A face from the past : death ritual in Punic Malta

On 19th January 1918 the curator of the Valletta museum, Themistocles Zammit, was summoned to a rocky plateau outside Rabat (Malta) to inspect two rock-cut tombs that had been discovered there by accident (Fig. 1) . This was not the first discovery in the area of Qallilija (previously known as Kallilija). In July of the previous year, Zammit had excavated and recorded another tomb , whereas in the autumn of 1912 at least eight tombs had been investigated together with one each in 1914 and 1916 . What was unique about the 1918 find, however, was the discovery of a face sculpted in relief inside one of the tombs.peer-reviewe

Trunkless legs of stone : debating ritual continuity at tas-Silġ, Malta

An Index follows this Chapter.Like the traveller from an antique land in Percy Shelley's sonnet 'Ozymandias', it is a pair of trunkless legs of stone that caught the attention of the present writer and inspired the title of this paper. The damaged statue I have in mind was discovered by Italian archaeologists at the site of Tas-Silġ in 1964 and is at present exhibited at the National Museum of Archaeology in Malta (Ciasca 1965: 57; Mallia 1965: 75-76) [Figures 1 & 2]. It represents a figure sculpted in high relief from a rectangular block of soft globigerina limestone, measuring 1.14 m. high, 0.49 m. wide, and 0.47 m. deep [Figures 3 & 4, plate 1a]. The figure wears a skirt and stands on short and swollen calves above a low plinth decorated with running spirals on a pitted background with a border round the top. The feet are partly damaged but the toes of the right foot are visible. Above the waist the damage increases in extent and in depth and most of the thorax is missing; enough of the arms survive, however, to show that they were held across the waist below two folds of the abdomen. Francis Mallia, then curator of the National Museum, was responsible for the publication of the statue: he dated the sculpture to the Tarxien phase, now known to have ended about 2600 cal BC, and maintained that the scars on the surface were 'made by the blade of a farmer's plough in going over the relic year after year and hitting its most prominent parts' (Mallia 1965: 75).peer-reviewe

Legislating, protecting, knowing : legal issues and cultural heritage in the Maltese Archipelago

‘They used to see this woman carrying a large stone on her head. She had a baby ... some say that she carried her baby in her arms, others that she carried the baby in a pocket of her dress, others that the baby was placed in a sling across her body; in her pocket were more than 300 square metres worth of broad beans; she also had four kilograms of flax; when she walked she ate beans, worked the flax, and steadied the stone on her head. In Gozo she built the small stone hut at Ta’Ċenċ, called Id-Dura tal-Mara. From there she carried the stones to Ġgantija, in Xagħra, as she had carried the standing stone to Qala, and the stones to Borġ Għarib near Għajnsielem. On the Ta’ Ċenċ heights, on the windswept plateau, there is a construction similar to Ġgantija, and along the edge there are remains of many stones forming a wall. Even these were carried by this woman. About the standing stone they say that it was carried by a woman one and a half times taller than the stone. She used to climb over it to work flax. In her pockets she could hold more than 600 square metres worth of broad beans.’peer-reviewe

Archeologia e fascismo negli archivi di Luigi Maria Ugolini

The rediscovery of the archives related to the research carried out in Malta by L. M. Ugolini on behalf of the Regime, together with the study of related documentation, allows us to reconstruct how Prehistory came to be used in the Twenties to justify Italian territorial aspirations in the Mediterranean. These theories contradicted Nordist claims that it was the Aryans who brought ci- vilization to the Mediterranean; they also put to rest the outdated view that the Phoenicians were responsible for the megalithic temples of Malta. In the course of his life, Ugolini acted as a voice of propaganda for the Regime. However, as staunch believer of Mediterraneanism, he worked tirelessly to highlight the grandeur of prehistoric cultures throu- ghout the Mediterranean, and sought archaeological evidence to support the anthropological theories of G. Sergi on the origins of the Mediterranean race.peer-reviewe

A view from the countryside : pollen from a field at Mistra Valley, Malta

Although historical sources for the Early Modern development of the Maltese landscape are abundant and well-documented, these records are uncorroborated by other forms of evidence. As part of investigations of the development of a field system at Mistra Valley, Malta, a sample was taken from a waterlain layer at the base of a field-fill on the edge of the valley-floor in Mistra Valley. Pollen and other analyses were done on this layer to identify the environment and agriculture of an early stage in the field system.peer-reviewe

Site, artefacts and landscape: Prehistoric Borg in-Nadur, Malta

Two major excavation campaigns took place at the site of Borġ in-Nadur in the twentieth century, one by Margaret Murray and another by David Trump. This paper highlights the discoveries and interpretations put forth by archaeologists. Archival material is used to throw light on the published stratigraphic sequence from the Bronze Age huts at the site.peer-reviewe

Collective Academic Supervision : diversity as a driver for learning

Traditionally, supervision of Ph.D. and master’s theses has been performed individually. However, previous research has identified various problems with this approach. Several studies have exposed the vulnerability of the individualised supervisor–student relationship, with students and supervisors alike reporting issues including the difficult balance between authority and independence – e.g. an over-reliance on the supervisor, in particular in postgraduate supervision – personality clashes, loneliness, and a lack of ownership (Dysthe, Samara and Westrheim, 2006). Collective Academic Supervision (CAS) is a research-based and innovative model for participation and learning in higher education (Nordentoft, Thomsen and Wichmann-Hansen, 2013). It offers a response to these challenges, as well as addressing the need for interdisciplinary and collaborative research exploring complex problems in both natural and human sciences and developing solutions. Inspired by sociocultural learning theory, the model incorporates a progressive and systematic interaction between students in their individual writing processes and integrates the notion that learning and participation are interconnected. Moreover, diversity in supervision groups is seen as a driver of both collective and individual learning. In my keynote, I expand on the rationale for the CAS model, its theoretical foundations, and how it can be put into practice within higher education. Finally, I address the challenges both supervisors and supervisees may experience when participating in CAS (Wichmann-Hansen, Thomsen and Nordentoft, 2015).peer-reviewe

Ritual, landscape and territory : Phoenician and Punic non-funerary religious sites in the Mediterranean; an analysis of the archaeological evidence.

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