This fact lead to the archaeological research, with an intervention of great urgency subsequently a deep ploughing, started up on the 26th of May 2004. During the preliminary reconnaissance, they collected interesting black-paint and achromatic material, iron and ceramic slugs, a Latin seal on tile C. FERI, in rectangular cartouche (6 cm. long; 2,8 cm. high, the letters are 1,8 cm. high; hazelnut clay not much purified) and scattered these on a quite wide area. The examined area is constituted of two samples, one is 10 x 8 m. and the second one 4 x 4 m.
In the first one they have highlighted the floor of an environment, with orientation east-west, probably provided with a wood board with masonry basis along the Northern wall, lime paving on solid preparation support, decorated inside with a fillet of black tesseras, trimmed with lines of white tesseras.
The handiwork was covered by a black burnt coat US 4, constituted of several coals, pottery and burnt bricks. The levels of the wall building structure of the environment are relatively a little filled in and so partly damaged because of agricultural works. Even so, below the humus in the east of the environment, they highlighted the stratigraphic level of a collapse, where traces of fire and building destruction are visible. In the coat you can see a remarkable number of tiles, jars and a brick seal with rectangular cartouche PRIAMI and a little mould above with a bull head shape.
Below this destruction coat there are some structures in calcareous-stone scales alloyed with mortar, with east-west proceeding and probably related to the environment with mosaic-fillets paving. They could partly verify that some dry-masonries, pertaining to an elder phase, are sealed below a grey clay stratum partly removed by agricultural levels.
As regards the fire and destruction level of US 5, relatively to the collected data, Latin brick seal PRIAMI, mentioned above, in rectangular cartouche with littler squared cartouche above, with bull head, looking inedited (it could refer to the Italics riot) and building typology of the paving with mosaic fillet, we suppose that the destruction phase dates back to Sulla age or, however, to the 1st century B.C.
On the final collapse, there is a deranged, probably Late Ancient tomb: in fact, in the area they have  collected a few, clear sealed fragments C and D, an handle of closed oil lamp and an unreadable, but probably Late-Ancient, bronze little coin.
The dry-wall made of local calcareous stone with regular shape, is correlated with some materials, probably votive and pertinent to an open-air cult. In fact, along its Eastern side, a black paint patera with Oscan graffito and, next to it, an iron fibula badly preserved with pendants constituted of two bronze rings and 4 vitreous-pulp grains, have been found. At a short distance, an interesting achromatic louterion (fragments of the same kind decorated with engraved and zigzag lines were found in the same area during the preliminary reconnaissance), above which burnt bones of animals were collected, among them it was possible to identify a second phalange of ox, a distal portion of humerus and an astragalus of goatish ovine, a valve of shell (Glycimeris sp.), a patera with relative achromatic cap and a vase with a black paint cap. Ashes and big pieces of coal were found out. From the same area come a black paint guttus of miniature (diameter 5, cm.; 3,5 cm. high) and other ceramic material of the 3rd-4th century B.C., which seems to testimony the presence of an open-air place of cult.
The systematic excavation of the settlement surely allows to acquire important data about the peopling of the Samnium Pentro, so we are planning it for the next years.


Fonte: Lo scavo archeologico di Macchiagodena, località Fosso Pampalone: notizie preliminari, articolo a cura di Mario Pagano e Michele Raddi dalla rivista Conoscenze (anno 1 numero 1-2 del 2004) - Direzione Regionale per i Beni Paesaggistici del Molise