The toponym “Motte” refers to a four-sided embankment that contains an area of about 47.380 squared metres and which was inhabited in pre and protohistoric times. Of this whole site today it is possible to see part of the embankment (A), which is accessible on its eastern side.
The most ancient phase of this site dates back to the middle Bronze age and particularly to the XIV-XIII century B.C., which have been documented through excavations. However, the main phase of the settlement dates to the recent Bronze age (XIII—XII century B.C.) and it is very well documented by the archaeological finds. To this phase pertain: the embankment, which is still visible today all covered with vegetation, the external moat, which is mostly inexistent today, and the inside living area, which was buried back after the excavations.
The embankment (A) has a defensive function and measures 230 metres on its major side and 206 on its minor side. It has an elevation of 4 metres above the fields level. It was made of earth heaps which had most likely been dug from the adjacent moat and it was apparently consolidated by a system of vertical ground-fixed wooden poles and of horizontal planks that connected them. This system is suggested by the finding of some pole holes that were coherently distributed along the embankment.
Within the embankment the excavations allowed to discover a group of pit structures and walking surfaces that suggest an intense human settlement activity. The bronze, stone and pottery artefacts that were found here are today partially conserved at the Civic Museum “Torre di Malta” in Cittadella. Excavations data and laboratory analyses have allowed to understand that the site economy was based on the cultivation of cereals and on bovine and ovine breeding, as it is testified by the findings.
During Iron age (end IX-VIII century B.C.) the embankment was renovated, most likely after a landslide.