Scripture. As a Jesuit priest, Magri taught Jesuit students in Naxxar, then at a Jesuit school in Istanbul, and eventually at the Gozo Seminary. Between 1898 and 1902, Fr. Magri was Socius or assistant to the Provincial of Sicily. In 1902, Fr. Magri was appointed Rector of the Gozo Seminary, then run by the Jesuits of the Sicilian Province. Magri occupied the post for four years, until he was relieved due to ill health and to the effects of strain following trouble regarding school fees and other matters. Magri spent his last year as Superior and Pastoral worker in a small residence in Catania, Sicily. As his health was improving, his superiors allowed him to go to Tunisia to preach during the Lenten season and celebrate Easter there, serving the Maltese migrant community. At the same time, Magri hoped to conduct some research in the archaeological field. Magri was unwell during Easter week and died quite unexpectedly on Good Friday, March 29, 1907. He was buried in Sfax, Tunisia. Little is known of Fr. Magri’s work as an archaeologist prior to 1900 when he was invited to deliver the inaugural lecture of the Malta Archaeological and Scientific Society founded by Governor Grenfell. Magri seems to have studied several tombs, some of which he may have opened himself. Two plans of tombs surveyed by Magri in the Mosta area survive, dating to 1886-1887, along with finds from a tomb at Ta’ l-Ibraġ, Rabat (Gozo). Of these earlier years, far more is known of his interest in Maltese folktales, of which he managed to publish a collection in the Kotba tal-Mogħdija taż- 6 Megaliths used in the building of a wall in Xewkija, as described in section 3 of the Report. This photo Żmien along with a series of articles on Maltese folklore, which appeared under the 7 is likely to have been commissioned by Fr. Magri, along with several photos of sites in Gozo which can be clearly related to Magri’s work. As in other photos of antiquities, the persons in the picture serve to title X’Jgħid il-Malti, published in the same series. provide scale, and highlight the large size of the blocks. More is known for the years after 1900, and especially following 1903, when Magri was appointed as a founding member of the Committee of Management of the Museum, which included Temi Zammit, A.A. Caruana and Napoleon Tagliaferro. Zammit was Secretary of the Committee and Curator of the newly-established Museum, which Historical Introduction opened its doors in 1905. At the end of 1903, the Committee entrusted Magri with its first project, the excavation of the Hypogeum at Ħal Saflieni, a project which Magri r. Emmanuel Magri’s name is generally associated with his collections of folktales directed between early 1904 and 1907. Under Magri’s Direction, the Middle and F and folklore, which provide a lasting monument to Maltese culture of a bygone Lower levels of the site, were painstakingly excavated and surveyed. Over the same era. Yet, in his lifetime, this collection formed only a part of a larger interest in Malta’s years, and acting mostly on behalf of the Museum, Magri worked on a number of sites: history and antiquities, of which archaeology was a major component. The report on the site in Xewkija (October 1904), the two sites of il-Ħaġġarija (1904/1905) and ta’ the Xewkija excavation opens up an important window on this often neglected area Għammieża in Rabat, Gozo, tombs at il-Ħabel tal-Bur, Għajnsielem, and il-Qortin in of Magri’s scholarly work, and gives us an insight into the work of the man who was Nadur (1904?), and a megalithic site of Kerċem (1906). With the exception of Saflieni, entrusted with the excavation of the Hypogeum in Ħal Saflieni. the bias is clearly on Gozo, where Magri was based as Rector of the Seminary. Magri Born in Valletta in 1851, into a family steeped in the legal profession, Magri also delivered various lectures to the Malta Archaeological and Scientific Society, and abandoned the Law course and joined the Jesuits in 1871, and his formation took him at the Lyceum in Valletta. Of all this, only two works were published: a paper on three beyond Malta to Ireland, England, France and Spain. He was a man of many facets Punic inscriptions in a collection in Floriana, given as a lecture in 1901, and this report even then, yet his main line of studies and teaching drew him to Hebrew and Sacred on the Xewkija excavation, presented to the Committee in 1906. The archival record allows us to better understand Magri’s work, and a significant It should be kept in mind that the Xewkija report presents us Magri’s opinion amount of material survives: Magri’s official correspondence with the Government, with as was developing over the years, and particularly influenced by his experience in the British Museum and with Fr. Alfred Louis Delattre (who conducted excavations in the field, and the new material he was able to study and discuss with other scholars. Carthage), unpublished papers held at the archives of the former Jesuit Province of Sicily, Unfortunately, Magri was to die unexpectedly within a year of presenting the Xewkija along with material in the Library of the National Museum of Archaeology. All this material report, while he was still working on the Report for the most important of the sites helps give more depth to our knowledge of Magri’s work, and also helps us understand he dug: the Ħal Saflieni necropolis (as he referred to the Hypogeum). Considering better the significance of what was already known, as in the case of this report. his report for a small dig limited to two trenches, there was certainly great hope for a Late in 1903, Magri drew the Government's attention to the site of the presumed detailed report on such an important site, which made his death all the more tragic. temple in Xewkija. Having obtained the permission of the owner (at a time when heritage was yet to be protected) and the necessary funding from the Government, Magri opened two trenches in October 1904. Considering the dearth of material, and Josef Mario Briffa SJ 2009 the absence of structure, it is significant that Magri worked on such a detailed report at all, giving a clear idea of the little that was found even in terms of floors and layers. The interest in ethnography filters through sections 2 and 3 of the Report, where Fr. Emmanuel Magri was one of Malta's pioneers in archaeology. He was a member of the first Committee of Management Magri builds a case for the existence of the temple on the basis of local tradition, and of the Museum of Malta alongside Temi Zammit, Antonio earlier documentation. Magri also documents the connection between the tradition of Annetto Caruana, and Napoleon Tagliaferro. Fr. Magri was the “golden calf” and temple sites. entrusted with the excavation of the Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni, a Megalithic Temple in Xewkija (Gozo), and a number of other What remains of great interest, however, is Magri’s first attempt at providing a sites in Malta and Gozo. 8 classification of the sherds, on the basis on ware type and decoration, that remain two 9 fundamental criteria for the classification of pottery. As Magri was too keenly aware (section 17), scholars before him had generally ignored potsherds and focused on complete vessels. He, however, was determined to obtain as many samples from as many sites as possible, and his various excavations provided him with significant amounts and variety. The study of the pottery sherds forms the greater part of the report itself, which was also accompanied by watercolour plates of the same sherds, drawn at 1:1, with great precision and in colour. However rudimentary his classification may appear to us, it laid the foundations for the classification of Maltese prehistoric pottery. Magri linked sites on the basis of the sherds (section 8). His interest in studying the pottery, and his correspondence with the British Museum, led him to push back his own dating of the sites, certainly beyond known comparative material from Mycenae and Carthage. While it is not clear that Magri abandoned the Phoenician connection Further reading: altogether (possibly for later phases of the sites), he conceded possible earlier material, Briffa, Josef Mario, “New light on Fr. Magri’s exploration of the Hypogeum. Notes from correspondence linking the sites to the ancient Libyans (section12), and considering some material as with the British Museum”, Malta Archaeological Review 6, 41-46 (Malta, 2005). Cassar Pullicino, Ġużè, Ħżuż Manwel Magri: Ktieb tan-Notamenti dwar il-Folklor Malti (Malta, 1991). dating to the stone and bronze ages (section 11). To underpin his classification, Magri Mallia, Salv., Manwel Magri S.J. (Malta: Istitut Komunikazzjoni Soċjali, 1978) is particularly influenced by Wosinsky, whose book – still hot off the press in 1904 – — , “Fr Manwel Magri’s Contribution to the Conservation of Malta’s Archaeological Heritage,” Melita Historica 9 (1985): 2, 145-169. was probably recommended to him by the British Museum. Magri was up to date with — , “Fr. Magri and Conservation: a Postscript,” Melita Historica 9 (1986): 3, 245-246. the latest in reference works of the day, and in contact with various scholars. Mifsud Chircop, George, Manwel Magri – Ħrejjef Missirijietna (Malta: PEG, 1994)..