Landscapes of death and commemoration: preliminary results and ongoing works

Lecture by Mr David Cardona, Senior Curator for Phoenician, Roman and Medieval Sites, Heritage Malta.

Malta is strewn with rock-cut, underground burials dug and used for approximately a thousand years during the Islands’ occupation by Phoenician, Punic, Roman and Byzantine powers. These have been the pillar of various studies but very few managed to look at the data from tombs of different periods in a holistic manner. This has resulted in the different periods of sepulchral archaeology being studied in almost complete isolation from one another. This study aims to investigate the vast corpus of data available on the island to try and recognise clusters that may identify actual cemeteries in the various phases being studied, and trace, whenever possible, the evolutionary development traits within the same tombs and cemeteries. This includes the close relationships with the area immediately above the tombs and catacombs as an important part in the cemetery’s story. Thus, this work also seeks to investigate the relationships between tombs and cemeteries with other features like quarries, roads and cart ruts.

abstract