Morgantina Studies Vol. VIII: The Theater, City Walls, and Roman Market
Located roughly 60 km from the Ionian coast of Sicily, Morgantina (37.4310° N, 14.4791° E) was an inland settlement of moderate size and proportionately modest importance when it came to broader geopolitical events unfolding in the western Mediterranean during the 1st millennium BCE. Yet, the ancient city occupies an outsized place in the archaeology of Sicily because of the exceptional scale and continuity of research at the site. Since 1955, members of the American Excavations at Morgantina (AEM) have conducted sustained, systematic fieldwork across the urban center and its hinterland, producing a uniquely rich body of evidence spanning from prehistory through the Early Roman Imperial period.
This project, Morgantina Studies Vol. VIII: The Theater, City Walls, and Roman Market, will serve as the final excavation report of three major civic monuments excavated during the Princeton-led campaigns of the 1950s and 1960s. The volume, edited by D. Alex Walthall (also the recipient of this White Levy Program grant), brings together studies by John J. Dobbins on the mid-third-century BCE Theater of Dionysos, by Henry K. Sharp on the macellum (Roman market building) in the upper agora, and by Lars Karlsson on the city's fortification walls. Together, these contributions address topics of civic architecture, elite benefaction, and urban investment during the Hellenistic and Roman Republican periods. In addition to serving at the volume editor, Alex Walthall will contribute an introductory chapter that situates Morgantina’s urban development in the Early Hellenistic and Roman Republican periods within the wider political, economic, and architectural transformations unfolding across Sicily from the late fourth through the first century BCE.
