[Book review] The Maltese archipelago at the dawn of history : reassessment of the 1909 and 1959 excavations at Qlejgha tal-Baħrija and other essays

Abstract

For too long, the Maltese Bronze Age was the less popular cousin of the Neolithic. This started to change in 2011, when Tanasi and Nicholas Vella published Site, artefacts, landscape: prehistoric Borġ in-Nadur, Malta, followed by The late prehistory of Malta: essays on Borg in-Nadur and other sites in 2015 and this volume in 2020. All are published by Archaeopress and supported in part by the Shelby White-Leon Levy Foundation of Harvard University. Together, these volumes achieve many firsts, including a re-assessment of the Bronze Age, fundamental archaeometric analysis, absolute dates and the bringing together of various strands of research to produce a fundamental Bronze Age trilogy. Cumulatively, these books embody good practice for collaboration between various researchers and institutions, resulting in a much-needed fresh perspective that stems from different scholarly traditions.