In the months November 2008-February 2009 excavations were undertaken in the Fondo Melliche as part of the work to create the entrance to the ‘Parco Archeologico dei Guerrieri’. The area is situated in the northern sector of the Messapian defensive walls, at circa 100 m west of the north gate, one of the entrances to the settlement. The excavations aimed to check the line of the Messapian fortifications which in this stretch are only hypothesised.

The stratigraphic excavation revealed a substantial accumulation of blocks of varying sizes, probably relating to the construction of the wall. At a short distance an imposing structure of stone blocks was intercepted, which on the basis of the construction type and position was interpreted as a stretch of the Hellenistic town wall. Further excavation revealed various construction phases. The earliest was constituted by a substantial dry-stone wall built of large irregular or partially worked stones. It was not possible to establish its width as it continued beyond the present excavation limits. In a later phase the external course of the embankment was faced by a structure of large parallelepiped blocks. The structure represented the second construction phase and three courses were preserved, one of the foundation and two of the standing wall. A third construction phase was represented by a reinforcement of larger blocks which, abutting the external row of the second phase, greatly widened the fortification. The third phase blocks were arranged in three flanking rows, placed alternately crossways and lengthways. The foundation and three blocks from the wall were preserved.

Continuing the excavation to the east an interruption in the line of the wall was reached in correspondence with a sudden rise in the bed-rock. The entire wall structure can be attributed to a period that runs from the second half of the 4th to the first half of the 3rd century B.C. The accumulation of blocks found by the line of the wall post-dates the fortifications, but at the present state of the research is difficult to interpret. It may be formed by waste material accumulated during the demolition of the wall circuit to be used for subsequent construction or may be the collapse of the wall circuit that was later readapted.