The late prehistory of Malta: Essays on Borġ in-Nadur and other sites

Davide Tanasi, Nicholas C. Vella, Davide Tanasi, Nicholas C. Vella

• Publisher: Archaeopress Archaeology
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781784911270
• eBook ISBN: 9781784911287
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Bor? in-Nadur, on the south-east coast of the island of Malta, is a major multi-period site, with archaeological remains that span several thousand years. In the course of the Late Neolithic, the steep-sided ridge was occupied by a large megalithic temple complex that was re-occupied in the succeeding Bronze Age. In the course of the second millennium BC, the ridge was heavily fortified by a massive wall to protect a settlement of huts. Excavations were carried out here in 1881 and again in 1959. This volume brings together a number of contributions that report on those excavations, providing an exhaustive account of the stratigraphy, the pottery, the lithic assemblages, the bones, and the molluscs. Additional studies look at other sites in Malta and in neighbouring Sicily in an effort to throw light on the late prehistory of the south-central Mediterranean at a period when connections with regions near and far were increasing. The volume forms a companion to another monograph which concentrated on the temple remains at Bor? in-Nadur (D. Tanasi and N. C. Vella (eds), Site, artefacts and landscape: prehistoric Bor? in-Nadur, Malta. Praehistorica Mediterranea 3. Monza: Polimetrica, 2011). About the Editors: Davide Tanasi (Ph.D.) is Professor of Archaeology at Arcadia University, The College of Global Studies - Arcadia Sicily Center. His research interests include Mediterranean prehistory, island archaeology, archaeometry of ancient ceramics, computer graphics in archaeology, and digital communication of cultural heritage. He has authored a hundred scientific papers in these fields and produced 3D documentaries about Sicilian archaeology and cultural heritage. His publications include La Sicilia e l'arcipelago maltese nell'eta del Bronzo Medio (Palermo, 2008) and Site, Artefacts and Landscape: Prehistoric Bor? in-Nadur, Malta with Nicholas C. Vella (Monza, 2011). He is editor of the international scientific journal Open Archaeology (De Gruyter) and since 2012, he has been directing the Field School in Archaeology of Arcadia University in Sicily. Nicholas C. Vella is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta, and works on Mediterranean history and archaeology. He has co-edited another volume of essays on Malta's late prehistory called Site, Artefacts and Landscape: Prehistoric Bor? in- Nadur, Malta with Davide Tanasi (Monza, 2011) and contributed, with him, to the Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean edited by P. van Dommelen and B. Knapp (Cambridge, 2014). He edits the Malta Archaeological Review, and co-directs excavations at the ?ejtun Roman Villa (Malta). He is also co-investigator of the FRAGSUS project, funded by the European Research Council, that is examining the environmental and cultural background of prehistoric Malta.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• INTRODUCTION by Davide Tanasi and Nicholas C. Vella
• 1. Archaeological excavations at the prehistoric settlementof Borġ in-Nadur: David H. Trump’s 1959 campaigns by Nicholas C. Vella
• 2. A defensive wall with towers at Borġ in-Nadur by Giuseppe Terranova
• 3. The pottery from the excavation campaigns of David Trump (1959) by Davide Tanasi
• 4. Archaeometric characterization of Middle Bronze Age pottery from the settlement at Borġ in-Nadur by Germana Barone, Paolo Mazzoleni, Simona Raneri, Davide Tanasi, Alessandro Giuffrida
• 5. A leaf impression on a pottery sherd from the settlement at Borġ in-Nadur: a note by Giuseppe Baiamonte
• 6. The stone artefacts by Damiano Bracchitta
• 7. The prehistoric shells and fossils by Katrin Febech and Oatrick J. Schembri
• 8. Skeletal remains by Andrea Messina and Davide Tanasi
• 9. The Early Bronze Age in the Maltese Islands by Alberto Cazzella and Giulia Recchia
• 10. The Bronze Age settlement at il-Qlejgħa tal-Baħrija, Malta: notes on the rock-cut features by David Cardona and MariaElena Zammit
• The Borg in-Nadur pottery abroad by Davide Tanasi
• 12. Sacred stones: managing visitors and spaces by Iona Muscat
• Index of places
• Index of names