In order to check for the presence of archaeological remains in a construction site for three buildings, an area of over 1.200 m2 was investigated and various occupation levels were identified. The first phase, dating to the early imperial period, was represented by a well belonging to the so-called Formiello aqueduct which supplied Surrentum. The other archaeological traces were agricultural, consisting of interventions of land reclamation in order to regiment torrent waters and the creation of artificial terraces, datable to sometime before 79 A.D.

Below this terracing a complex of Hellenistic buildings, including two kilns was revealed, obliterated by clay waste, fragments of brick, dolia and black glaze pottery. The circular kilns had a base of small squared tufa blocks and bricks and the upper part was cut into the tufa. The two combustion chambers shared a praefurnium. The entrance to the praefurnium was linked to a track cut into the tufa onto which faced rustic buildings of 5th-4th and 2nd-1st century B.C. date. The latter were abandoned before 79 A.D.

The axis on which the complex, perhaps to be interpreted as a Samnite pagus, was orientated was a road, which from the coast followed the course of the S. Massimo torrent inland in a north-east/south-west direction. The road was delimited by low dry-stone walls of tufa blocks. It was buried by alluvial deposits before the eruption of 79 A.D.

Beside the road, the terrain also revealed sixteen tombs of 4th century B.C. date, cut into the natural hill slope. These were simple graves lined with blocks with a cover of flat tiles or tufa slabs. Outstanding amongst the tomb groups was that comprising fifteen vases, mainly red-figure, and that with three black glaze vases, as well as a splendid red-figure crater.