A series of excavation campaigns between 2003 and 2005 have uncovered a section of a prehistoric settlement in via Cavour. The site is on the southern side of the hill overlooking the river Oglio at the point where a considerable narrowing of the river has facilitated its crossing from the prehistoric period onwards. This favourable situation determined the foundation of a mid/late Neolithic settlement on top of pre-existing Palaeolithic and Mesolithic remains. The settlement which extended over both sides of the river was strategically placed for the control of river and land traffic.

Earlier excavations undertaken between 1988 and 1992 on the left bank, at Cividate Camuno – via Palazzo – had already identified this settlement. It was occupied throughout the late Neolithic period (Lagozziana and Breno type pottery), the Calcolithic period (traces of wooden structures – post-holes, floor surfaces – and a sunken pathway which ran uphill from the dwellings) and the Bronze Age with evidence for a substantial early Bronze Age presence (remains of dwellings and a rich assemblage of materials).

The structures belonging to the successive period of the Bronze Age were altered by the setting up of metalworking activities which developed in the mid to late Iron Age (pits for metalworking, remains of furnaces). Finally, the construction of a Roman building contributed to the partial destruction of part of the prehistoric craft-working structures.

Here, as at Lovere-Colle del Lazzaretto (NSAL 1999-2000, pp. 21-24), the presence of a large amount of metal objects, probably destined to be melted, and of waste products marks the birth of metalworking in the 3rd millennium B.C. and its uninterrupted continuation until the traces of permanent workshops in the 1st millennium B.C.