Life Lessons from Morgantina

There are a great many ways I could try to sell Morgantina to you. I could tell you that you get to live in a positively gorgeous place, you get to eat some of the best food in the world, and you will make the best of friends, but you’d think to yourself, “yea, but I could do those things anywhere.” You’d be wrong, of course; I’ve traveled on my own to over 20 countries and I’ve found few places with equally beautiful views, none with better food, and the friendships I made are stronger, deeper, and more meaningful than I would have thought possible in a year, let alone a month. Those experiences are anecdotal, though, so I’m going to take a different route. Bear with me.

In a few important ways, Morgantina felt like going back in time.

We live in a world now that appears to give us everything we could ever want with an immediacy we could never dream of, but in the process it robs us of those few things that are deeply, essentially human. On a normal day of my undergraduate life, I am an individual. I wake up and make a smoothie for myself, scrolling through my texts while I drink it. I go to class and sit down for the majority of the day. Don’t mistake me: I am continually grateful for the edificatory opportunity I have, but it satisfies only a piece of the puzzle that is a human being. When I spend time with my friends, we have to make a conscious effort to do something meaningful with our time together that doesn’t consist of more sedentary, technological co-habitation. When I am alone I read, and I love it, but sometimes I get antsy – for company, for purpose, for something slightly too ethereal to put my finger on.

This is undoubtedly a grimmer portrayal of my daily life than is accurate; in fact, I feel I prioritize people and physical activity and ‘living in the moment’ more than the average person. However, it illustrates a few things that I think we often lack in our homes, our universities, and our cities: slow life, presence, physical work, and a community driven toward the same goal.

I suspect you agree with me, at least somewhat. If you do, and you are looking to fix that, come to Morgantina.

It’s All Smiles from the Team, even in a Spontaneous Thunderstorm!

On the dig, my friends and I often joked about starting a commune when we graduate. It’s the sort of thing you joke about because you think to yourself: “there’s no way all 10 of us would actually have the time, freedom, and willingness to do that.” And so it remains a joke, but there was some serious truth behind it. Every day when I woke up at 5:30 I felt something that one rarely feels in the wee hours of the morning: inspiration. At Morgantina it really felt like going back in time, or at least away from the culture I am used to, to a place where community came before all else. My knees cracked when I stood up and my eyelids were heavy, but I saw my day planned out ahead of me like a nautical map, and my dedication to the rest of my team was my north star. Everything was done together, everything in service of the greater good of the group, and as we worked together, we grew together.

A moment of discomfort was not a moment of weakness, but a moment of bonding, an experience to be shared and overcome as a unit. The best parts of being an individual are brought out of you at Morgantina because the people you share your home and your trench and your dinner table with are full of love and curiosity. At the same time, you are never just an individual; it makes every action that much more meaningful when you know you are doing it for your community. In the trench I found my energy supplied by two things: Polase (electrolyte powder) and the desire to do my part for my fellow excavators, for the finds team back at the school, for the town of Aidone who lets us in to their culture and homes, for Morgantina members of the past who laid the foundations, and for the citizens of Morgantina 2400 years ago whose story lives on through us. With that kind of multi-generational community striving for the same goal, how could I not endure the heat and sweat and dirt with relish?

Two of My Fellow Morgantinoi and I Celebrating a Much Desired Coin Found in Flotation.

In the afternoons we had nothing. I got back from site and took a shower, and then until an activity in the evening I was free to relax. The first thing I noticed was that I really felt like I had earned relaxation: it seems physical labor will do that to you. The second was that my mind felt more at peace, more interested in reading, or taking a walk and exploring the city, or calling my friends and family back home. The things that are slow and take time are the most worth it but are harder to achieve in a world that is going a mile a minute. Morgantina recalibrated my mind toward the slow life, and I was better off for it.

Most of all, though, I was happy. I laughed more than I ever have in the trench, chanting lyrics of early 2000s pop songs and obscure memes like it was some kind of religion. I’ve never grown so close to a group of people so quickly, partially due to us sharing our bathroom visits. There was never a moment where I felt dissatisfied with my productivity, or my creativity, or what I was getting out of life. Above all, I was present for every single moment, not thinking about the work I had to do after, or other worries in life, or my phone – just the here and now.

At Morgantina we live life to the max. We start the day with an act of service, taking turns making breakfast for each other. We work hard in the sun and we overcome obstacles as a team.

We gather together every day at dinner around a lot of good food and talk about anything and everything. We are present, we are passionate, and we are supportive.

Don’t Be Fooled by the Finger Guns: Trench 160 Was the Site of Some of the Greatest Bonding (and Archaeology) Ever Seen.

I think we might be taught to guard ourselves – the parts society tells us are shameful to show, or the parts that can’t be shared because that would be giving away our few advantages over others. Self-isolation isn’t healthy, and it doesn’t make one happy. Life can feel like a race, especially in the academic world, with you pitted against strangers and friends alike for a chance at achieving your goals, but a good world isn’t built this way: division is. Collaboration, compassion, trust,

and imagination are the building blocks of a powerful society and a happier existence. You will not struggle to find these at Morgantina. They will find you on Steep Street at 5:50 AM with your roommate, in the quickly receding shade of cookie break while you reapply with your friend’s sunscreen, on the bus back from site blasting T-Pain, and at a 30-person dinner table being fed three courses by a German couple.

Or, on the other hand, you might not agree with me. You might not want to come to Morgantina to think about the philosophy of a happy life (after all, we’re archaeologists, why am I invoking Aristotle?). If so, that’s alright! Come anyway: we do some pretty sick archaeology, too :)