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Prehistoric Tombs near Zebbug, Malta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

J. G. Baldacchino  and
J. D. Evans
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Extract

In September, 1947, whilst digging trenches for the laying of the foundations of a building in the field known as ‘ta Trapna iz-Zghira’, in the parish of Zebbug (Ref. 394228 on the standard 2-inch map of Malta), five early tombs were discovered. The workmen, not appreciating the importance of the discovery, cut a trench 2 feet wide through the middle of two of these burials, thus partially destroying the deposit. Further destruction was prevented by Mr. Ian Small, Civil Engineer of H.M. Dockyard, who stopped the work and reported the discovery to the Museum; and on inspection of the site it immediately became apparent that we were dealing with tombs of a type hitherto unrecorded. The excavation of these remains was conducted with the fullest care to secure adequate records and ensure the recovery of all the archaeological material.

The tombs were five in number, irregularly disposed within an area of 50 sq. yards (Fig. 1). They all exhibited more or less the same features. Each tomb consisted of a saucer-shaped cavity roughly cut in the rock-bed, which at this point is the soft, white, Middle Globigerina Limestone and which underlies about 2 ft. of field soil. The diameter of the tombs averaged about 6 ft., and they attained a depth of about 2 ft. at the centre. A single layer of flat, roughly chipped slabs, derived from the local rock-bed, was used to pave the tomb floor. These slabs, about 4 in. in thickness and 10 in. in width, varied in length from 6 in. to 2 ft. 3 in. Overlying the slabs there was a layer of marl, about 6 in. in thickness, in which were embedded human skeletal remains, mostly in a fragmentary state and in utter disorder.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 22 , November 1954 , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1954

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References

* See p. 21, n. 17.

1 Ant. Journ. viii, 1928, p. 481Google Scholar.

2 Orsi, , Bull. Pal. It., A., xxxiv, 1908, pl. III, 5Google Scholar. Pl. III, 11 however, is much closer to a form current in the later Tarxien phase (Period Ic).

3 Ibid., pl. IV, 2 and p. 127, fig. B.

4 There is also one from Tomb 5 at Zebbug. See p. 13 (Tomb 5), No. 7.

5 Orsi, , Bull. Pal. It., xlviii, 1928, pp. 58–61Google Scholar. Unfortunately no illustrations of the material are included in this note on the exploration of the cave. The handles mentioned were seen in the Syracuse Museum.

6 Orsi, , Bull. Pal. It., xxxiv, 1908, pl. III, 4Google Scholar.

7 Ashby, Excavations in Malta, 1908–11, figs. 6 and 25, show the fragments from Kordin III and Santa Verna respectively. Zammit, , Bulletin of the Valletta Museum, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 25, fig. 17Google Scholar, illustrates some specimens of painted wares from Mgarr.

8 For the San Cono flint industry see Orsi, , Bull. Pal. It., xxv, 1899, pl. VGoogle Scholar.

9 For this sequence see Hawkes, J., Arch. Journ., xcv, 1938, PP. 126–173Google Scholar and V. G. Childe, Dawn of European Civilisation, 5th ed., 1950, pp. 293 ff.

10 Childe, op. cit. p. 301.

11 Colini, , Bull. Pal. It., xxv, 1899, p. 301Google Scholar.

12 Observation made by Dr. R. Battaglia in a letter to Dr. Baldacchino.

13 Already remarked on by B. Saez Martin in Actasy Memorias de la Soc. Esp. de A. E. P., 1944, pp. 134 ff.

14 Orsi, op. cit., p. 56.

15 Zammit, , Ant. Journ., viii, 1928, pl. LXXVI, fig. 1Google Scholar.

16 E.g., Nadur (Zammit, op. cit., p. 482); probably also Busbizija (Valletta Museum Annual Report, 1928–9, p. IV), but this was damaged. The North Cave at Ggantija (ibid., 1949–50) seems to have been a crudely cut chamber tomb. This was used as a dump for pottery from the neighbouring temple, but a few fragments of Zebbug ware may represent the remains of the original burial.

17 For the Maltese pottery-sequence referred to above see Evans, J. D., ‘The Prehistoric Culture-Sequence in the Maltese Archipelago,’ Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, xix, pt. 1, pp. 41–94Google Scholar. Thanks are due to the Prehistoric Society for loan of the blocks for figs. 5 and 6 of the present article.