Review articles and reviews

Abstract

These volumes represent the culmination of many years’ work by Andrea Pessina and Nicholas Vella. The first volume (508 pages) consists of a series of contributions which, as the authors (2021a, 1) summarise, “examines the relationship between archaeology and its sociopolitical milieu in the inter-war period in Malta and Italy from a historical perspective”. It does this in particular through an evaluation of the work of Italian archaeologist Luigi Ugolini (1895-1936). Then there are the three Malta Antica volumes (totalling 934 pages) which represent compilations of Ugolini’s unpublished works, which have been brought together by Pessina and Vella and are published along with many photographs (most by Ugolini) and helpful introductions and footnotes. Following on from his 1934 book, Malta, origini della civiltà mediterranea, Ugolini had sketched out plans for the publication of five follow-on books, which would add scholarly detail to support his bold claims. His early death prevented this.