Morgantina is an ancient Sicilian town and Greek archaeological site near the village of Aidone, in Sicily. The city was brought to light in the autumn of 1955 from the archaeological mission of Princeton University. The excavations allow you to follow the development of the settlement for a period of almost a millennium, from prehistory to the Roman era. The area more easily accessible, it conserves the remains from the middle of the V at the end of the I century B.C., the period of maximum splendour of the city.
The oldest traces of frequentation of the site belong to the first age of bronze (2100 -1600 BC). The village belonged to the culture of Castelluccio, characterized by an elementary civil organization and from the possession of rudimentary techniques of domestic handicrafts and agriculture and the next the Thapsos civilization. In the site have been found also Mycenaean pottery and submicenee. Starting from the XIV century B.C. up to the XI century B.C. the population of Sicilians (Sicily),coming from central Italy, reached in successive waves Sicily,expelling the indigenous people in the western part. According to the legend a group of Morgeti guided by the mythical king Morgete, founded in the X century B.C. the city of Morgantina, on the hill of the Citadel. In the second half of the VIII century B.C., was initiated in Sicily the Greek colonization and toward the half of the VI century B.C. Greek origin calcidese settled in the city coexist quite peacefully with the previous inhabitants, as it seems to bear witness to the mash of cultural elements in the funeral. The Calcidesi colonists by assimilating the religiosity of indigenous transformed the Mother Goddess in their Greek deity Demeter and Persephone, as witnessed by the famous acroliti heads complete marble of the hands and feet with body composed of perishable material dating back to the years 525-510 B.C. The population increased a lot with the arrival of new settlers from Greece.
The maximum splendour was then reached in the III century B.C. during the long reign of Gerone II (275-215 b.C.) and the city came to count approximately 10,000 inhabitants. During the first punic war, Morgantina together with all eastern Sicily Under Gerone II was allied with the Romans. Dead King Gerone II, during the Second Punic War Morgantina and the other Sicilian city passed from part of the carthaginians (Tito Livio). After the Roman conquest the walls were torn down and the town is greatly restricted, but the city continued to live as an important commercial node for the production of terracotta in the kilns and especially for the production of cereals (wheat, barley), the oil and the wine made from the famous Murgentina screw. It was built at the center of the Agora the Macellum and many public buildings (Bouleterion-Pritaneo) were used by the Roman conquerors as tabernae (shops ) and termopolium. In short the polis was gradually transformed into a Roman oppidum used by various legions of passage for the Sicily.
The Hellenistic city remain in the fenced area remarkable ruins: several public buildings, for the more articulated around the piazza of the Agora (gymnasium or “Stoà north”), “Stoà East” and “West”, the pritaneo, the Ekklesiasterion, the twofold “sanctuary of the agora”, the public granary, the “Great furnace”, the theater or koilon and slaughterhouse romano and important houses, richly decorated with mosaics (houses “of Doric capital”, “of the mosaic of Ganimede”, “della Cisterna arc”, “of Antefixes”, “of the Capitals tuscanici”, “The Magistrate”, and again, the “Casa Fontana” and the “House south-east”).
The most significant area of Morgantina is certainly the agora, arranged on two levels (the lower one reserved to the sacred rites, the upper one for commercial purposes and public) connected by a large staircase. The latter is very particular because it consists of three sides which form so low a space probably used for the meetings of the city, such as Ekklesiasterion, or for moments of worship given the proximity to the Sanctuary of the Divinity Ctonie, Demeter and Kore.
The numerous archaeological finds from the excavations are preserved in the Museum of Aidone.