#SAVE SANTA VERNA ARCHAEOLOGY LANDSCAPE
PERFORMANCE-PROTEST
SAT. 1 NOV., 4PM AT THE SANTA VERNA TEMPLE IN XAGĦRA, GOZO
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION TO SAVE THE SANTA VERNA LANDSCAPE!
PERFORMANCE-PROTEST
SAT. 1 NOV., 4PM AT THE SANTA VERNA TEMPLE IN XAGĦRA, GOZO
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION TO SAVE THE SANTA VERNA LANDSCAPE!
The archaeological plateau surrounding the Santa Verna Temple in Xagħra, Gozo is one of Malta’s most important archaeological landscapes.
It holds the remains of a five-apse temple, and within the ground are still-undiscovered remains of Neolithic settlers who lived in Xagħra thousands of years before and after Ġgantija was built (c. 5400 BC – 2400 BC). (This webpage provides further details.)
Unfortunately, it is facing danger, and a significant part of it is being destroyed at this very moment.
In 1998, the Planning Authority declared that the lands surrounding the Ġgantija Temple and Xagħra Circle as "Areas of Archaeological Importance". Santa Verna was given Class A status a buffer zone. But in the past year, this stunning landscape has been scarred by legal and illegal developments, and a road cutting through its buffer zone is planned. Given recent archaeological discoveries, the protective zone should be expanded, not contracted.
It holds the remains of a five-apse temple, and within the ground are still-undiscovered remains of Neolithic settlers who lived in Xagħra thousands of years before and after Ġgantija was built (c. 5400 BC – 2400 BC). (This webpage provides further details.)
Unfortunately, it is facing danger, and a significant part of it is being destroyed at this very moment.
In 1998, the Planning Authority declared that the lands surrounding the Ġgantija Temple and Xagħra Circle as "Areas of Archaeological Importance". Santa Verna was given Class A status a buffer zone. But in the past year, this stunning landscape has been scarred by legal and illegal developments, and a road cutting through its buffer zone is planned. Given recent archaeological discoveries, the protective zone should be expanded, not contracted.
In 2023, a Neolithic burial pit containing the remains of seven Neolithic children and other artefacts was found less than 250m north of the buffer, in an area known as Ta’ Lablab. A couple of steps down was a small cave system beside arable land and groundwater.
Less than five minutes from Santa Verna and twenty from Ġgantija and the Xagħra Circle, Ta’ Lablab is clearly part of the same interconnected prehistoric landscape and the entire plateau surrounding the temples deserves protection. It almost certainly hosted farms and homesteads, likely those of Ġgantija’s builders, and may hold details regarding quarrying activities or postholes with archaeo-astronomical significance.
The FRAGSUS project (a €2.5 million European Research Council study of Malta’s earliest farming communities) discovered the area around Santa Verna was continually inhabited (with one hiatus) for thousands of years. FRAGSUS Director Caroline Malone explains:
"Santa Verna extends many scores of meters beyond the extant megaliths... Beneath the surface there are deeply preserved ancient soils containing bones, seeds, pottery, structures, lithics and environmental materials... The fact that the land of the area was not intensively cultivated has ensured quite extraordinary preservation. The Maltese authorities should not even contemplate permitting this destructive landgrab!"
However, instead of being protected, Ta’ Lablab is being destroyed. Two roads, at least 18 houses, and swimming pools have been approved—and one street infringes upon the temple’s buffer zone (highlighted in the below Planning Authority map).
"Santa Verna extends many scores of meters beyond the extant megaliths... Beneath the surface there are deeply preserved ancient soils containing bones, seeds, pottery, structures, lithics and environmental materials... The fact that the land of the area was not intensively cultivated has ensured quite extraordinary preservation. The Maltese authorities should not even contemplate permitting this destructive landgrab!"
However, instead of being protected, Ta’ Lablab is being destroyed. Two roads, at least 18 houses, and swimming pools have been approved—and one street infringes upon the temple’s buffer zone (highlighted in the below Planning Authority map).
A 2012 Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (SCH) report explicitly warned against developing Plot 25 (outlined in red): “it intrudes in part on the Buffer Zone of the Santa Verna Grade A archaeological monument". However, when we superimpose this road on MEPAs map with the outlined buffer zone (from a 2023 press release), the street is shown cutting through the buffer zone and near the burial pit and caves.
Ta’ Lablab’s burial pit and cave system is only a few steps from the supposedly-protected Plot 25, but all these areas should be in the buffer zone. However, evidence from the 2024 Environmental and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT), brought by NGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) and a local Xagħra resident shows permission to destroy these caves was provided for a €5,000 “Heritage Gain” settlement.
(All emails and screenshots from the SCH and quotations from other documents quoted in this article were obtained through the 2024 Environmental and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) or FAA's Freedom of Information (FOI) request and are legally accessible to the public. You can access them through this shared folder.)
(All emails and screenshots from the SCH and quotations from other documents quoted in this article were obtained through the 2024 Environmental and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) or FAA's Freedom of Information (FOI) request and are legally accessible to the public. You can access them through this shared folder.)
When news broke, NGOs, Xagħra’s Local Council, the Mayor, and citizens campaigned to save the caves. SCH informed The Times of Malta that a “full evaluation” would soon be carried out. (If this happened, the results are not public.)
But the story gets worse.
In July 2020, the original archaeological monitor alerted SCH about the caves, proposed road, and probable archaeological features:
But the story gets worse.
In July 2020, the original archaeological monitor alerted SCH about the caves, proposed road, and probable archaeological features:
However, by 2022, he was replaced by a JB ARCH monitor. Between March and April 2023, emails, photographs, and other evidence indicate this monitor failed to report clearly visible human remains and allowed partial bulldozing of the human burial pit.
Timeline of Events:
8 March 2023: Monitor submits a SCH Cultural Heritage Surveillance Data Sheet, no mention of bones.
11 March 2023: Monitor reports a “possible silo” discovery, states: “All other features onsite have been excavated and documented”.
5 April 2023: Xagħra resident sees bones scattered by a bulldozer and photographs them.
The dotted green lines indicate where she says bones were found; circles show concentrations. The image displays how the area was partially, if not mostly, destroyed.
Timeline of Events:
8 March 2023: Monitor submits a SCH Cultural Heritage Surveillance Data Sheet, no mention of bones.
11 March 2023: Monitor reports a “possible silo” discovery, states: “All other features onsite have been excavated and documented”.
5 April 2023: Xagħra resident sees bones scattered by a bulldozer and photographs them.
The dotted green lines indicate where she says bones were found; circles show concentrations. The image displays how the area was partially, if not mostly, destroyed.
Close-ups reveal several bones:
|
|
6 April 2023: Resident alerts FAA, the Xagħra Mayor and Local Council who advocate for the site’s protection. FAA submits photographs to SCH and informs them of the monitor’s failure to protect the area. FAA issues press release and asks police to investigate further illegal developments near Santa Verna, stating the Planning Authority refused to. SCH later explains that as soon as FAA informed them, they "took immediate action by contacting the monitor…and instructed him to go onsite to verify this report”.
7:05pm: Monitor sends email to SCH discussing "possible silo", no mention of bones.
(As per the next email, it is plausible that the monitor then had an undocumented conversation with SCH informing him of FAA’s press release.)
7:34pm: Monitor sends SCH an amended document detailing findings and requesting backdating the report to 4 April 2023, two days before FAA’s alert. (This report has not been made available and it is unknown whether it was amended.)
8 April 2023, 8:43pm: The monitor emails SCH, referencing “concerns” and “the urgency of the matter”, now mentioning the presence of bones (“located, identified, and documented”), confirming the veracity of the Xagħra resident’s alert.
7:05pm: Monitor sends email to SCH discussing "possible silo", no mention of bones.
(As per the next email, it is plausible that the monitor then had an undocumented conversation with SCH informing him of FAA’s press release.)
7:34pm: Monitor sends SCH an amended document detailing findings and requesting backdating the report to 4 April 2023, two days before FAA’s alert. (This report has not been made available and it is unknown whether it was amended.)
8 April 2023, 8:43pm: The monitor emails SCH, referencing “concerns” and “the urgency of the matter”, now mentioning the presence of bones (“located, identified, and documented”), confirming the veracity of the Xagħra resident’s alert.
10 April 2023 (Easter Monday): SCH’s osteology specialist visits the site and certifies human bones.
11:27am: Monitor reports to SCH: “a few bones were retrieved by your office from the concentration noted onsite”.
17 April 2023: SCH orders works halted.
4 May 2023: SCH instructs monitor to excavate stratigraphically.
It is worth noting that stratigraphic excavation is careful and detailed: this was assigned to a monitor who already violated SCH’s Terms of Reference:
1) The approved archaeological monitor is to carry out constant monitoring during all ground disturbance works...
2) [T]he monitor is to ensure that any archaeological strata, structural remains and / or features survive within soil and / or bedrock are protected in situ. Should archaeological remains be uncovered...the monitor is to ensure that excavations are put on hold.
3) Should any archaeological features or strata be uncovered; the monitor is to stop the works and submit report to this office for further instructions...
4) Should any features of possible cultural heritage value be discovered[,] the monitor is to ensure their preservation and immediately inform the Superintendence.
5) The monitor is to inform and report to the Superintendence...and submit a detailed surveillance data sheet.
As far as can be inferred from public documentation, no queries were made regarding the monitor’s failure to report human remains and protect the site.
1 June 2023: SCH asks JB ARCH’s Lead Archaeologist why the burial pit, part of which was situated outside the permitted area, was allowed to be excavated.
If there is a documented answer, it has not yet been made publicly available.
SCH further notes the monitor incorrectly surveyed a trench next to the burial pit (F18):
SCH further notes the monitor incorrectly surveyed a trench next to the burial pit (F18):
This sketched archaeological survey is an elementary exercise; the misrepresentation of the trench’s shape indicates either intentional malfeasance or sheer incompetence.
Given that the monitor:
1) Allowed bulldozing of burial pit outside the permitted area
2) Failed to report human remains clearly visible to a resident
3) Submitted an amended report mentioning human remains only after FAA’s press release
4) Requested backdating the report prior to FAA press release
5) Downplayed the findings in correspondence, referring to them as “a few bones”
6) Misrepresented the shape of a trench adjacent to the burial pit on survey map
—it is not implausible to suspect he was trying to destroy evidence of prehistoric burial. Even if these were just errors, they are inexcusable, and it unknown whether he or his employer suffered any consequences from this breach of public trust. If it were not for the Xagħra resident’s happenstance discovery of the human bones and FAA’s alarm, all traces of this archaeologically-important site (confirmed by SCH’s 2023 osteology specialist’s report and the SCH 2023 Annual Report) would have been bulldozed into annihilation.
God knows what else has been lost.
Xagħra’s Santa Verna / Ta’ Lablab landscape is being torn apart by further construction—and if we don’t soon stop the proposed roads, more devastation will ensue. This is also ecologically tragic given its biodiversity and home to hedgehogs, endemic Maltese wall lizards, chameleons, and other threatened birds, bats, and flora.
Additionally, given the recently lauded discoveries of Malta’s Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and continuous prehistoric occupation of the Xagħra plateau, it is probable that these pre-Neolithic people also inhabited the site. Traces of them are likely waiting to be found—are we really going to give up that chance for the sake of a few houses and swimming pools?
So What can we do?
Private citizens, politicians (of all parties), NGOs, and activists have been doing their best to convince the authorities to halt the destruction of this precious landscape. You can also email the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage ([email protected]), the Minister for Culture, Lands and Local Government ([email protected]), and the Prime Minister ([email protected]) about this issue. Ask them to remember their legal responsibility to preserve our precious cultural heritage for future generations and remind them that they have a sacred duty to protect this prehistoric, ecologically important, and beautiful landscape.
Also attend MALTA-ARCH's protest-performance and archaeology chat at the Santa Verna Temple on Saturday 1 Nov. at 4pm.
Given that the monitor:
1) Allowed bulldozing of burial pit outside the permitted area
2) Failed to report human remains clearly visible to a resident
3) Submitted an amended report mentioning human remains only after FAA’s press release
4) Requested backdating the report prior to FAA press release
5) Downplayed the findings in correspondence, referring to them as “a few bones”
6) Misrepresented the shape of a trench adjacent to the burial pit on survey map
—it is not implausible to suspect he was trying to destroy evidence of prehistoric burial. Even if these were just errors, they are inexcusable, and it unknown whether he or his employer suffered any consequences from this breach of public trust. If it were not for the Xagħra resident’s happenstance discovery of the human bones and FAA’s alarm, all traces of this archaeologically-important site (confirmed by SCH’s 2023 osteology specialist’s report and the SCH 2023 Annual Report) would have been bulldozed into annihilation.
God knows what else has been lost.
Xagħra’s Santa Verna / Ta’ Lablab landscape is being torn apart by further construction—and if we don’t soon stop the proposed roads, more devastation will ensue. This is also ecologically tragic given its biodiversity and home to hedgehogs, endemic Maltese wall lizards, chameleons, and other threatened birds, bats, and flora.
Additionally, given the recently lauded discoveries of Malta’s Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and continuous prehistoric occupation of the Xagħra plateau, it is probable that these pre-Neolithic people also inhabited the site. Traces of them are likely waiting to be found—are we really going to give up that chance for the sake of a few houses and swimming pools?
So What can we do?
Private citizens, politicians (of all parties), NGOs, and activists have been doing their best to convince the authorities to halt the destruction of this precious landscape. You can also email the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage ([email protected]), the Minister for Culture, Lands and Local Government ([email protected]), and the Prime Minister ([email protected]) about this issue. Ask them to remember their legal responsibility to preserve our precious cultural heritage for future generations and remind them that they have a sacred duty to protect this prehistoric, ecologically important, and beautiful landscape.
Also attend MALTA-ARCH's protest-performance and archaeology chat at the Santa Verna Temple on Saturday 1 Nov. at 4pm.
