Museum and archaeological site
Aidone
A rich collection of artifacts discovered in Morgantina is kept and displayed to the public in the Aidone museum and bears witness to the most significant stages in the civil development of a community that until recently was little known and has now risen to international prominence.
The museum was inaugurated in 1984 and is located in the former Capuchin convent (17th century), after it had been restored and converted for its new use. Inside, note the head of the Ecce Homo (attributed to a certain Fra Umile da Petralia), which has the peculiarity of changing expression depending on the viewing angle. The marvelous gilded wooden high altar is a must-see.
The museum houses finds from Morgantina and the Cittadella hill (the site on which Morgantina was originally founded around 1000 BC) where there are also the remains of a prehistoric village from the Bronze Age (1800 BC).
On this page we report photos of some of the archaeological finds exhibited in the museum.
The Museum Halls
The exhibits are arranged chronologically and thematically. The displays are accompanied by topographical maps and explanatory panels.
Rooms I-II – Introductory with documentary panels and view of the cloister.
Room III – Prehistoric and protohistoric settlement: San Francesco district and Cittadella hill.
Room IV – Morgantina in the Archaic Age: the Citadel.
Room V – The Hellenistic-Roman city: the settlement of Serra Orlando, the sanctuaries, the necropolises.
Rooms VI-VII-VIII-IX – Numismatic section (under construction).
Room X – History of the excavations (under construction).
Room XI – Model of Morgantina. 18th and 19th-century paintings.
Room XII – Room of the pithoi and clay basins.
Rooms XIII and XIV (mezzanine floor) – Daily life in Morgantina: productive activities, the domestic sphere, cults, shows.
The Goddess of Morgantina
The statue, 2.20 m tall, has a harmonious body, clearly visible beneath the drapery. The ancient color scheme remains in traces of red, blue, and pink. For the naked parts of the body, face, and arms, white marble from the island of Paros was used to further enhance the statue. The technique, which combines materials of different consistencies and origins, is called “pseudo-acrolitic,” and was already used in Magna Graecia and especially in Sicily, including for the metopes of the temple of Selinunte (450 BC).
The rendering of the body and drapery reveals profound influences from the “rich style” and suggests an artist who was a direct disciple of Phidias, working in Magna Graecia, and was called to Sicily because of his fame to sculpt goddesses in the most renowned sanctuaries, following the example of his motherland, Greece. Refined on all sides, the statue was created to be displayed in the center of a space, still unidentified, which it is hoped, with future research, will be attributed to the history of the cults of the Greek colonies in Sicily.
The Hellenistic Silvers
These 15 silver pieces probably date back to the 3rd century BC when Morgantina was part of the small and rich Kingdom of King Hiero II (275-215 BC) who enjoyed considerable wealth due to the increase in the price of cereals (wheat, barley) and oil and wine.
This treasure of Morgantina represents, due to its uniqueness, the testimony of the flourishing civilization of our SICILY in the 3rd century BC when the brilliant ARCHIMEDES defended SYRACUSE from the powerful ROME and MORGANTINA rebelled against the Roman yoke, suffering harsh repression and destruction in the year 211 BC at the hands of the Pro-Praetor Marcus Cornelius CETEGO.
Acroliths of Demeter and Kore
Acroliths are statues made only of the head, feet, and arms or hands; everything else was made of less valuable or perishable materials, such as wood, and covered with robes.
The white marble acroliths of Demeter and Persephone (6th century BC), from the Bayly Art Museum of Virginia University, have been kept in the museum of Aidone since December 2009.
Morgantina
Morgantina is an ancient Sicel and Greek city, excavated in the fall of 1955 by an archaeological expedition from Princeton University (USA). Excavations conducted to date allow us to follow the settlement’s development over a period of approximately a millennium, from prehistory to the Roman era. The most easily accessible area, fenced off by the Superintendency, preserves remains from the mid-5th to the late 1st century BC, the city’s heyday.
Very important archaeological finds have come from this site, such as the Venus of Morgantina, currently kept at the Archaeological Museum of Aidone, where it arrived on 17 March 2011 following the dispute between Italy and the United States where it was exhibited at the Getty Museum in Malibu, and the Treasure of Morgantina, which was also returned.
The ancient city stood on an undulating, elongated plateau, steep on the sides and culminating in Mount Cittadella (578 m above sea level). Positioned as a barrier to the Simeto valley and its tributaries, the site controlled a vast area, bordered by the Madonie and Etna to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, and the southern Erei to the south and west. It was an obligatory passage on the communication routes between the eastern coast and the interior of Sicily. At its foot, the fertile Gornalunga plain and the rich pastures surrounding it behind constituted a further advantage for the settlement.
