The Honor Frost Foundation was founded in 2011. Honor Frost was an early pioneer in the field of underwater archaeology. When Honor died in 2010 she left the bulk of her estate to establish the foundation to promote marine and maritime archaeology with a focus on the eastern Mediterranean. The Foundation’s mission is to promote the advancement and research, including publication, of maritime archaeology with particular focus on the eastern Mediterranean, specifically Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus and Egypt.
The Foundation seeks to further its mission with the following objectives:
- To provide grants to independent scholars, individuals working in research establishments and to institutions for work on marine and maritime archaeology.
- To publish and disseminate research work which is a result of the HFF grants and papers from the Honor Frost archive.
- To provide grants to museums, galleries and other national institutions to assist in displaying works relevant to the study of maritime archaeology and for public education in the field.
- To sponsor public lectures and seminars within the field of marine and maritime archaeology.
- To support excavations of archaeological sites, including but not exclusively, ports, harbours, offshore anchorages, and ancient anchors found undersea relevant to Levantine archaeology.
- To support conservation, work relevant to marine and maritime archaeology in the region.
- To support exchange visits of museum staff from the Lebanon, Western Syria and Cyprus.
- To facilitate the training of individuals from the region in restoration and conservation techniques relevant to marine and maritime archaeology.
- To foster and promote the protection of underwater cultural heritage.
Honor Frost’s connection to Malta can be traced back to 1967 and the Mellieħa Bay project. Ms Frost’s subsequent publication ‘The Mortar Wreck in Mellieħa’, can be considered as the beginning of underwater cultural heritage activities in Malta, as well as the beginning of a long association between Ms Frost and Malta, where she kept a house and considered it a second home. This connection will be celebrated through a small ‘Honor Frost in Malta’ exhibition at the Malta Maritime Museum, which will include her notes and illustrations from the Mellieħa Bay excavation.
The Maritime Museum is responsible for the curation of 7000 years of Malta’s maritime history, with numerous exhibitions highlighting the different eras of the island’s maritime history, and housing some 20,000 artefacts in its unique collection. An excursion to the Phoenician Shipwreck Project exhibition is also planned, located in the Citadel of the neighbouring island of Gozo. The exhibition focuses on highlighting the recent discoveries being made from an innovative underwater project.
