The Domestic Architecture of Morgantina in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods

"The Domestic Architecture of Morgantina in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods" deals with the houses from an ancient site situated on the Serra Orlando ridge in Sicily. The town was excavated by Princeton University and the University of Illinois, and was identified as Morgantina. Morgantina is known in the ancient testimonia as a town destroyed by the Romans in 211 B.C., and presented by them to a group of Spanish mercenaries. The architecture dealt with in the present thesis dates from the late fourth, early third centuries B.C. to the middle of the first century B.C. The houses were witnesses of the destructions and abandonments that Morgantina suffered over the centuries. The destructions by Ducetius in the mid fifth century B.C., another by the Romans in 211 B.C., and a third, probably by Octavian, are seen in deposits of coins and pottery from the houses. The dissertation has four parts. The first chapter is a discussion of the site and the problems concerning its identification and history. The identification of the site as Morgantina is accepted, because the material remains agree with the written history. The second part, Chapters Two and Three, are detailed descriptions of the houses and every feature and significant item found in them. Chapter Two covers the residential sector on the East, or Boscarini Hill, and Chapter Three covers the West, or Trigona Hill. The third part is a synthesis of the information presented in Chapters Two and Three. In Chapter Four the materials and techniques used by the Morgantinoi in the construction of their houses are discussed. In Chapter Five, the typical rooms found in the Morgantinian houses are studied, with special attention to their likeness to other houses and rooms found in contemporaneous sites. The sixth chapter summarizes the chronological information provided by the material found in the houses. In the final chapter the Morgantinian houses are compared with others found in the Mediterranean area. The best comparisons are seen with houses in the Greek world, especially at the sites of Olynthos and Delos. The conclusion is reached that the Morgantinian houses are Greek, with practically no admixture of elements from Roman, Spanish or Sicilian cultures.