[2] The ancient city had pre-Greek origins; it was constructed by the Sicans, who took advantage of the dominant position of the mountain over the Salso river valley.

Reconstruction occurred in the second half of the 5th century; the settlement received a new layout of streets and housing plots on a different orientation, and a new city wall with rectangular towers.

[3] In Roman times, farms and villas were settled in the plain near Piano della Clesia and near the necropolis in the Lannari district.

[4]: 183–229, Chapter 11 In the area at the bottom of the mountain are some Bronze Age grotticella tombs [it]; other important discoveries include to a hut used as a shrine and the so-called Sacello of Sabucina [it], a terracotta model dating to the 6th century BC, found in the area of the necropolis, which depicts a small temple with a pronaos in antis and a pitched roof surmounted by two figures of cavalrymen and two gorgoneion masks decorating the tympanum.

Starting from the 1960s Piero Orlandini excavated the late Bronze Age huts, dating to the 13th-10th centuries BC.