When Italian archaeologist Luigi Maria Ugolini was first sent to Malta in 1924 by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini to document the island's prehistoric heritage, little did he know his work would revive British interest in the colony's archaeological remains.
His definitive study of the prehistoric monuments was believed to have been lost after an attempt to publish it in Italy was disrupted by World War II.
The work, however, was recently retrieved by Nicholas C. Vella of the Archaeology Department of the University of Malta from the Museo Preistorico Nazionale Luigi Pigorini in Rome.
An exchange of letters in the London Times followed Ugolini's early death. A month after his obituary appeared, the Colonial Office asked the British School in Rome to embark on a large project that would make up for the British neglect of the islands' archaeology.
Ugolini was closely associated with a network of academics that controlled the world of Italian archaeology and were loyal to the Fascist regime.
He joined the Fascist party in 1923 and for several years led a mission to Albania to locate the Roman towns of Feniki and Butrint.
The findings of the Albanian campaign were published and furthered the myth of Aeneas, the hero who stopped in Butrint on his way to Italy to found Rome.
Though prohibited from carrying out excavations in Malta during his visit in 1924 and on other occasions between 1930 and 1935, Ugolini carried out a study of the islands' prehistoric remains. In 1931, a grant had come through the Fascist Party on Mussolini's request. As in Albania, Italian state-sponsored archaeological activities were meant to capitalise on Maltese nationalist sentiments at the time. By accepting to undertake research in Malta, Ugolini tied himself to the structured system of patronage established by the Fascists.
"Despite the fact that antiquarians had been uncovering remains for more than a century, a detailed survey of the sites and a comprehensive catalogue of all known finds was not available for scholars and the public," Dr Vella said.
Having come to Malta in the midst of a long standing debate on language origins, where Maltese history and identity were the subject of arguments favouring political stands, Ugolini found himself in the context of a political group using italianità - the openness towards Italian cultural traditions and resistance to Anglicisation - to champion a wish for self-government.
When reports of a resurgence of Italian sentiment in Malta reached Mussolini in the 1920s, the Italian Foreign Ministry adopted a strategy of propaganda to promote the cause of italianità.
Ugolini wanted to confirm, through the Neolithic age of the prehistoric temples, that it was Malta that had been the source of Mediterranean culture and civilisation and not Crete - a thesis originally suggested by Ugolini's Maltese friend Temi Zammit.
This went against the idea prevalent at the time that all cultures and civilisations came about through influence from the East. Giuseppe Sergi, an Italian anthropologist, used Ugolini's findings to argue against the Nazi thesis that invasions from northern Europe were responsible for the spread of culture southwards into the Mediterranean.
"Ugolini did not live enough to confront any Nazi scholar. Clearly, however, his documents were a clear proof that it was the northern culture which owed it to the Mediterranean and not the other way round," Dr Vella said.
The basic record of Ugolini's survey consisted of handwritten notes taken down during his visits, together with a typewritten inventory. Ugolini's chief assistant Igino Epicoco made sketches of the temples and even carved reliefs from the temples.
The archaeologist kept a photographic record of the sites, taken by Ugolini himself. Men, women and children, often dressed in traditional costume, are included to provide scale to a megalithic backdrop.
Perhaps Ugolini and Sir Temi would have enjoyed being around in the 1960s when radiocarbon dating of organic material from the prehistoric temples vindicated their thesis that the Maltese megalithic phenomenon ended before the dawn of Minoan civilisation on Crete.
Ugolini's work will feature in an international seminar tomorrow at 5.30 p.m. at the Italian Cultural Institute in Valletta.
The archaeologist's work, his life and the political context in which he worked will be tackled by Dr Vella and by history professor Henry Frendo, Reuben Grima from Heritage Malta, Maria Antonietta Fugazzola Delpino from the Museo Pigorini of Rome and Andrea Pessina from the Archaeological Superintendence of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region.
An exhibition of Ugolini's work will open next Monday and will run until November 30 at Heritage Malta, Merchants Street in Valletta.