In the summer of 2010 the first excavation campaign took place in the locality of Colle Rotondo (Anzio). This was preceded in 2009 by a survey in preparation for the excavation, which aimed to collect new information about the area and add to the published data (occupation from the Mid Bronze Age onwards, connections with the Recent Bronze Age necropolis of Cavallo Morto, diffused settlement in the Archaic period and votive deposit datable to between the Orientalising period and Republican period). The excavations concentrated on three areas. In Area 1, by the remains of the settlement’s largest embankment on the eastern edge of the plateau, a section of the embankment was cleaned and two trenches opened. A large beaten surface with post holes was identified, but so far cannot be dated. To this aim radiocarbon dating will be undertaken on carbonised wood samples. Area 2: a trench was dug in the central sector of the settlement. It revealed a disturbed stratigraphy. The remains of a number of pits dug into the bedrock were identified. These contained impasto pottery, minute fragments of bucchero and tiles of light-coloured impasto. Area 3: a trench was opened on the western edge of the plateau, revealing a compact stratigraphy with material relating to the structure’s collapse in the mid Republican period.

This was the second excavation campaign in the town of Colle Rotondo (Anzio). Excavations continued in only one (A1) of the three areas opened in 2010. Two new trenches were opened, A4 in the south-western sector of the eastern area of the plateau and A5 touching the western and eastern parts in correspondence with the inner earthwork. In Area 1, the sector investigated inside the great external earthwork was extended. A large plaster structure of plaster on timber posts was exposed, partially burnt its interior. posts. Given the almost complete absence of pottery and its position, the structure seems to have been part of the large bastion protecting the settlement’s entrance. This has been dated by radiocarbon undertaken at CEDAD in Lecce, to between the end of the 10th and the first half of the 9th centuries B.C. In Area 4, the opening of a vast sector exposed a long channel with a rectangular section on a north-east/south-west alignment, towards the edge of the plateau. The structure was filled with dolia and tile fragments datable to the early and middle Republican periods and finds parallels in similar structures linked to agricultural activities. The channel was mainly cut into sterile terrain, but some parts had cut into layers with materials dating to the Orientalising and archaic periods. In Area 5, the inner earthwork with its large defensive ditch was uncovered. The excavation of the ditch exposed a layer overlying the bedrock containing several lithic artefacts datable to the middle and paleolithic periods. The ditch was dated by the presence of a well cut into the defensive structure containing 4th century B.C. material.

The 2012 campaign allowed us to work in three different and interesting areas: -a wide archaeosurface dated to the Early Upper Palaeolithic (35000-30000 BC) consisting of hundreds of flakes and few tools, the trace of a knapping activities of hunters’s groups. -the prosecution of the 2010 and 2011 excavations in the area of Archaic external agger allowed us to better understand the structure of the preceeding Final Bronze Age-Early Iron Age fortification, made of earth, wooden piles and burnt clay. Under this fortification it was possible to find a settlement level of Middle Bronze Age 2 (1650-1550 B.C.) with some fragmented but quite entire cups and a big quantity of acorns. The 2013 campaign will be surely dedicated to a better understanding of this level. -the prosecution of the 2010 and 2011 excavations in the internal agger area allowed us to better understand the hollow under the archaic wall remains, probably pertaining to a votive deposition, with ceramics of a preceeding Early Iron Age occupation phase.