Such was the general tenor of the opinions in regard to the terremare up to 1877, when, owing to the interest then taken in these singular remains and with the view of clearing up some of the contested points, the Minister of Public Instruction ordered a fresh excavation to be made at Castione under the superintendence of Professor Pigorini. The portion selected was an oblong space at the north side of the church, beginning at the margin and stretching inwards for a considerable distance. The result of this was the disclosure of a new and remarkable feature in its structural arrangement. At the inside of the earthen dyke, and intervening between it and a forest of piles which extended towards the interior, was a series of small rectangular enclosures constructed of horizontal beams laid one above the other. These enclosures, which extended side by side like a string of log-houses, formed an abrupt facing to the dyke. The beams were roughly hewn, and partially mortised into each other at the points of crossing, from which their ends projected irregularly, some even extending from one compartment to the next. Inside these log-houses there was nothing but rubbish--clay, gravel, bits of wood, etc.--packed firmly together. But it is needless to enter upon all the details of this curious structure; suffice it to say that Pigorini came to the conclusion that their purpose was to support the inside of the earthen dyke (_contrafforte dell' argine_). The piles were in rows about two feet apart, and each pile was separated from its neighbour by an interval of one foot. When the space was cleared there was quite a forest of these piles, and it is noteworthy that they were all inclined in one direction, viz. north-east, a fact which is well shown in the first of the two photographic illustrations here given (=Fig. 82=). From an examination of the composition of the soil outside the limits of the station Pigorini ascertained that the bluish clay bed forming the subsoil of the terramara mound corresponded to what was the surface of the surrounding plain when the terramaricoli founded their settlement, and that the thick mass of alluvial yellowish clay in which the mound is now partially buried has been subsequently deposited. [Illustration: =Fig. 82.=--Two Views of the Piles and Woodwork exposed at CASTIONE during the special excavations conducted by Prof. Pigorini in 1877.] Other interesting details are given in Pigorini's exhaustive and admirable report regarding the structure of the ditch, dyke, platforms, hearths, etc., and the peculiarity and composition of the strata. But these the limits at my disposal in this work compel me to pass over, and I must be content with quoting the following summary of his conclusions in regard to the origin of the station:--