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Excavations in 1908–11 in various Megalithic Buildings in Malta and Gozo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Thomas Ashby ,
R. N. Bradley ,
T. E. Peet  and
N. Tagliaferro
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Extract

The present report deals with excavations which have been spread over a considerable period of time, and is the work of various hands. For the greater part of the introduction, and for sections I., III., V., VII., IX. XIII., I am myself responsible; the note on the affinities of the Maltese pottery, and sections II., IV., VI., X., XII., are the work of Mr. T. E. Peet; section VIII. of Professor N. Tagliaferro, I.S.O.; and section XI. of Mr. R. N. Bradley. The difficulties of correcting the MSS. and plans, at some distance of time and space, have not been inconsiderable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 6 , 1913 , pp. 1 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1913

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References

page 2 note 1 The only good general account of these remains is that of DrMayr, Albert (Die Vorgeschichtlichen Denkmäler von Malta, in Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Kl.I. vol. xxi. (1901), pp. 647 sqq.Google Scholar). It was fully reviewed by Colini, in Bull. Palet. ltal. xxviii. (1902), 204 sqq.Google Scholar; and was translated and amplified in 1908, and privately printed, with the plans, but without the photographs which are given in the original, under the title of the Prehistoric Remains of Malta (117 pp.). The paging of the two works is so widely different that they can be, as a rule, cited together without risk of confusion, e.g. in footnote 2 of the following page and passim. Where a distinction is necessary they are cited as V.D. and P.M. Dr. Mayr has since published a work of a more general character, Die Insel Malta in Alterthum (Munich, 1910)Google Scholar, cited as I.M.

page 3 note 1 It is probable that the neolithic period lasted on relatively late in Malta.

page 3 note 2 See Zammit, T., The Hal Saflieni Prehistoric Hypogeum at Casal Paula, Malta, First Report (Malta, 1910)Google Scholar, especially pp. 6, 32; Tagliaferro, N., The Prehistoric Pottery found in the Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni in Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology (Liverpool), iii. (1910) 1 sqq.Google Scholar; Mayr in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1908, pp. 536 sqq.; Zammit, T., Peet, T. E., and Bradley, R. N., The Small Objects and the Human Skulls found in the Hal Saflieni Prehistoric Hypogeum, Second Report (Malta, 1912)Google Scholar.

page 3 note 3 Mayr, 687, 61.

page 7 note 1 For the round towers, cf. infra, 123. The age and object of the small bell-shaped pits cut in the rocky shore of the bay of Birzebbugia, not far from Borg-en-Nadur (Mayr 698, 76), must be treated as quite uncertain. Nor has the interesting problem of the age of the cart-ruts which appear on the coast here and there yet been solved (Mayr, 679, 48).

page 8 note 1 Vance notes (Archaeologia xxix. (1842), p. 230Google Scholar) that the bones found in great quantities among the rubbish were of small animals—sheep, lambs, or even birds; there were, however, some belonging to a larger species of carnivorous quadruped, as also a few human remains, but nothing is said as to the situation in which they were found. Furse says (Transactions of the International Prehistoric Congress of 1868 at Norwich, p. 416): ‘It is true that the only human remains found among the ruins of Hagiar Kim were the skull and some of the bones of a skeleton recognised as that of an Ethiopian.’

page 8 note 2 I have carefully examined, in company with Professor Zammit, the ‘small rock chambers hewn in the precipitous sides of a narrow ravine [in the Binjemma hills, close to the church] which resemble very closely both the rock-hewn tombs of Sicily, S. E. (Orsi, , in Bull. Paletn. Ital. xvii. (1891) pp. 59, 71Google Scholar) and those of Chaouach near Medjez el Bab in Tunis,’ described by Myres, in Man, i. (1901) No. 71Google Scholar. I could only find one tomb of this small size, among a group of what seemed to be loculi of the Christian period; nor could I see any remains of prehistoric pottery there, though Myres found some specimens.

page 8 note 3 Compare the dolmen of Sos Monumentos (infra, p. 138).

page 8 note 4 Tagliaferro in Daily Malta Chronicle, 11th March, 1909, p. 2.

page 9 note 1 A model of it was made by Petit-Radel, and is among the models of Cyclopean walls in the Mazarin Library at Paris (Mayr, 696, 73).

page 10 note 1 In Fig. 4 the upright stone on the left of the picture is 0·80m. high, and the slab measures 1·75 m. from front to back, and is 0·43 thick; while in Fig. 5 the slab measures 2·70 m. by 1·50 by 0·30 thick, and the opening under it is 0·80 m. wide and 0·55 m. high; the walling of smaller stones seen on each side of it is probably ancient.

page 13 note 1 Abela, Descrittione di Malta, 1647 (enlarged edition by Ciantar, Malta Illustrata, 1772); Houel, , Voyage pittoresque des isles de Sidle, de Lipari et de Malte, iv. (1787), pp. 73 sqq.Google Scholar; Bres, , Malta Illustrata, Rome, 1818, p. 136 sqq.Google Scholar (who seems to be a mere copyist of Abela); Vassallo, Dei Monumenti antichi di Malta, 1876, pp. 9 sqq.; Caruana, Report on the Phoenician and Roman Antiquities of Malta, 1882, p. 6 sqq.; Frammento critico della storia Fenicio-Cartaginese ecc. delle Isole di Malta, 1899, pp. 145 sqq.; Perrot, and Chipiez, , Histoire de l' Art, iii. p. 292 sqq.Google Scholar

page 13 note 2 For North Africa cf. Pallary, Instructions pour les recherches préhistoriques dans le N.O. de l' Afrique, p. 80.

page 13 note 3 Compare also the East Bennan cairn in Arran, (Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. xliii. (1908–1909) 338 sqq.Google Scholar, 367) and the fine dolmen of Annaclochmullin in Ireland, now unluckily destroyed (Borlase, , The Dolmens of Ireland, i. 301, sqq.Google Scholar)

page 14 note 1 Gsell, , Mon. Antiques de l'Algérie, i. p. 36Google Scholar.

page 14 note 2 V.D. 716–7; P.M. 103 sqq; I.M. 50–55; Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1908, pp. 540–1.

page 14 note 3 Papers of the British School at Rome, v. 144 seq.

page 14 note 4 I. M. pp. 52–3.

page 14 note 5 B.S.R. v. 149 seq.

page 15 note 1 See Von Andrian, Prähistoriuhe Studien aus Sizilien, passim.

page 15 note 2 Bull. Pal. xxxiv. (1908), pp. 119 ff. and 155 ff.Google Scholar, Tav. iii. and iv.

page 16 note 1 This vase is at present in the magazines of the Valletta Museum.

page 16 note 2 Bull. Pal. xxv. (1899), pp. 54 ff.Google Scholar, Tav. vi. and vii.

page 16 note 3 l.c. Tav. yii. Figs. 3 and 4.

page 16 note 4 Bull. Pal. xxiv. (1898), Tav. xvii.–xixGoogle Scholar

page 16 note 5 Op. cit. Tav. xvii. Fig. 10.

page 16 note 6 Op. cit. Tav, xviii. Figs 7 and 8.

page 16 note 7 Notizie degli Scavi, 19c pp. 301 ff.

page 16 note 8 Monuments primilifs des Baléares, p. 61, Fig. 55.

page 16 note 9 Op. cit. p. 59, Figs. 49 and 50.

page 16 note 10 Cartailhac, Les Ages préhistoriques de l'Espagne, p. 214, Fig. 278.

page 16 note 11 Op. cit. p. 127, Figs. 169–171.

page 17 note 1 Large numbers from Hal Saflieni, one from Corradino (east building), and one from Hagiar Kim.

page 18 note 1 For all practical purposes 1 metre may be taken as equivalent to 3 feet 3 inches: so that 0·30 m. = 1 foot, and 0·025 m. = 1 inch.

page 21 note a a measures 1·60 m. high by 1·30 wide, by 0·45 thick.

page 23 note 1 The packing at the N. angle of D was examined in 1908. The depth to the floor was 0·90 to 1·20 m., but we could detect no stratification. For the first 0·60 m. there was no pottery: then the soil became harder and we began to find pottery. It was obviously a filling made at the time of the construction of the building and not the result of a gradual accumulation.

page 26 note 1 The passage does not occur in V. D.

page 29 note 1 The shells were determined by Dr. A. Caruana Gatto, as follows: Helix vermiculata (new variety), Helix aperta, Ceritium vulgatum, Ceritium fuscatum, Pecten varius, Trocus divariatus, Trocus articulatus, Anomia ephippum, Nassa variabilis, Conus Mediterraneus, Stenogyra decollata, Ciclostoma Melitense, Ciclonassa Melitea, Columbella Rustica. All these varieties are still found in Malta.

page 29 note 2 Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, published by the University of Liverpool, vol. iii. part i. pp. 1 sqq.

page 30 note 1 These remarks apply to the pottery from all the three Corradino sites.

page 31 note 1 The references in round brackets are to Professor Tagliaferro's classification and plates.

page 33 note 1 See Pl. XI. and XIII. Professor Tagliaferro believes the vases of Type 24 to be hanging lamps for lighting the hypogeum. In view of the size of some of them I should hesitate to accept this. They are much more probably part of the funeral furniture of the dead.

page 33 note 2 This ware should be distinguished from some of the finer examples of Class B. I. in which dot and line ornament is used. In the latter case the design is incised after the firing, in the present case before it.

page 36 note 1 For the area in front of the Gigantia cf. Mayr op. cit. 654, 14. There is a similar paved area in front of Mnaidra, which was cleared during the excavations of 1910 (cf. infra, 94).

page 41 note 1 Some of those in G had stone wedges lying under them, as though they had been moved comparatively recently.

page 51 note 1 I think these may all be votive models of stone table legs.—T.A.

page 51 note 2 A piece of rough grained red ware has a five-pointed object in relief (cf. similar pieces from Hagiar Kim and Mnaidra, Pl. XVI. Fig. 1, No. 5; Pl XXVI. Fig. 1, No. 15).

page 62 note 1 The bibliography given by Mayr, P.M. pp. 17, 28 notes = V.D. pp. 657, 664 is as follows: Houel, op. cit. Pl. CCLX. (I may add Bres, , Malta Antica Illustrata (Rome, 1818), p. 137Google Scholar); La Marmora, , in Nouvelles Annales de l'Institut, i. (1836), p. 32Google Scholar; (after the excavations) Vance, , in Archaeologia, xxix. (1842), pp. 227 sqq.CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Pll. XXIII.–XXVIII.; Lenormant, Monuments Phéniciens, in the Revue générale de l'Architecture et des travaux publics, ii. (1841), pp. 497 sqq.Google Scholar and Pl. XXI. (the illustrations are very inadequate); H. Barth, in Archäologische Zeitung, 1848, pp. 346 sqq., 362 sqq., and Wanderungen durch die Kustenländer des Mittelmeeres, i. p. 210, n. 4; Archaeological Journal, ix. (1852), p. 299Google Scholar; H. Brunn, in Bull. d. Ist. 1858, p. 74; Waring, Stone Monuments, Pll. I. II. (who reproduces the illustrations from P. Furse's article in the Transactions of the International Prehistoric Congress of 1868 at Norwich, pp. 407 sqq.); Adams, Nile Valley and Malta, pp. 240 sqq.; Vassallo, op. cit. pp. 18 sqq.; Caruana, Report, pp. 9 sqq.; Perrot, , op. cit. iii. pp. 300 sqq.Google Scholar

Mayr has not called attention to the following passage in Vance's report, which I give as it stands (p. 231): ‘In those chambers which contained charcoal, or otherwise showed proofs of the use of fire, we generally found a round stone about one foot in height, and half a foot in diameter, with a hole drilled through the centre, decreasing gradually and slightly as it approached the bottom.’

page 63 note 1 Recent further Excavations of the Megalithic Antiquities of Hagiar Kim, Malta, 1886Google Scholar.

page 64 note 1 His idea (op. cit. p. 4) that the tall stones i i are the jambs of a passage leading to I and L Mayr's G and H) is impossible.

page 65 note 1 Here we found a round flat stone, apparently worked, 0·42 m. in diameter and 0·14 m. thick.

page 68 note 1 He omits to notice Caruana's statement (text, p. 5) that the pillar z was found in the niche 6(ζ).

page 72 note 1 Vide, ‘The Prehistoric Pottery found in the Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni,’ in vol. iii. (1910) of Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology (Liverpool), 1 sqq.Google Scholar

page 73 note 1 In confirmation of this view I may state that in a corner of one of the rooms several fragments of a large stone basin, 79 cm. in diameter and 41·5 cm. high, were found by Professor Zammit in 1909. Those fragments were easily pieced together, and the vase was nearly complete, but for the absence of a few fragments, which, after some time, were accidentally found in two different heaps of stones and rubbish at some distance from the main building.

page 74 note 1 Further Excavations in the Megalithic Antiquities of Hagiar Kim, § 4.

page 79 note 1 A small cup decorated in this style was found within the main building in room C by Professor Zammit in 1909 (supra, p. 67).

page 82 note 1 A vase decorated in the same style was found at Cagliari, in the Grotta Bartolommeo, S. (Bull. Pal. xxiv. (1898), Tav. xvii. Fig. 8.)Google Scholar

page 87 note 1 Egypt and Israel, by Professor Petrie, W. M. Flinders, London, 1911. Fig. 21, facing p. 49Google Scholar.

page 87 note 2 At Corradino a whole ring of hard stone was found. Its inner part is elliptical, measuring 5 cm. by 4 cm., and the outer part, elliptical on one side, has two angular prominences on the other. Similar stone rings are at present used by fishermen to set free their lines when entangled at the bottom. They are known by the local name ‘purcillat.’ Ten halves of similar rings were found at Valle della Vibrata, and one at Cagliari, (Bull. Pal. xxxiii. (1907), p. 163Google Scholar, where they are explained as being hammer heads).

page 89 note 1 Vide Contributions to the Study of the Prehistoric Period in Malta, by Peet, T. E., in Papers of the British School at Rome, vol. v. Pl. XIV. Fig. 37.Google Scholar

page 90 note 1 The only previous plan is the rough one given by Fergusson, Rude Stone Monuments, p. 657.

page 95 note 1 For a model of such a pedestal cf. Hal Saflieni Second Report, Pl. XIII. Fig. 3.

page 97 note 1 With regard to the pit-markings, Professor J. L. Myres, in commenting on the report when read at the Sheffield meeting of the British Association, rightly remarked that the marks at Hagiar Kim had been produced simply by pounding with a hammer; while at Mnaidra they had been cut out, and then worked larger by rubbing with a stick and some sand.

page 98 note 1 I saw another such pillar lying above r 1 on the right of the entrance to H in 1909: it was 0·50 m. long, with a diameter of 0·23 at one end (where it was slightly concave) and O·28 at the other.—T. A.

page 101 note 1 I think 5 and 6 may also be rough representations of the human figure.—T. A.

page 105 note 1 A similar piece was found at Corradino South Building and another at Hagiar Kim (supra, 51, n. 2).

page 106 note 1 It is undoubtedly identical with the building described by Houel, , op. cit. iv. 78Google Scholar, with a view on Pl. CCXLIX. and apian on Pl. CCLI. of which the MS. seen by Mr. Said contained a copy. Its position is clearly shown in his map (Pl. CCXLVII.). Mayr (693, 70) transcribes Houel's description, but was unable to find the remains: I do not think that Houel's 150 toises must be taken literally—the real distance is about 1000 yards, or nearly 500 toises. The building has been much damaged since Houel's time.—T. A.

page 121 note 1 Note in Tagliaferro's paper, Pl. XIII. Figs. 1–6 and 10 are incised before firing (our class B. II. 2. f.) and Figs. 7–9 are incised after (our class B. I. 2).