About 3 — The American Excavations at Morgantina: Agora Valley Project

AVP 2025

Investigations in and around Building A

During the 2025 season, the AVP team returned to the Southwest Temenos, focusing efforts on clarifying the architectural layout of Building A. Our excavations yielded compelling new evidence that supports the interpretation of the structure as a small, bipartite temple (naiskos) dating to the Early Hellenistic period. While the identity of the deity worshipped there remains uncertain, the building’s prominent siting and scale suggest it likely served a ritual function within the civic sphere.

Revealing more of the Temenos

A collapsed segment of a masonry wall was carefully removed this season, exposing a well-preserved section of the stone-paved passage that once ran between Building A and the adjacent South Complex. The collapse marks the final abandonment of the Temenos, which appears to have occurred in the 1st century CE, or possibly later.

Dating the South Complex

The removal of a portion of the cocciopesto floor in one of the southern rooms revealed a sealed fill layer below. Among the finds was a bronze coin struck at Syracuse in the 2nd century BCE, our strongest piece of evidence yet that the construction of the South Complex—and, indeed, much of the visible architecture of the Southwest Temenos—dates to the period of Roman rule in Sicily.

Multidisciplinary Research Initiatives

Beyond our excavations, the 2025 season included several collaborative research projects. AVP members conducted a stylistic re-analysis of a large limestone draped female sculpture discovered in the 1962 excavations. Additionally, samples of black-gloss ceramics were collected for laboratory analysis as part of a larger, international research initiative (the MedConTaCCt project) to address trade and supply in Rome’s Western territories. We also welcomed colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials, who carried out a geophysical survey at various points around the ancient settlement and in the surrounding countryside. These efforts promise to expand our ability for telling richer and more complex narratives about life at ancient Morgantina.