| Malta Project 2001 |  | ||
| ___________________ | |||
| Malta Project 2001 | | ||
| ___________________ | |||
 |
Summer 2001 was the second season
of the Systematic Survey of the Maltese coastline by INA in cooperation
with the National Museum of Archaeology. The objective of the present
project is to locate the underwater cultural remains (i.e. shipwrecks,
anchors, submerged settlements, aircraft wrecks, harborstructures) in the Maltese territorial waters, to
document the discovered sites, and to conduct excavations when
warranted. Our ultimate goal
is to determine the role played by the Maltese islands throughout the
history of the Mediterranean seafaring by answering questions such as:
where the main harbors/anchorages were located, what products were
exchanged/traded, and how did the major historical events effect the
nature of long-distance trade and traders that frequented Malta. The growing results of our work
signals that rewarding progress has been made in providing answers to our
research questions.
|
|
Divers getting ready to dive into the Marsamxett Harbor from the Old Quarantine Hospital |
In 2001, work was pursued in four major areas. The two areas surveyed in Malta
were (1) the area adjacent to the Quarantine Hospital in the Marsamxett
Harbor and (2) the area near Zonkor Point where two swivel guns were
previously reported to the museum. In addition, three areas in Gozo
were surveyed using different techniques. (1) the area near the
watch-tower at the entrance of the inlet of Mgarr ix-Xini was investigated
by a diving team and (2) a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) was employed
for the surveying of an area near the Xlendi Bay and the area between Xatt
l’Ahmar and Mgarr ix-Xini inlets.
Both the Quarantine Hospital and Xlendi zones yielded considerable
archaeological material. |
| Extended Surface Survey in the Marsamxett Harbor Near the Quarantine Hospital. | |||
|
The Quarantine control became institutionalized in Malta near the middle of the 17th century. The intention was to segregate incoming passengers as well as imports from areas where either the occurrence of the plague was considered endemic (i.e. the lands under Ottoman rule that included Dalmatia, Greece, Aegean islands, Asia Minor, Levant, Cyprus, Egypt, Tripoli and Maghreb) or from the European shores of the Western Mediterranean if the country of origin was suspected of plague infection. All passengers and goods coming from these lands had to be cleared by the Quarantine authorities before being granted release to circulate in-country, or to proceed on to other destinations in Europe. The Quarantine period was of 40 days duration during which time the goods were landed within the Lazzaretto where they were subjected to fumigation. The ship and all people on board would stay at anchor next to the Lazzaretto for the full-term of the quarantine period. |
| ||
|
Manoel
Island in Marsamxett Harbor was first utilized as a temporary Lazzaretto
during the plague epidemic of 1593.
Grand Master Lascaris erected the first building of the permanent
Lazzaretto in 1643. The
building was enlarged in the following periods, but this first building is
still standing and was used as a dive platform for the INA team during our
survey.
Publication forthcoming INA Quarterly – Winter 2002
For
obvious reasons the underwater area next to the Lazzaretto (or “The
Quarantine Hospital” as it is known today) is very promising: in addition
to debris discarded from the ships that underwent Quarantine in Malta, the
Lazzaretto area also provides invaluable material concerning the history
of land use on Manoel Island prior to the development of the Quarantine
services in this location.
Briefly stated, the archaeological material on the bottom of the
Marsamxett harbor not only provides an excellent overview of Maltese
history but also sheds light on the organization of the Mediterranean
trade during a period of major hostilities between the Ottoman East and
European West.
| ||
|
The
diving survey near the Quarantine Hospital building proceeded in two
phases: (1) systematic
surface collection of archaeological material, and (2) excavation of test
trenches in the most promising areas. The team consisted of eight divers
from INA, the National Museum of Archaeology, the University of Malta, and
Bristol University.
Archaeological material that is still undergoing study are a few
late Roman-Byzantine pieces, a number of 11th-12th
century Islamic ceramics possibly of North African origin, a considerable
amount of late 17th to early 19th century polychrome
Majolica shards and an abundance of 19th-20th
century white ceramics used by the British Navy. Although the material seems to
represent all periods of use of this creek, comparisons between the
numbers, dates and the origins of the immediately recognizable artifacts
yield interesting results; particularly the
abundance
of medieval material nearly outnumbers the finds from the ‘Knights’
period. We are looking
forward to the results of the pottery studies to see how useful our
underwater finds will serve in enhancing our understanding of the maritime
history of Malta in the Medieval period. |
| ||
 |
|||
|
Francis Mifsud, Timothy Gambin, Fredrik Soreide and Joseph Bianco are deploying the ROV to investigate the shipwreck site off Xlendi. |
|||
|
The second phase of our survey consisted of the inspection of a promising area near Xlendi Bay in Gozo. The initial survey relied on the use of the scanning sonar that was part of the standard ROV equipment. The anomalies detected by the sonar were immediately inspected by the ROV with two cameras. The major find of the 2001 season employing this technology and personnel that was provided by the NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and Sperre A.S. was the amphora scatter off the entrance to the Xlendi Bay. The scatter consists of thousands of amphoras that represent at least a dozen different types and is spread over an area of about 400 x 100 meters. The depth and the nature of the site (an anomaly that is located at the middle of flat, sandy bottom at a depth of 110-130 meters and about 3 miles off the shore) compels us to identify it as a “shipwreck” site. |
| ||
|
However,
it is unclear whether it represents a single large shipwreck site or a
multiple wreck-site. One of
the major hurdles to be overcome is the difficulty of acquiring precise
dates for the amphoras since the equipment and the time frame available in
2001 allowed the retrieval of only one archaeological sample. This particular amphora dates to
the 3rd century BC, and is likely to be the product of a
workshop in Western Sicily or near Carthage. The results of our ongoing
attempts to determine the production dates and places of the other types
will be presented in the forthcoming articles in INA Quarterly and
IJNA. It will be difficult to
determine the nature of the site
before a detailed site map is produced and other archaeological samples
are brought up for detailed study.
However, it is important to note that this site is the first
shipwreck site of such an extent ever discovered in Malta. The importance of the study of the
material lies in the insight it can provide into the history of Malta,
specifically the dynamics of trade in the central Mediterranean during the
Punic Wars.
|
|
Written
by Texas
A&M University P.O.
Drawer H.G. College
Station, TX 77841-5137 USA
|
| Citation Information: Ayse Devrim Atauz |
| Designed by Ralph K. Pedersen |
