Under the direction of Drs. Stephen Plog and Malcolm Bell III, Mr. Stephen Thompson will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct two seasons of survey work and analysis in a 150 square kilometer area around the site of Morgantina, a large hilltop settlement in east-central Sicily initially inhabited by non-Greek peoples during the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age (ca. 1000 - 550 B.C.) and subsequently transformed during the second half of the first millennium B.C. into a prominent Greek city state. Although extensive work has been done at the site itself, no formal archaeological investigation has been conducted beyond the city walls. Consequently, only a rudimentary knowledge exists of the site's local and regional setting and of its immediate rural territory. Through his survey, Mr. Thompson will explore basic parameters of environment, settlement, demography and land use. Through his work, Mr. Thompson wishes to address two basic issues. First he wishes to reconstruct the social and economic organization of this early Mediterranean state. It is extremely unclear how entities of this type integrate rural areas with urban centers and how political and economic systems function. Secondly, he will address questions of assimilation and change. During the early part of its history Morgantina appears to be an independent, indigenous Sicilian development. Later however it seems to either come under Greek influence or be dominated completely by Greece. How, over this interval, did relations between the center and the hinterland change? How was a new set of circumstances adapted to a traditional system? This research is important for several reasons. It will set an major archaeological site into a broader context. It will shed new light on development and change within state level societies and finally will assist in the training of a promising young scientist.
