The excavations had produced vast amounts of artifacts and data, but as yet there was no final publication. In 1978, Malcolm Bell, III, professor of classical art and archaeology at the University of Virginia, took over the project with the goal of publishing the Morgantina material. Bell was a former Princeton graduate student (Sjöqvist had been Bell's advisor until his retirement) who had written his dissertation on terracotta figurines found at Morgantina. He has conducted investigations on Serra Orlando since 1982, each time with the intention of answering specific questions raised by earlier work. Bell used his dissertation as the basis for the first book in the "Morgantina Studies" series published in 1983. Six volumes have appeared in the series, which is the main vehicle for the definite publication of the excavation results.