Books by Maxine Anastasi
Pottery from Roman Malta, 2019
Papers by Maxine Anastasi
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2023
Studies on original mortars can greatly assist archaeological interpretations, as elucidating the... more Studies on original mortars can greatly assist archaeological interpretations, as elucidating the composition of such mortars gives clues on the origin of raw materials, manufacturing technology, and the construction phases of a site. This article presents the multi-analytical characterisation of 24 mortars and plasters from the Żejtun Roman Villa, Malta, to support archaeological hypotheses on the history of the construction of the site. The samples, belonging to at least three distinct phases included in the stratigraphy of the Żejtun archaeological site, were analysed using polarised light microscopy (PLM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry (TGA/DSC), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), ion chromatography (IC), and stable isotope analysis (13 C and 18 O). The assessment of the results through correlations with archaeological evidence identifies five types of mortars with varying degrees of hydraulicity. These are associated with different development phases of the site and distinctive uses and were mainly produced using local resources, except in the Early Roman period when natural pozzolanic raw materials started being used. As there are no natural pozzolans on the Maltese Islands, it is hypothesised that the pozzolanic materials used as aggregate in the mortars were imported to the Islands from neighbouring volcanic regions. This volcanic aggregate was especially abundant in one of the mortar types, which was used mainly as a bedding mortar for floors.
Small-island interactions : pottery from Roman Malta
This thesis is an investigation of Roman pottery from the Maltese islands from the 1st century BC... more This thesis is an investigation of Roman pottery from the Maltese islands from the 1st century BC to the mid-4th century AD, and how pottery can help assess Malta's economic role in the wider central Mediterranean region. The archipelago’s locally produced vessels, its range of ceramic exports, and the quantification of the types of amphorae, fine, and cooking wares the islands imported, were studied and the data were used to compare with the pottery available from the small islands of Pantelleria, Lampedusa and the Kerkennah isles. The aim is to revisit the theme of the economic role of the Maltese islands and other similar-sized islands in the region by moving away from the tradition of unilateral and monographic narratives, which more often than not, omit the wealth of information that can be garnered from pottery. In the first instance, a detailed study of three complete and new ceramic assemblages, including amphorae, fine, cooking and coarse wares, was undertaken. The opportunity to quantify identifiable imports and compare them with local products—the first of its kind for fine, cooking and coarse wares—provided valuable proxy data for comparing Malta with neighbouring islands and centres, and demonstrated what proportion of ceramic vessels were locally supplied, and how these changed over time. These data were also fed into a series of network analyses, which plotted the common pottery links shared between small-island and mainland sites in the region. The analyses were interpreted in conjunction with a critique of existing pottery quantification methods, and the potential acceptance for utilising all known pottery data irrespective of the quality and quantity of the published data available. Most importantly, the import trends obtained from this study were incorporated into the existing narrative of how small islands and their local industries featured in the central Mediterranean’s regional economy, highlighting the types of archaeologically visible industries that existed; how these developed symbiotically alongside other larger supply networks; and what effect this might have had on the integration of small islands in the Roman Mediterranean.</p
Malta and Gozo
The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean
Malta and Gozo are small offshore islands with a millennial history of maritime exploitation, fro... more Malta and Gozo are small offshore islands with a millennial history of maritime exploitation, from pioneer farmers to predatory pirates. Settled by the Phoenicians some time in the eighth century bce until they were occupied by Rome in 218 bce, Malta and Gozo offered these Levantine seafarers an ideal place to reside and exploit. The chapter draws on a whole range of evidence and offers a synthesis of earlier studies to show how the islanders managed their resources and how their religious beliefs and practices were fashioned by agricultural concerns, and also by the maritime world in which they were drawn.
Pottery variability and site function: Late Punic and Early Roman ceramic assemblages from Ras ir-Raħeb and other archaeological sites in the Maltese Islands
LRBT. Dall’archeologia all’epigrafia / De l'archéologie à l'épigraphie, 2021
A. Making Wine in Western-Mediterranean B. Production and the Trade of Amphorae: Some New Data from Italy: Panel 3.5, 2020
2019. (with N. C. Vella). Malta and Gozo. In, C. López-Ruiz and B. R. Doak (eds) The The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 553-568.
The longue durée of human activity on the island of Pantelleria represents an important locus of ... more The longue durée of human activity on the island of Pantelleria represents an important locus of ancient cultural interaction in the Strait of Sicily. This narrow channel in the central Mediterranean has played a major and continuous role in human relations between Italy, Sicily and North Africa since the Neolithic period. Use or control of the Pantelleria has been pivotal for a number of cultures over time, each leaving a lasting impression on the landscape and the people of the island (Figure 1). The volcanic geology of Pantelleria has determined the shape of its landscape and is responsible for the creation of the collapsed-caldera basin and lake that form the study area of this project. The Brock University Archaeological Project at Pantelleria (BUAPP) is working in the Lago di Venere area, examining past human activity on the northeastern lake shore.
Problemi archeologici e archeometrici nelle importazioni di ceramiche africane nella Sicilia roma... more Problemi archeologici e archeometrici nelle importazioni di ceramiche africane nella Sicilia romana, vandala e bizantina. Status quaestionis, metodologie e percorsi di indagine Problèmes archéologiques et archéométriques de l'importation des céramiques africaines dans la Sicile romaine, vandale et byzantine. Etat de la question, méthodologie et applications
(with N. C. Vella and D. Tanasi) Mobility and transitions: the south-central Mediterranean on the eve of history, in D. Tanasi and N. C. Vella (eds) 2011. "Site, Artefacts and Landscape: Prehistoric Borg in-Nadur, Malta." Polimetrica, pp. 251-281
The post-prehistoric pottery, in D. Tanasi and N. C. Vella (eds) 2011. "Site, Artefacts and Landscape: Prehistoric Borg in-Nadur, Malta." Polimetrica, pp. 159-171
Babesch, Jan 1, 2012
The paper presents the first interdisciplinary results of a joint survey project in the north-wes... more The paper presents the first interdisciplinary results of a joint survey project in the north-west of Malta, with finds ranging from the Prehistoric till the Early Modern period. Three permanently inhabited sites were encountered dating to at least the late 6 th or early 5 th century BCE, with a clearer attestation in the Hellenistic/Roman and Late Antique periods. The resulting reconstructed settlement pattern of the Phoenician/Punic period suggests a managed landscape that seems to be a good reflexion of what is happening in North Africa and elsewhere in the central and western Mediterranean. At least from the Roman period on, these sites seem to have specialised on the production of olive oil.
Research Papers by Maxine Anastasi
The Cargo of the Phoenician Shipwreck Off Xlendi Bay, Gozo: Analysis of the Objects Recovered Between 2014–2017 and Their Historical Contexts
International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 2021
This article describes the ceramic and saddle quern cargoes recorded on a Phoenician
shipwreck fo... more This article describes the ceramic and saddle quern cargoes recorded on a Phoenician
shipwreck found off Xlendi Bay, Gozo, dated by the finds to 700-650 BC. The ceramics are
divided into three main groups: Tyrrhenian-style amphoras, Phoenician-Punic western
amphoras, and large ollas. Discussion of the likely provenance of each type allows
preliminary proposals concerning the ship’s route. The extent of the site and an estimate of
the total cargo is used to give the approximate size and capacity of the vessel. The mixed
nature of the cargo elicits consideration of Phoenician maritime trade networks in the 7th
century BC.
The Xlendi Bay shipwreck (Gozo, Malta): a petrographic and typological study of an archaic ceramic cargo
Libyan Studies, 2021
An underwater survey off the southwest coast of the island of Gozo revealed a well-preserved ship... more An underwater survey off the southwest coast of the island of Gozo revealed a well-preserved shipwreck 110m below the surface.
The site belonged to a previously unknown wreck with a cargo of volcanic millstones and ceramic amphorae dating to the 7th century
BC. This article presents the first results of thin-section analysis taken from the pottery objects, and concludes that the ship was carrying
a heterogeneous cargo of amphora-borne goods from the Maltese islands, North Tunisia, and possibly Sicily, making it the earliest, known
shipwreck in the central Mediterranean; and provides the earliest evidence for Maltese external trade in the central Mediterranean.
Rivista di Studi Fenici, 2017
A legacy of antiquarian and archaeological explorations in the Maltese archipelago has long been ... more A legacy of antiquarian and archaeological explorations in the Maltese archipelago has long been identified with the rock-cut tombs and associated funerary remains of the Phoenician and Punic periods. By contrast, little is known about the islands’ countryside in antiquity. Recent excavations at the site of a long-lived Roman villa complex in
Żejtun (Malta) have begun to throw light on the rural world of the archipelago, unravelling the nature of the transition between the Punic and Roman periods where continuity rather than rupture implied by the phases of culture history is becoming clearer.
Book Reviews by Maxine Anastasi
Review of 'Mediterranean archaeologies of insularity in an age of globalization'
BMCR, 2021
Phoenician and Punic pottery (review article), "Malta Archaeological Review" (2013) 9, 2008–2009, pp. 77–78
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Books by Maxine Anastasi
Papers by Maxine Anastasi
Research Papers by Maxine Anastasi
shipwreck found off Xlendi Bay, Gozo, dated by the finds to 700-650 BC. The ceramics are
divided into three main groups: Tyrrhenian-style amphoras, Phoenician-Punic western
amphoras, and large ollas. Discussion of the likely provenance of each type allows
preliminary proposals concerning the ship’s route. The extent of the site and an estimate of
the total cargo is used to give the approximate size and capacity of the vessel. The mixed
nature of the cargo elicits consideration of Phoenician maritime trade networks in the 7th
century BC.
The site belonged to a previously unknown wreck with a cargo of volcanic millstones and ceramic amphorae dating to the 7th century
BC. This article presents the first results of thin-section analysis taken from the pottery objects, and concludes that the ship was carrying
a heterogeneous cargo of amphora-borne goods from the Maltese islands, North Tunisia, and possibly Sicily, making it the earliest, known
shipwreck in the central Mediterranean; and provides the earliest evidence for Maltese external trade in the central Mediterranean.
Żejtun (Malta) have begun to throw light on the rural world of the archipelago, unravelling the nature of the transition between the Punic and Roman periods where continuity rather than rupture implied by the phases of culture history is becoming clearer.
Book Reviews by Maxine Anastasi