Notes on letters from Maltese archaeologists to Alfred Louis Delattre (1902-1909) Articles uri icon

authors

  • CECALUPO, CHIARA

publication date

  • December 2021

start page

  • 21

end page

  • 40

issue

  • 1

volume

  • 31

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1016-3476

abstract

  • The article presents a cross section of Maltese archaeological historiography through the detailed analysis of thirteen letters from Maltese scholars to Father Delattre found in the archives of the Missionaries of Africa in Rome. The three authors (Magri, Tagliaferro, Zammit) referred to Delattre as an undisputed authority on the panorama of early twentieth-century pre-Roman archaeology and shared their archaeological discoveries with him. This essay, in addition to revealing previously unpublished texts, allows us to reflect on the role of archival sources in the history of Mediterranean archaeology and on the position of Maltese scholars in the network of cultural contacts that characterised Europe and the Mediterranean at that time.