in Malta in the early nineteen thirties, working entirely independently of the British dominated archaeological scene in the islands. Having received no permit to conduct excavations himself, his work in Malta relied upon the guidance and goodwill shown to him by his Maltese colleague Temi Zammit, the excavator of the recently discovered megalithic site of Tarxien. Based on Zammit’s work and on his own expertise, Ugolini and his team produced a comprehensive survey of all the megalithic sites known at the time, detailing their cultural accomplishments and architectural grandeur. He did not hesitate to ascribe to them the word civilisation, fully aware of its provocative force, and he compiled the material to prove it. Five large volumes were planned to appear on Malta’s temples, only the first ofwhich had been published before Ugolini’s untimely death in 1936. Its very title Malta: origini della civiltà Mediterranea (Malta: Origins of Mediterranean Civilisation)vii would have sounded like blasphemy to the propagators of the Cretan cause. The date proposed – 8,000 BC for the oldest layer of Tarxien – turned their dismay into contentiousness. It obviously and totally contradicted the version of European cultural history propagated by the British.

The opposition to Ugolini came in two waves. The immediate reaction was strong criticism of his book in the British press. Then, after World War II, far more drastic action was taken. Comprehensive amendments to Malta’s prehistoric timeline were asserted, which, to an innocent public, apparently bore no relation to Ugolini’s work, which was either ignored or dismissed as fascist propaganda