Anthony Bonanno | University of Malta (original) (raw)
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Papers by Anthony Bonanno
Archaeopress eBooks, 2020
Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 1994
American Journal of Archaeology, Jul 1, 1984
Mare Internum, 2018
Bonanno_Mare_Internum_2018.pdf This article deals with a group of twelve fragments of marble scu... more Bonanno_Mare_Internum_2018.pdf
This article deals with a group of twelve fragments of marble sculptures derived from the excavations of the remains of a Roman house within the ancient town of Melite. Eleven pieces, in varying states of conservation, were brought to light in 1881 during a clearance operation conducted without any record of the location of the finds. A single piece, a togate statue of larger-than-life size was retrieved in 1922 during an extension of the excavation of the same house. Some of the more substantial and iconographically distinctive pieces – the two heads and the headless draped statues – have featured briefly and sporadically in various publications over the last century, but always separately, without the required details, and without any attempt to relate them with one another, let alone to consider them as part of a small cycle of portrait sculptures of an imperial family. Although a brief account of three portrait statues of this group was previously published by the present author, and most of the individual pieces have been temporarily placed by him online, no holistic assessment of the whole cycle in their historical context has ever been undertaken. The purpose of this article is to fill that gap. Apart from highlighting the appurtenance of some pieces to their respective statues, the reconstruction of a cycle of portrait-statues of Julio-Claudian date, and the identification of each statue with a member of that same family, that is, the emperor Claudius, his daughter Claudia Antonia, his adopted son Nero and his wife Agrippina, the article seeks to explore the possible motivations behind the insertion of the cycle in a domestic context. In the absence of textual evidence, a desire by the owner of the house to express and manifest his loyalty to the current political powers is hypothesised.
Workshop on Archaeological Parks and Cultural Tourism (1990 : Malta), 1992
Anthony Bonanno shares some thoughts on the Council of Europe Workshop held in Malta between the ... more Anthony Bonanno shares some thoughts on the Council of Europe Workshop held in Malta between the 13th and 15th of September 1990 and organised in collaboration with the Foundation for International Studies and the Mediterranean Institute of the University of Malta. That international workshop was attended by a considerable number of participants coming from most European and Mediterranean countries, from Great Britain and Finland to Tunisia and Greece, from the Canary Islands to Israel. There were also participants from the Iberian Peninsula. The theme of that international workshop, entitled "Archaeological Parks and Cultural Tourism" was in many ways related to the workshop held between the 18 and 20th October in Conimbriga, Portugal, in particular in its fundamental objective on which Anthony Bonanno, as academic adviser in the organisation, insisted, namely, the preservation, presentation and enhancement of archaeological sites. As the title clearly suggests , however, the workshop dealt with this problem from one particular angle: the inter-relationship and mutual impact between the archaeological sites (archaeological parks, to be precise) and cultural tourism
L. Bugeja, M. Buhagiar & S. Fiorini (Eds.), Birgu : a Maltese maritime city, May 1, 1993
Of the five sedimentary layers that constitute the characteristic geological formation of the Mal... more Of the five sedimentary layers that constitute the characteristic geological formation of the Maltese islands only the lower two survive in the eastern half of Malta, the softer Globigerina limestone -which has provided for thousands of years a source of excellent, easy-to-shape, building stone -on top of the harder Lower Coralline limestone which outcrops in limited areas. The low, gently sloping, north coastline of this eastern half of the island is indented in a most conspicuous way by the two adjacent harbours, the Grand Harbour and Marsamxett Harbour, the two being separated by the Valletta peninsula. Birgu, together with Fort St Angelo, occupies one of the tongues of land that project from the eastern side of the Grand Harbour in the direction of Valletta. The bedrock of this promontory is Globigerina although beyond it to the east Coralline limestone outcrops in a strip that extends northwards towards the coast.
This chapter discusses the few surviving and/or recorded archaeological items inside, or associated with, the peninsula against its historical background as revealed by the antiquarian literature.
![Research paper thumbnail of Issue editors’ foreword [Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 9(1)]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/118818937/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](By its very geographical position Malta is destined to play a crucial role in international affai... more By its very geographical position Malta is destined to play a crucial role in international affairs, and in a special way in Mediterranean maritime affairs. It has done so in the past, ancient and not so remote, but mainly as a tool of war. In its new role, as an agent of peace, it was only recently that it was selected as the venue of an important meeting of the two super powers, a meeting that contributed in a singular manner towards the end of the cold war. In the field of heritage Malta has also made a solid contribution in the international forum when it persuaded the United Nations to approve the principle of the Common Heritage of Mankind. So the choice of Malta as the venue for the IV Forum for the Debate on the Maritime Heritage of the Mediterranean was a natural one, almost overdue. The meeting was held in the premises of the Maritime Museum on 12-14 November 1997. A substantial number of papers, some of which of considerable interest, were delivered during that meeting, but they would have remained a dead letter since no provision was made for the publication of the proceedings of the Forum. It is for this reason that the senior of the two co-editors suggested to the Board of the Mediterranean Institute of the University of Malta, way back in 1988, the publication of a selection of the papers delivered in the meeting as one of the issues of the Journal of Mediterranean Studies. What started as a simple offer on his part to help in the editing and publication of the papers ended up by his having to assume the greater part of the responsibility of seeing the contents of this edition to reach its destination. A number of difficulties were encountered which caused the delay in the completion of this number, for which we apologize to the subscribers of the Journal. The selected sequence of the papers follows, in our view, a logical order.
CONTENTS Preface v List of Members, with addresses vii Opening Addresses ix SECTION I: PREHISTORY... more CONTENTS Preface v List of Members, with addresses vii Opening Addresses ix SECTION I: PREHISTORY 1 The question of fertility cults 2 E. Anati Old Europe: sacred matriarchy or complementary opposition? 17 B. Hayden Philosophical paradigms of fertility cult interpretations: ...
Tas-Silg, Marsaxlokk (Malta) II. Archaeological excavations conducted by the University of Malta, 1996-2005, 2015
Book Distributors Limited Publishing, 2018
Archaeopress eBooks, 2020
Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 1994
American Journal of Archaeology, Jul 1, 1984
Mare Internum, 2018
Bonanno_Mare_Internum_2018.pdf This article deals with a group of twelve fragments of marble scu... more Bonanno_Mare_Internum_2018.pdf
This article deals with a group of twelve fragments of marble sculptures derived from the excavations of the remains of a Roman house within the ancient town of Melite. Eleven pieces, in varying states of conservation, were brought to light in 1881 during a clearance operation conducted without any record of the location of the finds. A single piece, a togate statue of larger-than-life size was retrieved in 1922 during an extension of the excavation of the same house. Some of the more substantial and iconographically distinctive pieces – the two heads and the headless draped statues – have featured briefly and sporadically in various publications over the last century, but always separately, without the required details, and without any attempt to relate them with one another, let alone to consider them as part of a small cycle of portrait sculptures of an imperial family. Although a brief account of three portrait statues of this group was previously published by the present author, and most of the individual pieces have been temporarily placed by him online, no holistic assessment of the whole cycle in their historical context has ever been undertaken. The purpose of this article is to fill that gap. Apart from highlighting the appurtenance of some pieces to their respective statues, the reconstruction of a cycle of portrait-statues of Julio-Claudian date, and the identification of each statue with a member of that same family, that is, the emperor Claudius, his daughter Claudia Antonia, his adopted son Nero and his wife Agrippina, the article seeks to explore the possible motivations behind the insertion of the cycle in a domestic context. In the absence of textual evidence, a desire by the owner of the house to express and manifest his loyalty to the current political powers is hypothesised.
Workshop on Archaeological Parks and Cultural Tourism (1990 : Malta), 1992
Anthony Bonanno shares some thoughts on the Council of Europe Workshop held in Malta between the ... more Anthony Bonanno shares some thoughts on the Council of Europe Workshop held in Malta between the 13th and 15th of September 1990 and organised in collaboration with the Foundation for International Studies and the Mediterranean Institute of the University of Malta. That international workshop was attended by a considerable number of participants coming from most European and Mediterranean countries, from Great Britain and Finland to Tunisia and Greece, from the Canary Islands to Israel. There were also participants from the Iberian Peninsula. The theme of that international workshop, entitled "Archaeological Parks and Cultural Tourism" was in many ways related to the workshop held between the 18 and 20th October in Conimbriga, Portugal, in particular in its fundamental objective on which Anthony Bonanno, as academic adviser in the organisation, insisted, namely, the preservation, presentation and enhancement of archaeological sites. As the title clearly suggests , however, the workshop dealt with this problem from one particular angle: the inter-relationship and mutual impact between the archaeological sites (archaeological parks, to be precise) and cultural tourism
L. Bugeja, M. Buhagiar & S. Fiorini (Eds.), Birgu : a Maltese maritime city, May 1, 1993
Of the five sedimentary layers that constitute the characteristic geological formation of the Mal... more Of the five sedimentary layers that constitute the characteristic geological formation of the Maltese islands only the lower two survive in the eastern half of Malta, the softer Globigerina limestone -which has provided for thousands of years a source of excellent, easy-to-shape, building stone -on top of the harder Lower Coralline limestone which outcrops in limited areas. The low, gently sloping, north coastline of this eastern half of the island is indented in a most conspicuous way by the two adjacent harbours, the Grand Harbour and Marsamxett Harbour, the two being separated by the Valletta peninsula. Birgu, together with Fort St Angelo, occupies one of the tongues of land that project from the eastern side of the Grand Harbour in the direction of Valletta. The bedrock of this promontory is Globigerina although beyond it to the east Coralline limestone outcrops in a strip that extends northwards towards the coast.
This chapter discusses the few surviving and/or recorded archaeological items inside, or associated with, the peninsula against its historical background as revealed by the antiquarian literature.
By its very geographical position Malta is destined to play a crucial role in international affai... more By its very geographical position Malta is destined to play a crucial role in international affairs, and in a special way in Mediterranean maritime affairs. It has done so in the past, ancient and not so remote, but mainly as a tool of war. In its new role, as an agent of peace, it was only recently that it was selected as the venue of an important meeting of the two super powers, a meeting that contributed in a singular manner towards the end of the cold war. In the field of heritage Malta has also made a solid contribution in the international forum when it persuaded the United Nations to approve the principle of the Common Heritage of Mankind. So the choice of Malta as the venue for the IV Forum for the Debate on the Maritime Heritage of the Mediterranean was a natural one, almost overdue. The meeting was held in the premises of the Maritime Museum on 12-14 November 1997. A substantial number of papers, some of which of considerable interest, were delivered during that meeting, but they would have remained a dead letter since no provision was made for the publication of the proceedings of the Forum. It is for this reason that the senior of the two co-editors suggested to the Board of the Mediterranean Institute of the University of Malta, way back in 1988, the publication of a selection of the papers delivered in the meeting as one of the issues of the Journal of Mediterranean Studies. What started as a simple offer on his part to help in the editing and publication of the papers ended up by his having to assume the greater part of the responsibility of seeing the contents of this edition to reach its destination. A number of difficulties were encountered which caused the delay in the completion of this number, for which we apologize to the subscribers of the Journal. The selected sequence of the papers follows, in our view, a logical order.
CONTENTS Preface v List of Members, with addresses vii Opening Addresses ix SECTION I: PREHISTORY... more CONTENTS Preface v List of Members, with addresses vii Opening Addresses ix SECTION I: PREHISTORY 1 The question of fertility cults 2 E. Anati Old Europe: sacred matriarchy or complementary opposition? 17 B. Hayden Philosophical paradigms of fertility cult interpretations: ...
Tas-Silg, Marsaxlokk (Malta) II. Archaeological excavations conducted by the University of Malta, 1996-2005, 2015
Book Distributors Limited Publishing, 2018
Tas-Silg, on the south-east coast of the island of Malta, is a major multi-period site, with arch... more Tas-Silg, on the south-east coast of the island of Malta, is a major multi-period site, with archaeological remains spanning four thousand years. A megalithic temple complex built in the early third millennium BC gave way to a Phoenician and Punic sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Astarte. The sacred place underwent major transformations in Roman times, becoming an international religious complex dedicated to the goddess Juno. Located on the maritime routes plied by mariners and traders, its fame did not escape the attention of the first-century BC orator Cicero. Excavated as part of a major archaeological project in the 1960s, the site of Tas-Silg lay abandoned for several decades. In 1996, the University of Malta renewed excavations at the site for ten seasons, uncovering Neolithic and Late Bronze Age occupation levels, and substantial deposits associated with ritual offerings of Punic date. This volume is the first monograph of the final publication of the excavations. It provides an account of those excavations and of the studies which accompanied them, including the lithic assemblages, the figurative representations, scarabs and amulets, the worked stone, the coins, and environmental analyses. It forms a companion volume to the second monograph, which reports on the pottery and the inscribed pottery.
Tas-Silg, on the south-east coast of the island of Malta, is a major multi-period site, with arch... more Tas-Silg, on the south-east coast of the island of Malta, is a major multi-period site, with archaeological remains spanning four thousand years. A megalithic temple complex built in the early third millennium BC gave way to a Phoenician and Punic sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Astarte. The sacred place underwent major transformations in Roman times, becoming an international religious complex dedicated to the goddess Juno. Located on the maritime routes plied by mariners and traders, its fame did not escape the attention of the first-century BC orator Cicero. Excavated as part of a major archaeological project in the 1960s, the site of Tas-Silg lay abandoned for several decades. In 1996, the University of Malta renewed excavations at the site for ten seasons, uncovering Neolithic and Late Bronze Age occupation levels, and substantial deposits associated with ritual offerings of Punic date. This volume is the second monograph of the final publication of the excavations. It provides an account of the pottery and of the hundreds of inscribed pottery sherds that were recovered during the excavations. It forms a companion volume to the first monograph, which reports on the history of the site and other finds.