Malta (24 to 30 October 1914)
On 24 October, the SS Majola steamed into the Grand Harbour at Valletta, Malta. Balfour writes how he saw 'French battleships and smaller craft' all jostling for room there. Among the vessels was the SS Isis, the shuttle service Ashby took between Brindisi and Port Said four months earlier.
When Ashby went ashore that morning, he took Balfour and Joseph Ernest Petavel, the remarkable Professor of Engineering. Waiting for them dockside was Themistocles Zammit, the archaeologist, historian, museum curator and Ashby's good friend. According to Balfour, Zammit initially gave the group a tour of the National Museum of Archaeology. Then, they motored to Casal Paula, where they explored the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, a neolithic subterranean structure with its:
galleries + recesses, some compartments having ceilings decorated with red-ochre designs. Pillars, elaborate doorways + walls all cut from the solid rock carved out of limestone. (Balfour, 24 October 1914)
That left them just enough time to visit the late neolithic structure at Corradino Hill, before Balfour and Petavel rushed to catch the Majola as it was about to sail for London.
The following week, Ashby and Zammit began to excavate Id-Debdieba, a mega monolithic structure in Luqa. As they worked, Ashby photographed the site and took four images. Later, they included this image in their report.
When Ashby arrived in Rome on 2 November, the War was gathering pace in Europe and Britain.
Photograph by Thomas Ashby, BSR, Thomas Ashby Collection
Id-debdieba, Malta, TA-XLVII.066
Diary: Henry Balfour, 3rd of a 3 notebook diary from Australia. 1914. BAAS, Pitt Rivers Museum.
Article: T. Ashby & T. Zammit (1916). 'Excavations in Malta in 1914', Man 16: 1-6.
