A lecture entitled "From Maverick Politics in the 20th Century to Maverick Cultural Development in Prehistory - Malta's Quest for Identity", will be delivered by Professor Anthony Bonanno on Thursday at 133, Melita Street, Valletta at 6 p.m. This is the final lecture in Din l-Art Helwa's seasonal cultural presentations.
During his presentation, Professor Bonanno will take his audience on a Pindaric flight to Malta's prehistoric times, first briefly examining the island's attempts to establish its national identity when, in the aftermath of Independence, foreign policies may have appeared 'maverick' to the nations north of the Mediterranean basin.
The lecture will outline the islands's relationship with Sicily and Italy from the earliest human presence on the archipelago, around 7,000 years ago, to the glorious period of Malta's magnificent megalithic temple culture, which Italian archaeologists often refer to as la civiltà dei templi. This culture has become, perhaps belatedly, the subject of an increasing number of studies, as well as PhD dissertations in British and other universities. In part, this greater awareness in the international academic world is the result of an ever emergent presence of Maltese academics, or of their works, in British and other international cultures. The Xaghra Circle discovery and its contents have promoted Malta's archaeological importance even further.
Some of these recent opinions have challenged previous attitudes among affirmed prehistorians, questioning whether Malta's prehistoric achievement took place in "splendid isolation". One theory has gone even further and claimed that our Maltese prehistoric ancestors meant their art and architecture to be a cultural self-assertion, a new island identity, vis-à-vis the rest of the world. Professor Bonanno will evaluate this during his presentation and will discuss other recently proposed novel interpretations of Malta's unique prehistoric cultural manifestations.
Professor Bonanno, BA (Hons) Malta, D. Lett. (Palermo), Ph. D. (London), is Professor of Archaeology and head of the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta, lecturing there since 1971. He has lectured in various universities in Europe, the United States, Zimbabwe and Egypt. He is the author of numerous publications on Roman Art and Maltese Archaeology such as Portraits and Other Heads on Roman Historical Relief up to the Age of Septimius Severus (Oxford BAR 1976), Roman Malta: the Archaeological Heritage of the Maltese Islands (Rome, 1992), Il-Preistorja (Malta 2001) and his most recent publication, a detailed study, Malta: Phoenician, Punic and Roman.
Prof Bonanno is active in archaeological research, has convened international conferences, and serves on a number of national committees related to cultural heritage sitting on the governing Board of Heritage Malta and on the Scientific Committee for the Conservation of the Megalithic Temples.
Those attending are to be seated by 5.45 p.m. Admission is free of charge but donations to Din l-Art Helwa's restoration projects will be greatly appreciated.