It was a sizeable crowd that attended, but a pitifully small space that was provided at the National Museum of Archaeology last Wednesday for the ever-popular David Trump to outline his achievement of 60 years delving into Malta’s archaeological past.

At the end of the very enjoyable talk, not content with outlining his achievements – modestly and with humour – Dr Trump ended with: “I have not finished yet – I will carry on for as long as I can” although he quickly added that he would not want to repeat what a certain Dr Myers was reported to have said in 1820: “Now in my second 100 years…”

How did he get into archaeology? One of the first pictures he showed was of a gangly 16-year-old in 1947, excavating a Roman latrine near his home in Essex. His interest spiked when he found a Roman coin dating from Emperor Electus (268-270 AD).

He also found a number of bone hairpins that may well have fallen from the hair of Roman matronae in the baths.

In his teenage years Dr Trump avidly read about archaeology and the discovery of such places as the Palace of Knossos and the discovery of the treasures of Tutankhamen in Egypt. When he came to choose a university to read archaeology, only two offered such a course: Edinburgh and Cambridge. And with the latter being just down the road, it was the obvious choice.

Midway through his third year his tutor, Dr John Evans, spoke of a dig at Easter in Malta and Dr Trump volunteered to go. It cost him just £26 to cover the trip to Malta and back, entering Grand Harbour at dawn. He went straight to the Auberge d’Italie, where the museum was (although it was not open to the public).

In that first stint he was asked to catalogue and study the pottery remains held by the museum. He also accompanied Dr Evans around Malta’s archaeological sites and soon found that nothing is predictable in archaeology. How come, for instance, that on a ledge in front of Ggantija, which was being excavated at that time, they found pottery from the Tarxien period, that is much later?

Dr Trump still keeps the letter he sent to his mother about his stay in Malta, together with its 1½d stamp.

Following his graduation, he spent some years in Italy studying for his PhD and working on sites in that country.

However, there was not much interest in Cambridge for experts on Italian pottery, so he found himself at a loose end. That was when John Evans told him they were looking for a curator for five years at the National Museum of Archaeology in Malta. He applied, and he was chosen and so gave up his research scholarship in Italy.

He came to Malta in November 1958. There was not much to do in the museum as Captain Zammit had previously done a lot. However, he introduced a number of innovations such as a one-day ticket to most of Malta’s museums. As in succeeding years, there was a lot of development going on in Malta at the time and this could have imperilled many archaeological sites but Dr Trump managed to introduce a commitment that, should a discovery of archaeological remains be made, the museum staff would go in and, within a day, retrieve any remains, take photographs and document the site and return it to the developer. This helped the mapping of many sites that would otherwise have either been destroyed or buried.

Dr Trump also took part in some interesting field exercises, including one that involved the digging of a 15ft-deep trench at It-Tokk in the centre of Victoria, which yielded some quite important finds.

On these field trips he was accompanied by Frans Mallia who had been earmarked as his successor. Mr Mallia, a draughtsman, was the only applicant and he proved to be dedicated.

In 1959, romance also intervened. Bridget Wilson, who was to become his wife, wrote from the UK asking if there was a dig in Malta in July and August. He wrote back that digs did not usually take place in the hot months. Nevertheless, she came and was similarly struck by the abundance of archaeological sites in Malta. One of the sites she investigated, along with him, was the Bronze Age settlement at In-Nuffara in Gozo where a lot of pottery was found.

His most interesting find was in a cave between Rabat and Munxar in Gozo where, digging in a burnt-out cave, he first found a golden bracelet from Roman times, and even – more importantly – a half burnt bread roll. Archaeologically speaking, this was even more important than the bracelet and the only such find this side of Paestum.

His more enduring work involved the site of the Skorba temples in Zebbiegh, which was completely unexcavated at the time. He tried to get an aerial photo of the site but was told a helicopter ride cost £450, which he did not have. So he persuaded some pilot friends of his to fly over the site. However, they could not understand to which pile of rocks he was referring, so he ended up going up with them.

Skorba is still largely unexplored and many mysteries remain. Again, how is it that some items from the Tarxien temple phase (which is much later than Skorba) came to be found among the ruins?

The date of the first temple at Skorba has been established at around 5500 BC. It was later ascertained that there are, in fact, two temples on one and the same site but certain parts cannot really be studied. For instance, there is a wall that disappears under a temple, but in order to study it the temple would have to be removed – which is unthinkable.

A number of female figures were found at Skorba, which leads to the belief that it was some sort of shrine. But at the back, remains have been found of an even earlier hut, which raises more issues about the temple people. Later on, Dr Trump hypothesised that if one were to study the DNA of some of the human remains that were found there, one could see if perhaps there is a link between the temple builders and the population that came afterwards.

At the end of his term in Malta, Dr Trump went back to the UK but Malta’s attraction meant that he kept coming back again and again. Every year for 22 years he led a group of amateur archaeologists on digs all over the Mediterranean area, including Malta.

In 1986, he was invited by Professor Anthony Bonanno to the excavations of the Xaghra Stone Circle, which had first been explored by Brocktorff in 1825.

Many seem to think that archaeology is the digging part, but actually that is followed by the careful study of what has turned up – and that takes a lot of time. No fewer than 20,000 human bones have been found at the Xaghra Circle, in addition to animal remains and pottery.

Apart from leading digs, Dr Trump’s ‘retirement’ has been spent writing books, including some that have yet to be published.