National museums in Malta

In 1903; the British Governor of Malta appointed a committee with the purpose of establishing a National Museum in the capital. The first National Museum; called the Valletta Museum; was inaugurated on the 24th of May 1905. Malta gained independence from the British in 1964 and became a Republic in 1974. The urge to display the island’s history; identity and its wealth of material cultural heritage was strongly felt and from the 1970s onwards several other Museums opened their doors to the public. This paper goes through the history of National Museums in Malta; from the earliest known collections open to the public in the seventeenth century; up until today. Various personalities over the years contributed to the setting up of National Museums and these will be highlighted later on in this paper. Their enlightened curatorship contributed significantly towards the island’s search for its identity. Different landmarks in Malta’s historical timeline; especially the turbulent and confrontational political history that has marked Malta’s colonial experience; have also been highlighted. The suppression of all forms of civil government after 1811 had led to a gradual growth of two opposing political factions; involving a Nationalist and an Imperialist party. In the absence of a formal constitution; the political battle between the two factions was necessarily engaged on a largely cultural basis. The Maltese language; its religion; literature and its history were all hotly disputed in a partisan attempt to define the Islands culture according to a pro- Italian or to a pro-British political creed. Archaeology was no exception; finding itself caught up in the frustratingly irrelevant arguments that raged between Imperialists and Nationalists as to the real identity of the ‘Maltese race’. (Cutajar; 1995: 70-71) National Museums in Malta are a reflection of the island’s long history; politics; culture; values and identity. For centuries Malta depended on the sea and trade and it has had many influences arriving from the surrounding continents; as one can see at Malta’s Maritime Museum in Birgu. The National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta displays a wealth of artefacts originally located in the prehistoric temple sites of Malta that range from up to 7000 years ago. The successive epoch; being Malta’s Medieval period; when Byzantine; Arab and Norman communities occupied the islands; however; is barely represented. The few artefacts on display from that period do not give a clear narrative and educational representation; reflecting the fact that the Catholic faith was and still is highly dominant in the lives of many Maltese. It can be argued that the most represented artefacts on display in Malta’s National Museums date to the Baroque period; when Malta was under the Catholic Order of the Knights of St. John; from the sixteenth till the eighteenth centuries. Catholicism; as it is still visible on the streets and in every village and cultural calendar of the Maltese islands; is still highly valued. The history of national museums in Malta goes on up to today; and so do the attempts at improving the current displays and narratives. The need for the setting up of new national museums; showing off the more recent and contemporary identity of the islands; is also strongly felt; especially the setting up of a National Modern and Contemporary Art Museum. The capital city of Malta; Valletta; – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – will be the European Capital of Culture in 2018. Today; three of Malta’s national museums are located within the city of Valletta. These are the National Museum of Fine Arts; the National Museum of Archaeology and the National War Museum. The Palace Armoury; housing the National Collections of Arms; is located in the Grand Masters Palace; also in Valletta. The other national museums that will also be briefly discussed are the National Museum of Natural History; located in Mdina; and Malta’s Maritime Museum in Birgu. It is hoped that; by 2018; further improvements will be done; reflecting a more contemporary approach in displaying Malta’s unique identity.peer-reviewe

Fatimid coins in the National Museum of Damascus. An overview

The Fatimid coins in the National Museum of Damascus were only partially published so far. This contribution presents one hundred and one pieces from the Syrian museum, of which fifty were previously unpublished and only two of which had been illustrated before. Through this new material, and its detailed catalogue, it is now possible to add new data to Fatimid numismatic history and to document the holdings of an important museum collection

National Museums and Other Cultures in Modern Japan

This article examines the representation of Japan at three national museums in Japan: the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Japanese History and the National Museum of Ethnology. It explores the way in which the museums have displayed difference both within Japan and between Japan and the other countries to which it is compared. The essay examines how this has produced a claim of Japanese uniqueness in the museum, the difficulty museums therefore have in connecting the Japanese past to the present and a number of recent attempts to overcome these problems in the representation of Japan

Notebook - May 1969

Contents: Editor\u27s Page.....p. 3 The Federal Antiquities Act.....p. 4 Underwater Salvage Act.....p. 8 You and Your Arrowheads.....p. 11 Archeological Society of South Carolina.....p. 16 Ivor Noel-Hume Visits Charles Towne.....p. 17 Sigma XI Lectures.....p. 17 National Register of Historic Places.....p. 17 Land\u27s Ford Canal.....p. 18 Underwater Salvage at Charles Towne.....p. 18 Gordon H. Brown Joins Staff.....p. 19 Honors to Stanley South.....p. 20 Toastmasters International.....p. 20 The Liberty Tree.....p. 2

Terracotta Figurines in the Walker Art Building

Bulletin / Bowdoin College ; no. 335https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/art-museum-exhibition-catalogs/1051/thumbnail.jp

New light on Fr Magri's exploration of the Hypogeum : notes from correspondence with the British Museum

In November 1903, a century ago, the Committee of Management of the Museum proposed Father Emmanuel Magri S.J. to supervise the exploration of the Hypogeum in Paola. Dr Temi Zammit, in the Museum Annual Report for 1903 wrote: "The exploration [of the Hypogeum] is being carried on under the supervision of Father E. Magri, S.J., whose competence is unquestionable and who will undoubtedly give us a full report on the completion of the work." Unfortunately, Fr Magri died unexpectedly on 29 March, 1907, in Sfax, Tunisia where he had gone to preach spiritual exercises, and celebrate Easter. With the Report undelivered, and his notes not traced, his work seems completely lost. Magri's notes and correspondence Though very active, Magri left few publications related to archaeology. His notes have never been found, no material related to archaeology has ever been traced in Jesuit archives. But is the picture actually so bleak? Magri 's correspondence proves to be a goldmine. Several letters related to archaeology have actually been traced. Some thirty-five of them, addressed mainly to the Lieutenant Governor were found some years ago in the Palace Archives, Valletta,. These letters are now in the National Archives, in Rabat. I have retraced a new series of letters at the British Museum, eleven letters written by Fr Magri to Dr E.A. Wallis Budge, the Keeper of Assyrian and Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum. These letters shed new light on Magri 's exploration of the hypogeum.peer-reviewe

The Imperial Museum of Antiquities in Jerusalem, 1890-1930: An Alternative Narrative

The creation of the first Museum of Antiquities in Jerusalem during the late Ottoman period is a fascinating story of archaeological pursuits in the region by both Ottoman government officialdom in Istanbul and foreign archaeologists working in Palestine for the British Palestine Exploration Fund. The Ottoman Museum called the Muze-I Humayun in Turkish or Imperial Museum (1901-1917) and its collection is continuous with the British Palestine Museum of Antiquities (1921-1930) and the Palestine Archaeological Museum. The construction of the last began in 1930 and was completed in 1935, but the museum, now known as the Rockefeller Museum, did not open until 1938. Between 1922 and 1935 the British encouraged the creation of a museum for Islamic Art (1922) and one for Jewish Art. The history of the museum from the Ottoman Period through the British Mandate Period (1917-1948) is well documented in sources located in the Ottoman National Archives in Istanbul, the Mandate Period Archives of the Department of Antiquities housed in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem, the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) archives in London, and the Sijillat al-Mahkama al-Shar’iya (Religious Court Registers) of Jerusale

A Walk through the Past: Toward the Study of Archaeological Museums in Italy, Greece, and Israel

Archaeological museums and museum displays help to broadcast ideological statements, particularly concerning the formation of national identities, yet the ways in which the messages being transmitted have been articulated within the actual spaces devoted to the display of artifacts are still far from being thoroughly studied. More specifically, little attention has been dedicated to some of the most immediate means through which a museum interprets the past for the modern-day visitor, such as its plan, the arrangement of its collections in the galleries, and its visiting paths. The dissertation examines the physical features a group of archaeological museums in Italy, Greece, and Israel, three countries which became independent less than two centuries ago, and discusses how they shape the visitor\u27s perception of the artifacts and encourage him or her to see them as elements of a meaningful narrative. The research embraces institutions of different scope and size (national, regional, local), and considers the history of each display, not just its present appearance. The following museums are analyzed: in Italy, the branch of the Roman National Museum installed in the Palazzo Altemps, the City Archaeological Museum in Bologna, and the Archaeological Environmental Museum in San Giovanni in Persiceto, near Bologna: in Greece, the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and the archaeological museums in Nafplio and Atalanti; in Israel, the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem and the Archaeological Museum Beit Miriam, Kibbutz Palmachim. Reviewing the individual museums and establishing comparisons among them allows to address several important questions: the function of archaeology and its display in national states, especially when they have to incorporate an ancient and distinguished past in their process of self-definition; the sometimes tense cohabitation of artifacts entering museums as part of collections and objects discovered in excavations; the different ways of dealing with visitors, as expressed for example in rules and regulations concerning visits, and the behavior expected from them, sometimes not too different from the conduct associated with places of worship; the practical issues and challenges faced by museums, such as availability of space, distribution of weight, lighting, and climatic conditions

Museums and National Identity: The Case of the Parthenon Sculptures

The controversy over ownership for the Parthenon Sculptures between Britain and Greece questions the role of museums, specifically the British Museum, in the promotion of national identity in the late twentieth century. An analysis of this controversy suggests that museums, while helping maintain a national identity, also promote a global identity, albeit inadvertently. This paper seeks to examine the interaction between nationalism and museums, with a view to assessing what significance the Parthenon Sculptures have in the British Museum. Additionally, it attempts to presents the Greek demand for the return of these sculptures in context of the opening of the new Acropolis Museum in June of 2009 in Athens

Letter from Baghdad

In "Letter from Baghdad' D. T. Potts recounts the aftermath of the looting of the Iraq National Museum that took place in April 2003, the international response to it and his own efforts to assist the museum staff in reconstituting their record system.Australia Council, La Trobe University, National Library of Australia, Holding Redlich, Arts Victori