Sicilian Expedition - Morgantina and Agrigentum

The next day we vizited Morgantina, a city in the mountains of Sicily originally populated by native Sicels but Hellenized by the 5th century BC. We had a site project to complete where we went around the ruins and identified different structures. Above you can see the remains of a house with an ekklesiasterion (an assembly meeting area) and a macellum (a commercial area) in the background.

During our site visits Franco happily wanders around, takes pictures, listens to music on his ipod, and sings Italian music. I'm always amazed that after more than 20 years of going to the same sites, Franco still enjoys our trips.

This is a picture of the landscape as we drove from Morgantina to Agrigentum. You can see Mount Etna in the background, dominating the landscape. You're supposed to be able to see smoke billowing from the volcano's peak on clear days.

We then went to a museum where we saw such treasures as this Telemon, a giant statue built into a temple to hold up part of the structure.

After that we visited the Hellenistic quarter, a domestic area with a number of atrium and peristyle homes. The houses were organized into blocks. One cannot help but imagine, as one student commented, that ancient Greeks held block parties and other meetings in their neighborhoods.