Maltesisch ist eine Mischsprache aus einem semitischen Grundstock und starken italienischen und englischen Einflüssen. Daher zieht es immer wieder das Interesse sowohl der Semitistik / Arabistik als auch der Romanistik / Italianistik auf sich. Dieses Buch ist die erste deutschsprachige Darstellung der maltesischen Schriftsprache. Neben der Laut- und Schriftlehre und den wichtigsten grammatischen Regeln bietet es einen Einblick in die Sprach- und Literaturgeschichte Maltas. An jedes Kapitel schließen sich Übungs- und Kontrollfragen an sowie Textbeispiele von älterer Poesie bis zu moderner Werbesprache.

The ›Taxiarchis Hill‹ in Didyma is the site of largely undisturbed features of votive offerings and other finds from an Archaic sanctuary. They were deposited on the hill in different phases of the Archaic period. Since it is the first discovery of this kind in Didyma it is of great importance for our knowledge of the cults and dedications in Didyma. This second part of the three-volume publication presents the pottery, which for the first time gives an overview of Didyma's Archaic local and imported clay vessels, including dedications and pottery for ritual use.

The volume presents some 300 inscriptions from a period of one millennium, from the 6th century BC to the 6th century AD which provide manifold insights into the history of the Oracle in Didyma, which was transformed into a Christian site after the end of the pagan cult. Numerous testimonia reflect the entire spectrum of the sanctury: detailed accounts of the building activities show the progress of the construction of the temple itself, inventories are evidence of the administration by Miletus, and dedications and oracle inscriptions document the communication with the God as well as the religious phenomena concerning the sanctuary as a place of worship also of other gods and godesses. Finally, the social structures of the milesian elite, to which the ministrants of Apollon and Artemis (prophetes, hydrophorai) belonged, are revealed by the reports of honours which they received and by their self-testimonies in the inscriptions through the centuries.