The South Baths and West Sanctuary Project (2013-2017) 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, the so-called West Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore in the Contrada Agnese area. Both buildings were first excavated in 1971 and briefly explored in 2005, with excavations renewed in 2009 and 2010.

The aim of the 2016 season was the complete excavation of the so-called West Sanctuary. While the plan (18 × 20 m, 20 rooms) had been fully revealed and about half of the building had been excavated down to bedrock in the 2015 season, in 2016 all remaining rooms were excavated fully or at least by half.
The conclusion reached in the last year (see 2015 report) were largely confirmed, and the site was understood in more detail. It is possible to distinguish four major phases of use. In the first phase, dated to ca. 250 BC, the floor level of rooms, mostly lying closely above the bedrock level, must have differed significantly across the building, about 1.60 m from the northwest corner to the southeast. Only in the last two phases were these differences leveled, by significantly raising the floor level in some rooms. These last two phases can be dated to the late 3rd and possibly early 2nd c BC. It is not yet possible to determine whether the building was inhabited after 211 BC (when Morgantina was conquered by the Romans and given to Spanish soldiers). As in 2015, there are no clearly identifiable structures or contexts to suggest an interpretation of the building as a sanctuary. The only areas that can be identified in terms of their function are cooking areas in two rooms (rooms 5, 19), relating to different phases, and an industrial facility in the southeast corner room (room 20). This suggests that the building served as a residential quarter in all of its phases of use.

The most remarkable find of the 2016 season were two burials, found in the northwest corners of the southwest and southeast corner rooms (rooms 16, 20), in similar positions: both skeletons were lying on their right side, facing north, and had been dug into occupation levels and deposited without any finds (grave goods). At present, the skeletons cannot be connected with any historical events or catastrophic scenarios that may have provoked the unusual practice of “deviant” intramural makeshift burials.

After comprehensive documentation (including drawings, structure from motion models of all rooms, photogrammetry of all walls, and a top-view photo-mosaic), the site was completely backfilled. The building will be published in a monograph, once the pottery, small finds, and skeletons have been examined in a final study campaign in 2017.