The fifth century BCE rampart
After the rampart was partially repaired around 475 BCE, a major reconstruction project was launched around 450 BCE. The structure and the implementation of the curtain wall of this rampart were more consistent than the previous fortification on which it was erected. When it was completed, a single-thickness, dressed stone wall some 2.5 meters thick enclosed the town. Three construction campaigns were needed, lasting five or six decades in all. One of the original aspects of this project was the creation of redans, or salients, on the internal face of the enclosure. Gates P1 and P5 continued to be used. To the south, an access ramp to the top of the rampart's curtain wall was built. This reconstruction of the rampart was most likely part of a vast program of urban restructuring, which included the creation of a road network.The urban planning principles employed would structure life in the town until the end of the Iron Age. This turning part marked the end of the archaic town and definitively set the stage for the port city of the late Iron Age.
