Malte est entrée dans la sphère géopolitique de Carthage vers la fin du VI" siècle avant J.-C., à peu près en même temps que la Sicile occidentale . Peu après, l'hégémonie carthaginoise sur les colonies phéniciennes de Sicile l'entraîna dans le conflit militaire contre les colonies grecques de cette île qui a duré plus de deux siècles. Les sources textuelles ne livrent aucune information sur le rôle que Malte a pu jouer lors de ces hostilités. On retrouve Malte lors de la première guerre punique avec le poète latin Naevius (Guerre punique 4.37) au sujet d'un raid de la marine romaine. Les Romains réussirent toutefois à envahir l'île en -218, au début de la deuxième guerre punique (Liv.30.51) et la conservèrent Durant sept siècles. ; peer-reviewed
The title of this monograph refers to a man mentioned by name, father's name (patronymic), and place of origin (ethnicon) as many as four times in a single document, an inscribed bronze tablet reported to have been discovered in Rome in the 16th century together with a similar one originating from the city of Akragas (present Agrigento). Although discovered in Rome, the document is shown by internal evidence to have originated from Malta in pre-Imperial times. The inscription carries a decree issued by the legislative bodies of Malta conferring the status of proxenos (as well as that of euergetes) upon Demetrios, son of Diodotos, from Syracuse, and on his progeny, in recognition for services rendered. (Fig. 1) ; peer-reviewed
It may come as a surprise to those involved in some way or another in gender studies, or in the women liberation movement, to learn that this same movement has had its fair share of responsibility in the building up of a mythology whose political aim was to exalt the role of women in the remote past and to show how things fared much better while they were in charge. One cannot, in all honesty, attribute the responsibility for the fabrication of this myth to this movement because most of its originators were male scholars whose aim, I have reason to believe, was far from that of lending support to this movement when it was still in its infancy. ; peer-reviewed
With one major and a couple of minor episodes, the exceptional archaeological heritage of the Maltese islands has been the exclusive domain of British archaeologists since the archipelago came under British rule in 1802: Themistokles Zammit a distinguished Maltese doctor, dominated the archaeological scene during the first three decades of the 20th c., and then a German scholar (Albert Mayr) and an Italian a{chaeologist (Luigi Maria U goHni) made some inroads but were never allowed to conduct excavations. Throughout the long colonial period (1802-1964), the British government never made an effort to set up the necessary local mechanism for training curators of the island's archaeological heritage. It was only in 1939 that J. B. Ward Perkins was appointed professor of archaeology at the then Royal University of Malta, presumably with the intention of starting such a process of transfer of expertise. But that was not to be, since Ward Perkins' appointment had to be abandoned because of the War. In this scenario, and against the pre-independence political background of the early 1960s, the concession by the Maltese government to an Italian archaeological rnissione from the university of Rome and the Universita Cattolica di Milano to conduct monumental excavations on three major sites was an ideological (religious and culturat as well as political) statement by the ruling Nationalist Party. The mission conducted 8 annual archaeological campaigns employing tens of local workmen, again, however, without the training of local archaeologists as part of their remit. The final campaign took place in 1970, on the eve of the return to government of the Labour Party, which had a quite different ideological agenda' ; peer-reviewed
Malte fut prise par les Romains sans la moindre resistance en 218 avo J.-c. Elle fit partie de l'empire jusqu'a son annexion par Byzance en 535 ap. J.-c. Les sources antiques rapportent tres peu d'evenements historiques ; par contre les sources epigraphiques nous revelent beaucoup sur Ie statut politique de I'archipel. II y avait tres peu d'etablissements : une ville pour chacune des deux IIes principales et une dissemination des villas dont la plupart produisait de I'huile d'olive. Son patrimoine artistique, neanmoins, est d'une etonnante qualite. ; peer-reviewed
From the very first announcement of the theme of this congress it was evident that the "Egyptianizing" phenomenon would be one of the most recurring topics in the diverse contributions, especially those concerned with cultural aspects, such as art and religion, outside Egypt itself. It would be presumptuous of me, therefore, and futile, even to try to define the phenomenon. At this stage I would only wish to emphasize the distinction between a) the more ancient version of the "Egyptianizing" movement, which was diffused throughout the central and western Mediterranean by the Phoenicians, who not only plagiarized indiscriminately Egyptian art and iconography for their commercial purposes, but made extensive use of Egyptian religious form and content to give some sort of shape to their own religion; and b) the later Hellenistic version, which spread throughout the Graeco-Roman world as a result of the incorporation of Egypt, with its rich cultural and artistic baggage, within the Hellenistic world after the conquest of Alexander. The first movement started practically with the onset of the Iron Age which in the Near East coincided with the arrival on the scene of the Sea Peoples, one of the consequences of which was the emergence of the Phoenicians as a geopolitical reality. The Phoenicians foraged their way through the immense artistic and iconographic heritage of this ancient civilization and made it their own, often changing radically, if not completely, its original meaning. This Egyptianizing movement is also attested in Malta. It was introduced there by the Phoenicians who started their colonization of the islands towards the end of the 8th century and retained their presence in them till the second Punic war, Carthage having in the meantime shifted their political centre of gravity towards her. The physical products of this cultural movement in the Maltese islands have been catalogued and studied in Halbl's corpus of Aegyptiaca (1989). The second, or Hellenistic, Egyptianizing movement saw the diffusion, first of Egyptian artistic iconography, and later also of religious cults, throughout the GraecoRoman world in the process of the formation of that complex, but unified, cultural and artistic koine that characterizes the Hellenistic phenomenon. This immensely rich cultural baggage was taken over, practically wholly, by the Roman empire. With the incorporation of Egypt within the Roman commonwealth, the last of the Hellenistic kingdoms to do so, the Egyptianizing movement in the Roman world intensified even further as an artistic fashion, and introduced the diffusion of Egyptian religious cults in all parts ofthe Empire. In spite of Augustus' initial opposition to Egyptian cults in Rome, temples dedicated to Isis and Serapis proliferated, leading to the abrogation of his prohibiting edict. Egyptian cults were thus practised at all social levels (Lambrechts 1956, pp. 2, 34). This second movement did not leave the Maltese islands untouched and Halbl's corpus of Aegyptiaca includes a number of Egyptian items of this period (Halbl 1989, pp. 160-167). The purpose of this paper is to examine a relief fragment which is classifiable under this second Egyptianizing movement, and to investigate what light it sheds on the "Egyptian presence" in Malta, whether it was the product of a purely artistic fashion, the "Egyptomania" that invaded Rome and Italy in the first century A.D., or a manifestation of a religious worship. ; peer-reviewed
During its January meeting the Council of Din L-Art Ħelwa agreed to sponsor the first campaign of archaeological excavations to be conducted this summer by the Department of Classics and Archaeology of the University of Malta. This is the first of a series of yearly excavation campaigns we plan to undertake at Tas-Silġ, in the area south of the Zejtun-Delimara road. Permission for the excavations was granted by the Minister of Justice, Youth and Culture last year, after consultation with the Museums Department, the Government agency responsible for Malta's antiquities. As stipulated by the Antiquities (Protection) Act of 1925 (as amended), the excavations shall be undertaken under the superintendence of Government. ; N/A
The impact of tourism on the archaeological and artistic heritage of the Maltese islands in general was discussed in a paper delivered at the European Workshop on Cultural Tourism in Mediterranean Islands held in Malta in October 1988 under the aegis of the Division for Higher Education and Research of the Council of Europe and the University of Malta in collaboration with the Mediterranean Institute of the Foundation for International Studies. The paper was published in The Sunday Times of Malta the following month (Bonanno and Buhagiar 1988). In 1990 another Council of Europe workshop, entitled Archaeological Parks and Cultural Tourism, was organised in collaboration with the Foundation for International Studies and the Mediterranean Institute of the University of Malta. The theme of that workshop was in many ways related to that of the present paper, in particular in its fundamental objective, on which the present author, as academic adviser in the organisation, insisted, namely, the preservation, presentation and mise en valeur of archaeological sites. As the title clearly suggests,. however, the workshop dealt with this problem from one particular angle: the interrelationship and mutual impact between the archaeological sites (archaeological parks, to be precise) and cultural tourism. The proceedings of that workshop remained unpublished, but one may refer to a paper by the present author read during a Council of Europe Workshop in Coimbra, Portugal, the following month (Bonanno 1992) in which, very briefly, stock was taken of the major topics and points of discussion raised in the Malta workshop. Much of what follows reflects the contents and spirit of these two contributions, but with reference to Gozo. ; peer-reviewed
The first documentary reference to a doorway connecting the two adjacent churches is in the visitation report of 1621. The report of 1636 described it: intus utramque est ianua aperta. It would, however, appear to have been there at least by 1575 when the pavimentum of the Visitation church was mentioned, since its paving stones are visible beneath the stones now blocking the doorway and were evidently laid so as to run through it (Plate 20). While it is not possible to decide beyond all doubt how much earlier than that the doorway was constructed, there are several points which suggest that it was not an original feature of the Annunciation church. ; peer-reviewed
Talking about socio-economic structure of Roman Maritime Commerce on this occasion and to the present audience makes me feel like carrying the proverbial coals to Newcastle. I must confess straightaway that this is a totally new field of research for me. Until I obtained my doctorate from London University in 1975, and for a couple of years after, I concentrated my energy almost solely on Classical art, in particular Roman portraiture in relief; which explains the inclusion of the third part of my paper which some of you may find intrusive in the discussion of the theme of this conference. Since then, with my assumption of teaching duties at the University of Malta, barring one or two occasional contributions to Roman sculpture, I was forced by geographical, economic and logistical circumstances to focus my attention on the archaeology of my homeland. ; peer-reviewed
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727).
