University of Malta academics from the Department of Classics and Archaeology, Prof. Timmy Gambin, Prof. Nicholas Vella, and Alberto Bravo-Morata Rodriguez were invited speakers at recent conference, the 10th International congress on Phoenician and Punic Studies. The conference was held between 17 and 21 October 2022 at the Ibiza Congress Centre and was organised by the Consell de Ibiza and the Archaeological Museum of Ibiza and Formentera, in association with the Government of the Balearic Islands.
Prof. Vella presented two papers. The first paper covered the “Views of the living and the dead from recent investigations of the Phoenician burial ground at Għajn Klieb/Għajn Qajjet in Rabat, Malta” as part of the Funerary Worlds session. Research presented in this paper was conducted in collaboration with Heritage Malta and the Superintendence of Cultural heritage. The second paper, co-authored with Dr Maxine Anastasi and entitled “At the interstices of sea and land: rituals of place-making at Punic Għar ix-Xiħ and other sites in the Maltese Islands”, was presented in the Religion and Iconography session.
Prof. Timmy Gambin presented “A Punic wreck site off the coast of Gozo”, in the session on Research Projects, and in collaboration with Maja Sausmekat from Heritage Malta. Alberto Bravo-Morata Rodriguez and Alba Ferriera Dominguez, a collaborator from Ipso Facto, presented the “Study on the vessel remains found on the Phoenician Shipwreck of Xlendi - Initial observations & preliminary conclusions”, concerning the wooden remains of the Phoenician Shipwreck off Xlendi Bay, Gozo”, also in the session on Research Projects.
All presentations by the Maltese contingent were well received.
