opinion

The decline of Maltese civilisation (part two)

The Mnajdra disaster served one purpose. It increased awareness about the vulnerability of our prehistoric heritage. For once, it united the Maltese people in a disaster which struck at the roots of our culture.

Only the government seems indifferent to the plight of a smashed Maltese temple. No wonder the lesser Megalithic Temples are practically abandoned.

What irks me is that many German, French and Swiss tourists come to Malta looking for the Neolithic temples. I’ve even seen tourists asking the guides about Tal-Qadi, Kordin II and Ta’ l-Imramma temples. The answers given varied, ranging from comments that the temples are unimpressive to them not existing anymore.

It’s a case of tourists knowing more about our culture than many Maltese; which is due to two factors: a lack of emphasis on Maltese history (and prehistory) in our schools and shoddy museums which cannot be used as teaching centres.

Most of the Neolithic sites are also abandoned and are only conducive to teaching students about Maltese prehistory if the subject were ‘Our Dwindling Archaeological Heritage’.

The wealth of Borg in-Nadur
One of the best places to teach children about history, geography and nature is Borg in-Nadur. The first evidence of prehistory is etched on the rocky shore of St George’s Bay near the Al Fresco restaurant.

Here, a pair of cart-ruts plunge into the sea. A century ago they could be seen emerging on the opposite shore about 50 metres away. Today, they are buried under a couple of houses.

The story of why the cart-ruts today lie underwater is explained by Malta’s geology. During the last five millenia, the eastern shores have subsided by about 1.5 metres, so the sunken cart-ruts once rested on dry land. How and why the ruts were made still remains a mystery, but there are a number of theories which can be elucidated upon by a well-read parent or a teacher.

Flanking the cart-ruts, a number of Bronze Age silos pepper the rocky shore; a few are submerged and have been heavily eroded. These provide conclusive proof that the eastern shore has slowly slipped under the sea.

The plight of Borg in-Nadur
Just across the road a faded sign advertises Borg in-Nadur. The remnants of a Neolithic Temple can be reached after a short walk. These are flanked by a field on one side and a clearing for an elaborate bird-trapping set-up opposite.

The temple is neglected and overgrown with plants, but instantly recognisable by a pair of surviving megaliths. These acted as a doorway, but instead of opening into the temple proper, they lead into a clearing that must have been a yard. This makes the structure quite unique and begs further study and comparisons with other Maltese megalithic temples.

Originally, the site held a prehistoric temple that was taken over by Bronze Age people who adapted it as a dwelling-place. Successive excavations which started in the 19th century mostly by A. A. Caruana and later on, Dr Margaret Murray, revealed a number of interesting artefacts, mostly bits and pieces of pottery.

The pottery’s structure and chemical make-up shows that the Bronze Age people living at Borg in-Nadur some 4,500 years ago had contacts with settlements in Sicily, Lipari and later on, Mycenae in Greece.

Some of the adjacent fields revealed hut foundations for further dwellings, possibly indicating that the temple wasn’t large enough to accommodate the growing population. A scattering of pottery fragments around the area shows that the entire promontory was populated by quite a large settlement up to 2000 years ago.

It is interesting to note that the age of the silos found on the shore tallies with that of Borg in-Nadur. This may shed some light on their function which must have been associated with the small port or fishing village existing on the coast at that time.

About a hundred metres beyond the temple, the defensive wall can be easily seen. It is an impressive structure with a width of about two metres and reaching heights of four metres in some places. The wall partly encircles part of the temple and must have protected the settlement against invaders. It is described as cyclopean due to the large rock sizes making it up, many close to half a metre across.

The wall, too, has suffered from general negligence and lack of maintenance. On one side, it is quite high and impressive; while further east, it has collapsed and most of the rocks have spilled into the ditch formed during its excavation.

Actually, the defensive wall is a clear indication of increasing warfare and insecurity in the second Bronze Age phase between 1,500 - 700 BC, the period when Borg in-Nadur was occupied by a village made of a group of oval huts.

The first phase of the Maltese Bronze Age between 2,500 and 1,500 BC is characterised by the Tarxien Cemetery in which a number of urns were found containing remains of burnt human bodies.

The second Bronze Age phase is characterised by villages constructed in a similar manner to Borg in-Nadur, hence the nickname of the second Bronze Age as the Borg in-Nadur phase.

Borg in-Nadur settlements are also found at Fawwara and Wardija ta’ San Gorg in Malta, and In-Nuffara in Gozo; and have a number of similarities including a location on flat-topped hills, associated cart-ruts, silos and reddish pottery.

Most of the second Bronze Age sites have been destroyed and it is sad that Borg in-Nadur, the best representative of this prehistoric age, lies in a state of total abandon and neglect.

Gozitan treasure-trove
In Gozo, one of the most interesting of the smaller temples is Ta’ l-Imramma situated on the Ta’ Cenc cliff-sides, some 500 metres to the west of the Ta’ Cenc hotel.

The area also contains a number of dolmens and according to Trump, a number of standing stones which suggests a unique megalithic gallery grave some 100 metres away from the reservoirs close to the cliff-edge.

Ta’ l-Imramma is another very exposed temple and should be seen in late Spring when most of the cliff-side is decorated with Star-of-Bethlehem and Mirror-orchids.