Exhibition – Core and Periphery: Mdina and Safi in the 9th and 10th centuries

A special guided visit to a temporary exhibition at the National Museum of Archaeology, Republic Street, Valletta on Saturday 24 November at 2:30 pm. This has been very kindly offered by Heritage Malta to members of The Archaeological Society Malta. Mr Nathaniel Cutajar, Principal Curator (Medieval) at the National Museum of Archaeology, and archaeologist actively involved in the excavations, will be leading the visit. Entrance is free and no prior booking is required.

This exhibition is the first of a series prepared by the National Museum of Archaeology dedicated to MEDIEVAL MALTA.  It  presents some of the results obtained from two rescue excavations carried out in Mdina in 2008 and Safi in 2015. Both excavations yielded precious archaeological information on Malta’s Dark Ages – a period of dramatic historical change that saw the end of Byzantine domination and the arrival of the Arabs in Malta. The ceramic typology for these periods is being presented for the first time, as a way of introducing a wider discussion on the society and the economy of Malta in the 9th and 10th Centuries. In particular the exhibition focuses on the dual nature of urban versus rural life in the period.