Site visit to the exhibition Meet the Phoenicians of Malta
2022-10-22 14:00 (Europe/Malta) | National Museum of Archaeology, Auberge de Provence, Triq ir-Repubblika, Valletta, Malta
Site visit to the Meet the Phoenicians of Malta exhibition at the National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta. A Phoenician stone sarcophagus excavated last year at Għajn Klieb, on the outskirts of Rabat, is one of the major attractions in this exhibition. It brings to light the results of months of painstaking studies by a multidisciplinary team researching the sarcophagus and two other tombs discovered in the area, as well as their contents. The three tombs, although inherently different, shed light on the burial rituals of the earliest Phoenicians on the island.
There is no charge to the general public.
The visit will be led by Mr David Cardona, Senior Curator, Phoenician, Roman and Medieval Sites, Heritage Malta. Mr Cardona will also take members round the Phoenician and Punic section on the top floor of the museum. The museum authorities have very kindly waived the fee for entrance to the galleries.
Meeting at 2pm inside the museum. This visit is open to members only.
NB The Archaeological Society Malta is a Long Term Collaborating Organization of International Archaeology Day organised by the Archaeological Institute of America. The October events will be part of the International Archaeology Day on 15 October.

Lecture: After the Dig - studies from the Phoenician shipwreck
2022-10-26 18:00
Lecture by Professor Timmy Gambin, Associate Professor of Maritime Archaeology in the Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta.
NB The Archaeological Society Malta is a Long Term Collaborating Organization of International Archaeology Day organised by the Archaeological Institute of America. The October events will be part of the International Archaeology Day on 15 October.
Abstract

Lecture: Searching for Social Values: people-centered heritage in Malta's historic places
2022-11-17 18:00
Presentation by Mr Joshua de Giorgio, PhD candidate, University of York.
In heritage practice, assessments of tangible heritage generally conform to certain criteria to define significance. Traditionally a great emphasis is placed on the historic and aesthetic value of places and objects. From the late 1970s however, heritage practice has increasingly recognized how the significance of heritage is also fundamentally linked to the social value that communities and stakeholders derive from it. This lecture will explore these ideas, introducing the underlying concepts and frameworks that support them. Drawing on previous research at Fort Tigné and the speaker’s current research in Valletta, this lecture will present an overview of outcomes of this research and the interdisciplinary methodologies adopted.
Abstract
Photo credit: Archbishop Street, Valletta (courtesy Kappa Vision)

Site visit to the Msida Bastion Cemetery and Historic Garden, Floriana
2022-11-26 14:00 | Msida Bastion Cemetery and Historic Garden, Floriana
Site visit at 2 pm to the Msida Bastion Cemetery and Historic Garden, Floriana, a heritage site restored and managed by Din l-Art Ħelwa. The 90-minute visit, against an entrance fee of €5 which includes coffee/tea/water with biscuits at the end, will be led by site warden Mr Paolo Ferrelli. Numbers will be limited to the first 20 paid up members who apply, no guests.

Lecture: Secrets Unravelled: science applied to archaeology
2022-12-14 18:00
Lecture by Mr Matthew A. Grima, Manager Diagnostic Science Laboratories (DSL), Heritage Malta.
Science has evolved so much, that nowadays, it is all done via state-of-the-art instrumentation. When applied to any material, a diverse instrumentation setup has the potential to look into the various facets that the object’s physical structure offers. This information can pinpoint provenance, manufacturing date/period, manufacturing technique, potentials of object utility, degradation phenomena, a person’s diet, age and much more! An important factor is also the provision of information that can be used for purposes of conservation treatment and subsequently long-term preservation strategies. This presentation will delve deep into the scientific philosophy, ethics, how signals are triggered for effective responses and a variety of interesting case studies that are sure to interest the audience. Current research projects will also be presented.
Abstract
Photo: A close up of micro IR analysis

Lecture: Breaking (down) Roman pots: investigating pottery found at the Tas-Silġ sanctuary and the Żejtun villa
2023-01-18 18:00
Lecture by Ms Emma Richard-Trémeau, Research Support Officer for the CoFIPoMS project looking at Late Punic and Roman pottery in Malta, Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta.
Over the past few years, pottery studies in Malta have integrated scientific methods to improve our understanding of the materials’ provenance and manufacture. These techniques have not yet been systematically applied to the numerous assemblages dating from Malta’s Late Punic and Early Roman periods. This talk examines a University of Malta-led project investigating bowls, plates, and cooking vessels from the Tas-Silġ sanctuary and the Żejtun Villa. These were classified according to their composition and features, and indications of differences in their material and manufacturing processes are emerging. The project is trying to answer whether they were fabricated in Malta or imported and how they were made.
Abstract
Photo: Late Punic-Early Roman pottery, Tas-Silġ

Annual General Meeting - POSTPONED
2023-01-28 11:00 | Archaeology Centre, Car Park 6, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
POSTPONED. Details to follow.

Site visit to the recently restored historic reinforced concrete water tower in Marsa - POSTPONED
2023-01-28 14:00
POSTPONED. Led by Professor Ruben Paul Borg, Associate Professor, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of Malta. This visit is open to members only. Meeting on site.

Lecture: Climate change and Cultural Heritage: connecting the past, present and future
2023-02-15 18:00 | National Museum of Archaeology, Auberge de Provence, Triq ir-Repubblika, Valletta, Malta
Lecture by Ms Sharon Sultana, Senior Curator, the National Museum of Archaeology, Malta.
Climate has always been one of the strongest forces on our planet. The past evolution of the earth has been very dynamic, with various climate modes, ice ages and interglacial periods, and has shaped the present natural and cultural environment. The emergence of Homo sapiens and the development of civilisation are inseparably entangled with the changing climate. Only in the recent past (the last 10 000 years) has humanity lived with a stable climate, which allowed humanity to develop an agricultural society, and to live together in communities with great monuments and buildings.
However, this stability is changing dramatically: the climate is again becoming unstable and changing at a greater speed, scale and intensity than anticipated by various climate models. This is considered a global existential threat to societies and our planet. How is this affecting our cultural heritage and can our cultural assets be used to spread the climate justice message through collections, buildings, and communities?
Abstract
Photo: Acropolis under snowstorm 17 February 2021

Lecture: A late medieval synagogue at Huqoq/Yaquq in Galilee
2023-03-15 18:00
Lecture by Dr Dennis Mizzi, Senior lecturer in Hebrew and Ancient Judaism, University of Malta.
Excavations at Ḥorvat Ḥuqoq (Yaquq) in Israel’s Eastern Lower Galilee have brought to light a monumental public building that sheds new light on the history of the Jews in late medieval Palestine, about whom we know very little. We interpret this building as a late medieval synagogue—the first such synagogue to be unearthed in Israel—and argue that its construction was precipitated by the establishment of the Mamluk barīd, which passed by Yaquq, and by the tradition locating the tomb of Habakkuk at the site. In the late medieval period, Yaquq experienced a brief economic boom owing to the increasing number of travellers, including pilgrims, passing through the village. This wealth is reflected in the construction of this monumental synagogue and the discovery of a large gold and silver coin hoard to its south. In addition to serving the local community, the synagogue would have served the many pilgrims who visited Habakkuk’s tomb and nearby holy shrines.
Abstact
Photo: Late medieval building (14-15th centuries) at Huqoq, Galilee. Photograph by Jim Haberman

Lecture: Norwich Castle – POSTPONED to 20/Apr
2023-04-19 18:00
Lecture by Dr Tim Pestell, Curator of Archaeology, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.
Postponed to Thursday 20 April 2022.
The talk will examine this exciting £15m Lottery-funded project, which will re-establish the Norman room-spaces within this iconic building, as well as establish a permanent medieval gallery in association with the British Museum, a new front entrance, café, toilets and roof platform. This once-in-a-century transformation aims to make Norwich Castle the premier heritage attraction of the East of England.
Abstract
Photo: Norwich Castle

Lecture: Norwich Castle: latest developments in The Royal Palace Reborn Project
2023-04-20 18:00
Lecture by Dr Tim Pestell, Curator of Archaeology, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.
The talk will examine this exciting £15m Lottery-funded project, which will re-establish the Norman room-spaces within this iconic building, as well as establish a permanent medieval gallery in association with the British Museum, a new front entrance, café, toilets and roof platform. This once-in-a-century transformation aims to make Norwich Castle the premier heritage attraction of the East of England.
Abstract
Photo: Norwich Castle

Lecture: Place names & terms related to frontier terminology from the Arab conquest period, 7th-10th Century: comparative history & archaeology around the Mediterranean and the Maltese Islands
2023-05-16 18:00
Lecture by Fr Eugene P. Teuma OFM Conv., independent researcher.
Recording and interpreting place-names can lead us to discover new and tantalizing facts and realities from a possibly “dark” or little known period. Comparing and contrasting terms/place-names and their original meaning can throw light on a country’s past.
The Arab Conquest from Arabia to Spain and Portugal was a centuries-long advancement. The Arabs were introducing new place-names and adapting them to their “world” view. By marking frontiers (Atarf) with recognizable names they defined territory that lay within or outside their control.
Some names are: Rabat (fort on frontier), Qala (fort), Borg (fortified perimeter/ruin), Dar As-Salam (residence of peace/Islam), Medina (city), Dar ir-Rum (residence of the Greek Orthodox Christians), Dar il-Ħerb (residence of “moral” and “factual” ruin).
We find this progress (military and otherwise) enshrined in place names throughout the conquered territories including the Maltese Archipelago. In most regions only vague or isolated terms survive. Incredibly, the Maltese islands still preserve a vast array of such toponomical terms frozen in time and original context. Deciphering them may make a, presently, murky historical/archaeological picture, comprehensible.
Abstract
Photo: Monastir – Ribat

Lecture: Looking for a US airman in Maltese waters - the excavation of a WWII bomber
2023-10-18 18:30 | Fortress Builders Interpretation Centre, St Mark Street Valletta, Valletta, Malta
Lecture by Professor Timmy Gambin.
In May 1943 the Allies were turning the tide of the war in the Mediterranean and were on the offensive by air, land and sea. During an air raid on southern Italy, an aircraft of the United States Army Air Force crashed off Malta with the loss of one crew member. After many decades, a team from the University of Malta dived the site and subsequently conducted a systematic investigation of the site together with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). This talk tracks the aircraft mission, how she came to crash off Malta and the subsequent identification of the aircraft.

Lecture: Rebuilding the Lost Past
2023-11-15 18:00 - 18:30 | National Museum of Archaeology, Auberge de Provence, Triq ir-Repubblika, Valletta, Malta
A virtual reconstruction of destroyed archaeological sites documented in the 18th and 19th Century
Lecture by Marco Mion.
The reconstruction of the past is arguably one of the main objectives of archaeology. In the past few decades, this task has been facilitated by the introduction of 3D technologies which are capable of conveying archaeological data and interpretations through the use of interactive graphics and imaging. Therefore, when describing what an artefact, a monument or a site looked like in the past, 3D technologies are recognized as an intuitive, efficient and interactive visualization tool. This talk will present and discuss the results of a research conducted in 2022 as part of the author’s dissertation for the M.A. in Archaeological Practice (UoM). This study made use of 3D technologies with the intention of establishing whether a virtual reconstruction of destroyed archaeological sites can be achieved using only available legacy data. The documentation collected for this purpose included textual and drawn sources recorded in the 18th and 19th centuries at the following sites:

an Early Christian hypogeum (Jesuit’s Hill, Marsa – Site A);
a Roman warehouse complex (Jesuit’s Hill, Marsa – Site B);
a set of Punic structural remains (Żurrieq – Site C).

The first two sites were completely destroyed by the industrial development that took place in the Marsa harbour over the past two centuries, while the latter is still partially surviving in situ. This research attempted a 3D and VR interpretative reconstruction of these sites and the outcomes were then analysed by assessing their strengths and limitations. The methodology chosen to reconstruct these sites was then assessed through the reconstruction of Site C. In this case, the interpretative 3D model built through the legacy data was compared and analysed against a reality-based 3D model of the same site built by surveying the standing remains surviving in situ using photogrammetry.
Marco Mion is a Maltese-Italian field archaeologist who recently completed a Master degree in Archaeological Practice with a focus on Digital Archaeology at the University of Malta (UoM). He is currently working as a licensed archaeological monitor in several development-led sites across the Maltese Islands.

Lecture: An encounter with Luigi Ugolini, an archaeologist
2023-12-06 18:00
Lecture by Prof Nicholas C. Vella – University of Malta.
You may download the presentation (PDF, ~40Mb).

Lecture: Bur Mgħeż: biography of a lost Neolithic site
2024-01-24 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Dr Omar N’Shea – International School for Foundation Studies, University of Malta.
Abstract: In 1911, during research conducted at a quarry in Imqabba known as Tan-Naxxari, Professor Napoleon Tagliaferro discovered a fissure in the limestone rock, which contained the buried remains of multiple individuals along with funerary paraphernalia. Based on the analysis of pottery fragments and other remnants, Tagliaferro determined that the fissure was used during the same period as the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum and served as a collective burial site in the vicinity of id-Debdieba, a site now in the vicinity of the Hal-Farrug road. He named the site the Cave of Bur Mgħeż and soon, studies began to better understand the mortuary culture of the Neolithic communities in the Maltese islands. The Cave of Bur Mgħeż, along with Tagliaferro’s writings on it, quickly attracted the attention of both Temi Zammit and the Antiquities Committee. Around 1920, efforts commenced to purchase the land containing the cave from the Mensa Vescovile by the Government, allowing the cessation of quarrying activities at the site and its protection. However, today, the site is lost and can only be found in the National Archives of Malta, in some reports of the museum director and curators, and in material remnants scattered in various museums. In this talk, the site itself and the discoveries made there, how it was excavated and studied, what is known about it today, and how its memory can be preserved are discussed.
You may download the presentation (PDF, ~7Mb).

Rediscovering Roman Malta
2024-02-21 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Mr David Cardona – Senior Manager, Professional Services and Phoenician, Roman and Medieval Sites, Heritage Malta.
Rediscovering Roman Malta
Field report 2023 from the Melite Civitas Romana Project at the Domvs Romana of Rabat
Co-contributors: Dr Davide Tanasi(1), Dr Benedict Lowe(2), Robert Brown(3), Andrew Wilkinson(4)
1 Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx), University of South Florida
2 Heritage Malta, Malta
3 Department of History, University of North Alabama
4 Intercontinental Archaeology, Australia
In 218 BCE Malta officially enters Roman history after six centuries of absolute Phoenicio-Punic occupation. At the outbreak of the Second Punic War, consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus secures the obedience of the inhabitants of the island. It is in the late Republican period that in the major city of Melite (modern Rabat), the most emblematic example of Romanitas emerges, exemplified by the construction of the so-called Domvs Romana; a luxuriously decorated mansion likely connected with the Roman representatives in charge. The complex and hectic urban development of Melite-Rabat from the post-classical to the contemporary period obliterated or, at best, covered the ruins of the Roman city. Its early phases are essentially represented by the Domvs Romana and its immediate environs which have been subject to isolated investigations and have resulted in few limited contexts. The importance of the Domvs has become critical for evaluating the impact of Roman culture in the formative period of the newly annexed territory. Since 2019, the Domvs has been at the center of the international collaborative project Melite Civitas Romana, which is reassessing all the evidence related to the site using modern technologies and conducting new archaeological excavations. The 2023 campaign continued excavation in the four areas around the Domvs complex, identified by geophysical prospection and the preliminary investigations of 2019 and 2022. The fieldwork has shed new light on the excavations carried out by Themistocles Zammit in 1920-1925 and has provided new preliminary data on the spatial configuration of the urban fabric of the district of Melite, where the Domvs was located, and on the post-classical occupation of this area. The examination of baulks and stratigraphic sections from Zammit’s time, and the discovery of new imposing structures alongside new and untouched contexts has for the first time offered a new perspective on the Roman and Late Roman history of Melite.

An archaeological perspective of the Magistral Palace. Preliminary results of the archaeological investigations.
2024-03-20 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Mr Christian Mifsud – Curator for Historic Buildings, Heritage Malta.
An archaeological perspective of the Magistral Palace.
Preliminary results of the archaeological investigations.
As part of the ongoing seven-year restoration project being undertaken by Heritage Malta, the agency seized the opportunity to thoroughly investigate the Grand Masters’ Palace’s history and its development. Starting as two separate units, (Palazzo del Monte and the first Auberge of Italy) from 1571 onwards, the Magistral Palace was extended and modified by subsequent Grandmasters, Governors, and later Presidents to make it fit for governing and diplomatic purposes. Unlike no other secular building, the palace has retained its intended original function as the palace of power, hence resulting in less invasive structural interventions through time. As such the palace is a well-preserved specimen of diverse architectural styles from the 16th century onwards. The complex stratification as well as the sometimes unclear archival sources, have left many inconclusive hypothetical narratives on its transformation. The archaeological investigations being carried out within the palace are the first of their kind and extent on this complex. This work provides a surgical insight into the hidden stratifications and reveals new information and previously unknown interventions, leading to a new interpretation of the palace. Through this lecture, the preliminary results of this research will be discussed, providing some insights about several of the spaces within the palace that were intervened upon during the project. .

Towards an Archaeology of Privacy
2024-04-17 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Professor Joseph Cannataci – Head of the Department of Information Policy & Governance, University of Malta.
Towards an Archaeology of Privacy.
A decade ago (2013), Smith and Reynolds lamented that “the archaeology of law, legal culture, and legal practice has been almost entirely overlooked”. Yet, more than three decades ago, teams led from the University of Malta, and later jointly with the University of Groningen, commenced fieldwork on one of the values protected in fundamental human rights law: privacy. This in turn led to the formulation of research questions like: What were attitudes to privacy like across the Phoenician and Carthaginian trade routes? Did they change (where, when, how and why) as the Mediterranean transitioned into first the Greek and later the Roman classical eras? What may have changed in privacy-relevant behaviour and regulation on the northern and southern sides of the Mediterranean between the 5th and 15th centuries? What about the interplay between archaeology, architecture, anthropology, economics, technology and privacy? How have these dimensions impacted the evolution of privacy since the 16th century? How does research on the ethnoarchaeology and anthropology of privacy in Africa, America and Asia complement, contradict or corroborate the available evidence from inside Europe?
This talk explores the themes outlined above with particular reference to the importance of archaeological evidence from the first millennia B.C.E. and A.C.E. as found within the Mediterranean littoral. First outlining some context provided by our teams’ fieldwork in Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe, the talk will then move to the archaeological evidence available from domestic architecture in Punic sites, especially Kerkouane in modern-day Tunisia. Drawing upon initial findings from the PRIVATUS project and using some of the most recently published research from peninsular Italy to carry out comparative analysis in North African Roman sites, the talk will summarily trace the development of public and private spaces in Roman urban architecture with a particular emphasis on sanitation engineering, whilst also touching upon the role of the cubiculum as a private space in the Roman domus.
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Archaeology of earthen architecture in the western Mediterranean, with particular regard to southern France
2024-05-15 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Dr Alessandro Peinetti – Dipartimento di Storia Culture Civiltà, Università di Bologna.
Contributors: Alessandro Peinetti (Inrap, Auvergne – Rhône-Alpes, France; UMR 5140 ASM ; Università di Bologna); Emilie Leal (Inrap, Midi-Méditerranée; UMR 5140 ASM); Julia Wattez (Inrap, Centre – Ile-de-France ; UMR 5140 ASM)
Archaeology of earthen architecture in the western Mediterranean, with particular regard to southern France: field detection, chaîne opératoire characterization and socio-cultural perspectives
A Raw earth has been widely used since Neolithic times, and is still the most widely used building material in the world today. It is estimated that a third of humanity lives in an earthen dwelling. Earthen architecture, whether simple or monumental, can be found in a variety of contexts and meets a wide range of needs. Raw earth is also a material widely used in European vernacular architecture in its various forms: mudbrick, cut out sod, rammed earth, cob, wattle and daub, floors construction and furniture shaping. Although obscured in today’s urban and rural landscape, earth materials have always been used for architectural purposes, sometimes in association with other materials (wood, stone), both in continental and northern Europe and around the Mediterranean.
In the early 1980s, a keen interest in building with raw earth developed in France as part of archaeological research, in parallel with the rise of an architectural movement that wanted to promote building processes based on this material, which also had an ecological and social dimension (see, for example, the work of CRATERRE).
In archaeology, excavations carried out at the Iron Age site of Lattara (Lattes, Hérault) in the 1980s and 1990s led to the identification of mudbrick and cob architectures. These discoveries made a major contribution to boosting research into earthen architecture in southern France and raising awareness among a whole generation of researchers about the identification and technological characterisation of this type of architecture. The end of the twentieth century and the 2000s marked a new turning point in research, particularly in the field of preventive archaeology at Inrap (Institut national d’archéologie preventive). This research led to the discovery of earthen buildings from the Neolithic period in Languedoc and Provence, as well as 13th and 14th century houses built entirely of raw earth, many of which are still standing today (fig. 2). Later, preventive archaeology excavations have also identified the use of earthen materials in the layout of burial spaces from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, showing how the use of these materials goes beyond the simple domestic sphere. It is now a proven fact that raw earth is used in every field of construction: military (ramparts), all kind of private or economic dwellings (warehouse, wine cellars …) or funeral field. The example of the preventive excavation of the Late Neolithic semi-grounded architecture of the collective burial of Mas Rouge (Montpellier, Hérault) is exemplary in this respect (main image). Researches into the use of raw earth in Roman times are also currently under development and deeply renews our vision of the ancient city where obviously raw earth constructions are the main part of the domestic architecture.
Fig 2: Lézignan-Corbières (Aude, France): example of a 13th-14th century AD cob-built house still standing (credits E. Leal).
Over the last twenty-five years, the organisation of a series of round-tables dedicated to transdisciplinary researches on raw earth constructions (Échanges transdisciplinaires sur les constructions en terre crue) has made it possible to establish the terminology used in architectural and technological analysis, as well as to raise issues relating to the development of the constructive cultures of earthen architecture.
Research carried out on archaeological sites in temperate, mediterranean or tropical climates has highlighted the difficulties of identifying and technologically characterising these architectures. These problems arise as early as the fieldwork phase. Effectively, earthen architectures are often heavily levelled or buried under rubbles, resulting from its deterioration and demolition, causing identification problems that can be solved thanks to the use of suitable excavation protocols and an accurate knowledge of the principles of raw construction.
The way in which these architectural remains are viewed has evolved, leading to the integration of architectural analysis with geoarchaeological studies using micromorphology as a tool for characterising materials and their manufacturing and installation processes. All this work, highlighting the archaeological potential of such areas, has gone beyond the boundaries of French archaeology and has had an impact, to varying degrees, on the development of research into raw earth in the Western Mediterranean.
It is clear that the identification of a particular construction technique is not an end in itself. Understanding the potential for adaptation within a single technology, the place of this material next to stone or wood and which economic system (from material supply to recycling) it fits into, helps to define the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of particular human groups or territory. It turns out that not all earth-based construction techniques were invented or used everywhere. Although some are indeed “universal”, others were developed in specific places. They were then transmitted and spread through the movement of populations or craftsmen and through voluntary or forced borrowing. These processes have either endured or been abandoned in the course of history.
Research into earthen architecture is therefore central to the study of the development of local building cultures and their development, from the Neolithic to the present day, in the western Mediterranean basin and neighbouring areas.

Main image: Mas Rouge (Monpellier, Hérault, France): detail of the burial layers with raw earth elements of the Late Neolithic collective burial of Mas Rouge (credits Y. Tchéremissinoff).

Dun Ġwann Farrugia and two ‘young assistants’: reassessing the legacy of amateur archaeology
2024-10-16 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Dr Anton Bugeja
In the late 1940s, three men set out on an ambitious quest to explore and document all the archaeological sites of the Maltese Islands. Although their ultimate goal proved unattainable, their journey left an indelible mark on the archaeological record. Together, they uncovered 17 prehistoric sites, authored more than 40 newspaper articles, and amassed over 400 photographs, offering a unique and invaluable perspective on Malta’s ancient heritage.
This lecture will provide a brief biographical overview of these amateur archaeologists and outline some of their thoughts and ideas. Focusing on stories of archaeological loss and recovery, the presentation will highlight a select number of the sites they documented, showcasing what is now regarded as one of the most significant mid-twentieth century photographic collections of ‘minor’ Maltese archaeological sites.
Photographs: Heritage Malta

Archaeology at the Malta Pavilion, British Empire Exhibition, 1924
2024-11-20 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Prof. Reuben Grima
The British Empire Exhibition held at Wembley in 1924 and 1925 drew a larger audience than any other mega-event in Britain until that time.
Malta’s participation in 1924 came at a formative moment in its political history. The granting of self-government in 1921 had given new impetus to Malta’s aspirations for greater self-determination and for a distinct national identity. It also coincided with an intensive period of archaeological excavation and discovery, led largely by the indefatigable Themistocles Zammit. Archaeology, and more particularly, prehistory, inevitably became caught up in debates about Maltese race, identity, and political destiny.
The Malta Pavilion at Wembley was closely shaped by all of these forces. It made use of Malta’s history and archaeology to give form to new ways of thinking about Maltese identity. The extensive references that the pavilion made to the period of the Knights of Saint John are well known. What is not well known is that the pavilion also made systematic use of prehistoric remains in the design of its interior. The decisions that led to this design will be traced. It will be argued that Malta’s recently discovered Neolithic culture lent itself to the creation of new narratives of a distinct Maltese race, and that the Malta Pavilion at Wembley summed up a new and powerful narrative of Maltese identity, profoundly shaped by the work of Zammit and his co-workers, and by the prevailing political context. Although the use of archaeology in the pavilion has been largely forgotten, some of the myths about Maltese race and identity that were invented around the same period still persist today.

Catacomb rediscoveries in Malta and Italy: an overview
2024-12-18 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Dr Chiara Cecalupo
The presence of large underground Christian cemeteries in various places in the Mediterranean has attracted the attention of many scholars, travellers, curious people and researchers for many centuries, from the modern age until today. The catacomb complexes of the central Mediterranean (i.e. Italy, Malta and North Africa) present archaeological and architectural features of great interest, with common elements as much as singular regional peculiarities.
Regardless of the specific archaeological features, however, the rediscovery and investigation of catacombs in Italy and Malta has always been strongly linked since its inception in the mid-17th century. The incredible interconnection between the rediscovery phenomena underlies a rich common literary, scientific and graphic production that has been little studied as a unitary phenomenon, and that instead presents rich insights from a historiographical and cultural point of view.
The talk will then explore some of this historiographic heritage through archival documents, rare books, old catacomb plans and image, in order to present some of the most interesting results of this human and cultural connections between Malta and Italy.

Understanding ancient inscriptions: the case of CIS I, 123, CIS I,123 bis, and the Tal-Virtù Papyrus
2025-01-15 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Prof. Anthony J. Frendo
In attempting to understand the three Phoenician inscriptions from Malta selected for this talk, it will be shown that a whole array of principles of interpretation are at work in the head of scholars trying to come to grips with these inscriptions – whether they are aware of them or not. We have to be conscious of such principles in order to understand texts properly. In inscriptions without word division, punctuation, or vowels (such as is the case with Phoenician), context plays a crucial role. Indeed, out of multiple possible philological solutions for CIS I, 123 the one buttressed by the archaeological context is clearly the most plausible one. The use of continual script did not pose a problem for the ancients, seeing that modern research has shown that language is not built on a division between words but on two-second spurts of sounds with pauses in between.

Reconstructing the Neanderthal diet: Recent advances in Archaeological Research
2025-02-19 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Dr. Mario Mata-González
Since the discovery of the first Neanderthal fossils, especially during the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, Neanderthals were conceptualized as brutish and unintelligent creatures. Nevertheless, our understanding of what being Neanderthal means has shifted radically during the last four decades, and archaeological and paleoanthropological researchers have demonstrated over and over again that Neanderthals were successful, highly adaptable, and innovative humans. We now know that they spread across a vast territory, from the Atlantic coasts of Europe to the Altai Mountains in east-Central Asia, and they existed between ca. 400–35 kya.
The reconstruction of diet (food that is consumed) and subsistence strategies (how food is procured, processed, consumed, discarded, etc.) represent key aspects to better understand how Neanderthals adapted to different environments and faced ecological constraints. Using Neandertals as case studies, during my talk I will present a review of numerous archaeological subfields and scientific methods that allow us to reconstruct hominin diets and subsistence strategies, including zooarchaeology, archaeobotanical, stable isotopes, dental microwear, and dental calculus. By doing so, I aim to illustrate the potential of using Archaeological Sciences to study past hominin behavior in new ways that may have seemed unimaginable a few decades ago.

Smashing Old Ideas: New approaches to Late Neolithic pottery from the Maltese Islands
2025-03-12 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Dr Isabelle Vella Gregory
How should we approach a period dominated by megaliths and rigid typologies? Can we learn more from prehistoric pottery? Understanding humanity requires multiple approaches. This talk will focus on pottery, starting with decoration techniques and the tools used. Pottery typologies, while seemingly neutral, have a complex history that includes some of archaeology’s less pleasant aspects. Rigid typologies constrain inquiry by imposing classifications that overlook the dynamic lives of pottery makers and users. This oversimplification reduces cultural identity to single groups, often seen as passive recipients of foreign influences, as evident in certain views of the Neolithic Maltese Islands. How did people use their bodies to make and decorate pots? This shifts the focus to the potters, revealing a community of practice where shared techniques and knowledge reflect social structures and interactions. Ceramic composition analysis provides deeper insights into the materials and methods used in pottery production. By examining the “recipes” for making pots and the various firing techniques, we can understand technological choices and innovations. Ultimately, this approach brings us closer to understanding one of the most complex and fascinating prehistoric societies in the ancient Mediterranean.

New insights on tomb architecture and burial in Phoenician to Late Antique Malta
2025-04-16 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Dr David Cardona Bionote
Recent studies on the funerary landscape of the area around the ancient town of Melite have provided various insights on the connection between zones reserved for the living and those reserved for the dead. This included information on what the two could tell us about the other. Consequently, this research also provided a deep insight on the multiple tomb and burial typologies within the area of study. This presentation will primarily focus on the data and analysis of this last part. It will thus look at past interpretations and ideas about tomb typologies between the Phoenician and Late Antique periods, comparing old and new proposals on the changes in tomb and burial architecture.
David Cardona is an archaeologist with a very broad range of interests. He has interest in the archaeology of architecture and ancient technologies and, more recently, landscape and burial archaeology. He has researched the use of stone within buildings on the Maltese Islands the Prehistoric period in fulfilment of his Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology, while his MA thesis dealt with the architectural decoration of Roman buildings on Malta and Gozo. This culminated in his book “Roman Architecture in Malta”. His doctoral degree from the University of Leicester, called “Landscapes of Death and Commemoration: burial space, place and evolution from Phoenician to late Roman Malta” combined various forms of spatial data onto a GIS platform to analyse landscape use, connections and transformations. He currently holds the position of Senior Manager for the Archaeological Research Unit and Senior Curator for Phoenician, Roman and Medieval sites within Heritage Malta.

Tyre and the first Phoenician diaspora in the Mediterranean
2025-05-14 18:00 | Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta
Lecture by Dr Francisco J. Núñez
The interpretation of eastern materials found in overseas contexts has long been shaped by ancient textual sources, often resulting in debate over the nature, aims, and chronology of the Levantine diaspora in the Mediterranean. This lecture addresses the issue through three interconnected parts.
First, it reviews the early evidence—both textual and material—primarily comprising quasi-mythological accounts and poorly contextualized artefacts. The second part focuses on ceramic data from key sites across the Mediterranean: Kition (Cyprus), Kommos (Crete), Sant’Imbenia (Sardinia), and La Rebanadilla and Huelva (Iberian Peninsula), outlining the ceramic landscape of the diaspora’s earliest phases.
The third part compares these materials with the Levantine ceramic sequence, focusing on Tyre and Megiddo to assess links with local productions, establish absolute chronology, and contextualize the phenomenon historically.
Findings suggest that the first Phoenician diaspora began no earlier than the mid-9th century BCE, coinciding with political realignments in the Levant and the emergence of coastal cities as economic actors within expanding Mediterranean trade networks.

Shifting Sands, Changing Narratives: Climate Change and Human Prehistory in Arabia
2025-10-15 18:00
Lecture by Dr Huw Groucutt
The Arabian Peninsula covers over three million square kilometres at the interface between Africa and Asia. Traditionally it was believed that Arabia had a sparse prehistory, and had been an unchanging desert. Recent research, however, reveals a highly dynamic climate history in the region, with alternating wet and dry periods. Likewise, archaeological research is uncovering a rich prehistoric record. In this talk the author will outline recent and ongoing research. From exploring hyena dens full of rotting bones, deep underground in lava tubes, to studying the remains of ancient lakes and associated hippo fossils and stone tools, these findings transform how we think about Arabian prehistory. The talk will also consider the parallels and differences between ‘desert archaeology’ and ‘island archaeology’, and how different schools and approaches can benefit others.
Photo: The Nefud Desert, Prof. E. Scerri
