structures. However, lenses of burning were identified on top of the bedrock. A pit surrounded by stones, containing pottery fragments and iron nails, may have been a refuse pit. The archaeological deposit overlying the rock seems rather thin, perhaps as the result of being disturbed by actions such as the breach in the perimeter wall. To date no evidence of destruction or abandonment has been seen. A preliminary examination of the pottery dated it to the 5th and 4th century B.C. The lower layer, which may represent a floor level, produced several fragments of choroplastic from a draped figure with a _caduceus_ and fragments of the fillet from an imbrex, the first evidence for the presence of a tiled roof. New and important finds came from two trenches dug on the south side of the site with the aim of checking the stratigraphy. The first identified the edge of the summit plateau, which sloped sharply away from north to south. At this point, in the layer above the bedrock, numerous fragments of Ionian cups datable to the second half of the 6th century and amphorae probably produced at Locri came to light. This layer also produced two winged arrow heads made of bronze, with a hollow haft and lateral hook, datable to the 6th and 5th century B.C. The second trench, dug in order to explore a presumed robber trench, produced late 6th and early 5th century B.C. pottery and two coins: a bronze of Locri Epizefiri datable to the first thirty years of the 3rd century B.C. and a 5 lira coin of the Italian Republic minted between 1946 and 1950.

Excavations were undertaken between the 28th May and the 29th June over an area of about 150 m2 on the north-eastern and south-eastern sides of the site. Excavation inside the breach in the north-eastern curtain wall revealed part of the fill and the wall’s construction technique showing that it was built directly on the bedrock. The pottery found in the earth that had accumulated on the lower course of the internal curtain wall and on the bedrock at the western end of the breach did not provide any definitive dating for the structure. Further digging in the interior of the perimeter wall ascertained the presence of a parallel structure, built of large squared boulders on the south side and of uncertain identification. An almost complete miniature _olpe_ was found in a patchy area of the lowest layer abutting the perimeter wall. However, it was not possible to distinguish a sequence of occupation layers. Further south, below the covering of sediment, the excavation exposed a more substantial deposit possibly relating to an abandonment or destruction horizon. This covered a post hole and occupation evidence (or perhaps dumps used to level the uneven surface of the bedrock). This layer contained a fragment of an iron javelin or _sauroter_ head, a bronze coin of Dionysius I of Syracuse with a head of Athena/seahorse (405-367 B.C.) and a bronze utensil (a fork or perhaps a surgical instrument?). Another coin from Syracuse and a large quantity of the same types of pottery, including both kitchen wares and transport amphorae with thickened lip and almond-shaped rims, presumably made at Locri, were found in the lowest layers overlying the bedrock. Also of note the presence of _tegula_ and _imbrex_ fragments, mainly small, whose rarity in the surface layers seems to be due to robbing which continued until recent years. Lastly, the extension of the excavation identified a stretch of the south-eastern perimeter wall, of the same width (circa 2.5 m) as its parallel on the north-eastern side. This evidence and the remains of the defensive wall on the eastern side of the summit, suggest that the settlement of Monte Palazzi (now identified as a _phourion_, according to the hypothesis formulated by S. Settis in 1972) had a quadrangular plan covering an area of over 1000 m2. The pottery found in the layers covering this wall did not go beyond the mid 3rd century B.C., which probably represents the site’s final occupation phase. The increasing quantity of amphorae (presumably from Locri) supports the attribution of the complex to Locri Epizeferi and of the extension of the chora of Locri to the north of the Vallata del Torbido from the beginning of the 5th century B.C. For a comprehensive account of the archaeological investigations at Monte Palazzi, please visit the online exhibition at: www.digcalabria.org (under: Gallery)

The University of Kentucky’s final season of fieldwork at Monte Palazzi included both excavation and remote sensing and confirmed the presence of a small Greek fort on this mountaintop in south-central Calabria. Prior investigations in 2005, 2007, and 2008 had uncovered a portion of a massive, double-faced defensive perimeter on the northwestern side of the summit and revealed extensive disturbances. The cultural material indicated that the site was occupied by Greeks from Locri Epizephyrii from the second half of the 6th to the mid-3rd centuries BC. Excavation in 2010 was focused on two adjoining units in the southern area of the mountaintop. Its main objectives were to investigate the stratigraphy of the archaeological deposit and to uncover the inner face of the southern rampart. A geophysical survey involving the use of a fluxgate magnetic gradiometer and an electrical resistance meter was also conducted to determine the boundaries and the characteristics of the site, and the possibility of interior structures. Dry-built and 2.5 m wide, the excavated segment of the southern perimeter wall was constructed with blocks of native granite and other types of stone, including a rock similar to a garnet chlorite schist that was quarried from a nearby outcropping. The height of this rampart, which protected the least steep side of the mountaintop, would have reached at least 4 m. Since its foundations rest upon a layer of soil containing Greek fineware datable mostly between 500-450 BC, it was probably constructed or refurbished in the late archaic period. However, the earliest ceramics found in 2010 is datable between 580-540 BC and suggests that the Locrians were at Monte Palazzi by the second half of the 6th century BC. Finds of projectile points and stone slingshots inside the rampart attest to the military importance of this outpost, which would have functioned as a control point on an overland route leading from the Ionian to the Tyrrhenian coast. Other significant non-ceramic finds include two bronze coins of Dionysius I of Syracuse (405-367 BC) and a bronze issue of Locri Epizephyrii (300-250 BC), in addition to seven expedient stone tools made from micaschist. The results of the resistance survey demonstrate that a large structure, encompassing an area of at least 1,300 m², occupied the entire summit. Its design followed the contour of the mountaintop and enclosed a central courtyard with an entrance on the southern side. Its dimensions and general configuration are consistent with those of a military installation and are comparable to those of the fortifications at Serro di Tavola and San Salvatore. The northwestern corner is considerably thicker than the rest of the rampart, and may have supported a tower or lookout. Linear anomalies along the eastern and western walls suggest the presence of additional structures (possibly barracks or storerooms). The ceramic data indicate that this outpost was continuously occupied throughout the 4th century BC. Scant evidence suggests that it may still have been operational in the first quarter of the 3rd century BC.

This site is located c. 3 km to the south of the Passo del Mercante, on the S.P. 1 di Gioia Tauro e Locri, and 0.5 km to the southwest of Piano Melìa, a small plain on a high plateau known as the Dossone della Melìa or dorsale tabulare, which separates the Jonian and Tyrrhenian coasts in south-central Calabria. Situated at the northern end of a terrace, naturally protected by steep slopes and flanked by two streams flowing into the Vallone Lo Stretto, Località Palazzo commands a fine view of the Gioia Tauro Plain. This place-name, which is known at least since the early 1800s, typically attests to the presence of ancient or medieval ruins in southern Italy and Sicily. The architectural remains found at the site belong to a building whose dating and functions are yet unknown. Its masonry includes several Greek roof tiles, a large granite cut block, and generally medium-sized stones bonded with mortar. The geomorphological setting of località Palazzo, and surface finds of Greek tiles and of an iron projectile point, support the possibility that this building was constructed with re-used materials from the ruins of a Greek military installation, possibly a watch-tower. The Locrians could have used this site as an observation point, since it dominates the chora of Medma, one of the Tyrrhenian sub-colonies of Locri Epizephyrii, and is near an ancient overland route from the Tyrrhenian to the Jonian coasts. Località Palazzo was probably connected to another Locrian control point at contrada Bregatorto (less than 1 km to the south-east), where a Greek fortification has been identified.