Sir Temi Zammit (1864-1935)

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A true Renaissance scholar, Sir Themistocles Zammit was successful in many fields, mainly as a medical doctor, but also as a researcher, historian, professor of chemistry, archaeologist and writer.

Sir Temi Zammit was born in Valletta on the 30th September 1864 at a time when Malta was an important British naval base. During his time, extreme poverty alternated with periods of economic prosperity that were often brought about by war. The social, economic and religious conditions he experienced were later to serve as the setting of many of the short stories he wrote in Maltese.

Coming from a very humble family background, Sir Temi graduated in medicine from the University of Malta, and specialised in bacteriology in London and Paris. Soon after returning to Malta, in 1904, he was appointed member of the Mediterranean Fever Commission. His discovery, along with others, of how undulant fever (brucellosis) in the blood of goats is passed on to humans through infected milk, greatly contributed to the eliminating undulant fever from the islands, earning him an international reputation and a knighthood.

Sir Temi Zammit became professor of chemistry at the University of Malta in 1905 until his appointment as Rector, 1920-26.[1] Author of several books in the Maltese language, he was awarded a DLitt Honoris Causa by Oxford University.

During all this time, Sir Temi’s interest in Malta’s ancient past grew – he published a history of the Maltese islands and burst onto the island’s archaeological scene at the beginning of the 20th century, continuing to dominate it right up to his death in 1935. Between 1915 and 1919 he completed the excavation of the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum and methodically excavated a number of archaeological sites and tombs, including the megalithic Tarxien Temples, Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, which have since been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

A permanent display of some of his findings may be viewed at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta.

REFERENCES:
Historical Dictionary of Malta By Uwe Jens Rudolf, Warren G. Berg
The life and times of Sir Temi Zammit by Roger Ellul Micallef