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Karl Schembri
Human remains have been unearthed from a catacomb in Mtarfa in an area that will form part of a government housing project, MaltaToday can reveal.
The remains have been inspected by two doctors independently who have confirmed the bones to have belonged to a human being, probably an infant.
Handed over to this newspaper, the bones were immediately passed on to the Cultural Heritage Superintendence for further inspections.
This is the first time that human remains have been unearthed from the site, which is known to be archaeologically rich and is still awaiting official research and excavations, although construction works are still ongoing.
The site where the bones have been unearthed is possibly part of a small catacomb which was later integrated into a war time shelter.
Already approved by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and covered with a MEPA permit that is under appeal – to the chagrin of concerned residents, the local council and heritage experts – the Housing Authority’s project has been redesigned to leave parts of the archaeological site untouched, but others will be covered by the development and any potential excavations there will have to be sacrificed to new buildings.
The housing authority has drawn back its building on one side by a few metres, but it will still build a platform with flats above it over the network of catacombs and World War II shelters where the human bones have been found.
The development was suspended in 2005 after the discovery of underground structures, but the heritage superintendence stopped short of carrying out any archaeological excavations and only limited itself to “monitoring” the developer’s digging on site.
According to the new permit, proposed landscaping should include archaeological features, including those that will be discovered in due course.
Acting Cultural Heritage Superintendent Nathaniel Cutajar, who was handed over the remains, promised to investigate the bones. He added that despite the construction works, the site could still be excavated at a later stage, although the landscape would have been changed completely.
While the Housing Authority denies that there are Punic catacombs on site, the only way to ascertain the nature of the burial site is through carbon dating of the human remains just unearthed.
The plans indicate there will be access to the catacombs from one of the apartment blocks although it does not provide for public access. |
