The third campaign took place from May-September 2009. Trenches III and VI were reopened. The ditch fill was completely removed and its bottom reached in both trenches. The excavation was widened in the area of the internal border where in the previous campaign the five post holes came to light. The excavation uncovered all of the post holes outlining a large apsidal structure (preserved length 10 m; maximum width 5.20 m) with three large post holes down the centre, probably those for the supporting posts. The structure can be put into relation with another structure identified during the 1997 excavations and situated on the exterior of the ditch. Both huts had a number of characteristics in common: north-west/south-east alignment, rectangular to sub-rectangular shape with apse on the short side to the north-west and probable opening to the south. The material found in the post holes was homogeneous and datable to the middle Bronze Age. The construction of such structures in correspondence with the Neolithic ditch attests a new settlement phase during the metal age, when the ditch had been completely obliterated.

TRENCH VII (3×8 m) – an area north of the village in correspondence with the ditch. Investigation of the ditch circuit continued in an area where large stone blocks suggested the presence of a containing wall on the side of the inner border. Here the deposit seemed more substantial, even though the ditch walls were affected by the same processes of deterioration and crumbling of the calcarenite identified in Trench III. This was an incrustation of calcarenite incorporating limestone blocks. This natural formation had, in some points, completely sealed the ditch fill, in others only covered the ditch walls. The presence of Neolithic material within and below the incrustation dates it to a phase post-dating the ditch.
To date the research has identified two distinct phases: the first dating to the early Neolithic period (phase with Ceramica Impressa evoluta e recente), during which the ditch surrounding the settlement was excavated. The archaeological evidence is represented by the ditch, whose fill produced pottery with impressed, graffito and painted decoration, lithic industry in local and imported flint and obsidian, stone axes, millstone and grinder fragments, badly-preserved faunal remains. At present the ditch represents the only structural element belonging to the Neolithic settlement. Subsequently the ditch was obliterated and the area was probably abandoned for a long period. The assemblage of finds – pottery with impressed decoration and thin graffito ( stile Matera-Ostuni ) – dates the settlement to a late phase of the Cultura della Ceramica Impressa. The second phase can be dated to the middle Bronze Age ( facies appenninica ), during which the area was reorganised, as attested by the 28 post holes forming the perimeter of a sub-rectangular hut.