Morgantina

History

The name appears in different forms among different authors: Morgantia, Murgantia and Morgantium in scholarship; in ancient sources Strabo used the name Μοργάντιον, Diodorus Siculus used Μοργαντίνη and Stephanus of Byzantium writes that it was also called Μοργεντία. The name is variously written by Latin writers as Murgantia, Murgentia and Morgentia. The inhabitants were called Murgentini by Cicero and Pliny the Elder.

According to Strabo, Morgantina was founded by a pre-Roman Italian group known as the Morgetes of Rhegium. Dionysius of Halicarnassus wrote that the Morgetes were led by a king named Morges. The earliest historical date associated with Morgantina is 459 BCE, when Ducetius, leader of the indigenous Sicel population of central Sicily, attacked the city and captured it. Morgantina was probably still under Ducetius' control when he was defeated at Nomai by Syracuse in 449 BCE.

No later mention of Morgantina is made until Thucydides lists it as part of the terms of a truce in the war of 427–424 BCE between Syracuse and the Dorian cities of Sicily on one side, and Kamarina, the Khalkidian cities of Sicily, the Sikels, and Athens on the other side. Thucydides says that Syracuse agreed at the Congress of Gela to give Morgantina to Kamarina in return for payment of an indemnity. Kamarina was destroyed in 405 by the Carthaginians. Morgantina, therefore, must have been independent from at least this date, although it was soon recaptured by Dionysios of Syracuse in 396. Syracuse retained (occasionally more nominal than actual) control of Morgantina until the Second Punic War. In 317, Morgantina received the tyrant Agathocles, then in exile, and offered him help in returning to Syracuse. He was elected praetor at Morgantina, and later dux. …

Excavation history

The earliest excavations at Morgantina were undertaken by Luigi Pappalardo in 1884. He uncovered part of a necropolis, a large terracotta drain and two houses. One of the houses he found, the Pappalardo house, was named for him by later American excavators.

Paolo Orsi recorded stray finds from Morgantina and excavated trial trenches in 1912. He located a terrace of nine steps, and walls, as well as what he called 'a Roman house'.

Morgantina has been the principal site of American research on classical Sicily. Currently there are two other sites on the island with significant American presences: the Soprintendenza BB.CC.AA. di Catania's excavations at Palike, and the work undertaken by Stanford University and Northern Illinois University as part of a consortium of primarily Scandinavian institutions at Monte Polizzo. In 1955, a major project was begun by Princeton University, under the supervision of Professors Erik Sjöqvist and Richard Stillwell. The excavations on the (then unidentified) town were intended to serve as training for graduate students in Princeton's Department of Art and Archaeology. Major figures who participated in work at Morgantina include Kenan Erim, Donald White, T. Leslie Shear Jr., Ione Mylonas Shear, R. Ross Holloway, Stephen Miller, Paul Deussen, and Karl Erik Östenberg. Special mention should also be made of Sweden's King Gustaf VI Adolf, who came to Morgantina on several occasions in the 1950s at the invitation of Sjöqvist, his former secretary, to work at the site.

In the mid-1960s, Princeton graduate student Hubert L. Allen assumed a role in the administration of the excavations. Upon receiving his doctorate, Allen was hired by the University of Illinois, which then began to co-sponsor the Morgantina project. The death of Sjöqvist and retirement of Stillwell in the early 1970s led to Princeton's withdrawal from direct involvement in the excavations. Allen continued to lead the project until 1975, when he was denied tenure at Illinois and took a position with University of Illinois computer sciences. At that point, American work at Morgantina was put on hold. …

Archaeological Museum of Aidone

The Archaeological Museum of Aidone was opened in Aidone in 1980 to house finds from Morgantina. The building, dating from the 17th century, is a former Capuchin monastery. The museum is run by the Soprintendenza BB.CC.AA. di Enna. There are two floors of exhibits, covering the site's prehistoric, archaic, and classical periods, along with a thematic display that draws attention to aspects of ancient daily life.