Nicholas C VellaNicholas C. Vella is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta. His research interests are varied and include the historiography of antiquarianism and archaeological practice in the Mediterranea, later Mediterranean prehistory, and Phoenician and Punic ritual practices. He has co-edited Debating Orientalization (2006) with Corinna Riva, and has recently published another collection of essays on the Maltese Bronze Age with Davide Tanasi. He supervised the University of Malta excavations at the Phoenician sanctuary site of Tas-Silġ in Malta between 1996 and 2005, and has co-edited the final report that is forthcoming with Peeters (Leuven). He co-directed the excavations of a small Punic shrine in Gozo (Malta) between 2005 and 2010, and is co-director of a field-walking project in Malta. Read More Read Less