The South Baths and West Sanctuary Project (2013-2015) is undertaken by the American Excavations at Morgantina (AEM) under the auspices of the Parco Archeologico Regionale di Morgantina and the authority of the directors of the AEM, Malcolm Bell III (University of Virginia, Emeritus) and Carla Antonaccio (Duke University). It aims to fully excavate a Hellenistic public bath complex (South Baths) and an adjacent building, identified as the West Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore in the Contrada Agnese area of the ancient city. Both buildings were first excavated in 1971 and then again briefly explored in 2005, with excavations renewed in 2009 and 2010.

In the South Baths final cleaning, excavation, and analysis of the building and excavated finds provided crucial additional insights. Complementing the 15 previously identified rooms, an additional room was revealed in the NE corner, verifying that the building was fully rectangular and included a suite of small entrance rooms with a main entrance on either Plateia B or Stenopos W14, or possibly both. In the service area the airflow system of the large bath furnace was further clarified by revealing particular features in the stoke hold. A drain identified in the southeast corner of a large multifunctional room explains the drainage system for the relaxing luxurious bathing wing. Study of the water management and heating system was continued, leading to preliminary reconstructions of the large bottle-shaped bath furnace.
The main focus of the season was on the so-called West Sanctuary, the plan of which was fully revealed. The complex occupied a standard lot of the city’s orthogonal grid system with a surface area of about 18 × 20 m and included, in its last phase, 20 rooms that were organized around at least two courtyards; about half of the rooms were excavated down to bedrock. The main entrance was in the east from Stenopos W14, with a secondary entrance from an ambitus to the west. The complex clearly had a neighboring building to the west with which it partially shared a common wall. Four rooms were found to the south of the West Sanctuary complex that belonged to yet another building and have a conspicuously similar configuration as the northern rooms of the West Sanctuary. The West Sanctuary as well as the South Baths were built over an ancient quarry.

The building has a complex stratigraphy with at least 4-5 main phases of use, reconstructed from the architecture and occupation levels. It was built in the 3rd century BC and possibly used after 211 BC. The identification of the building as a sanctuary goes back to the excavation of one room in 1971, where a dense assemblage of finds was discovered under an intact tile fall and identified as a votive deposit. This identification could not be confirmed this year by any conclusive finds such as built altars, (votive) benches, lustral basins, and votive deposits that were found in situ around altars, under intact tile falls (all features found in other, securely identified neighborhood sanctuaries of Morgantina (North Sanctuary, North Sanctuary Annex, and the South Sanctuary).