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Department of Archaeology |
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The Gozo Project
Project Directors
- Prof. A. Bonanno (University of Malta);
- the late Dr Tancred Gouder (sometime director of the National Museum of Malta)
- Dr Caroline Malone (Hughes Hall);
- Mr Anthony Pace (Superintendent of Cultural Heritage);
- Dr Simon Stoddart (University of Cambridge);
- Dr David Trump (Cambridge).
Project Phase
Collaborating Institutions and Project Members
- Department of Archaeology, University of
Cambridge
- Department of Classics and Archaeology,
University of Malta
- National Museum of Malta
Financial Support
- British Academy
- McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
(University of Cambridge)
- Smuts Fund (University of Cambridge)
- Society of Antiquaries of London
Publications
- Malone, C.A.T., Stoddart, S.K.F. and Trump, D.
1988. A house for the temple builders. Recent
investigations on Gozo, Malta. Antiquity.
62, 297-301.
- Bonanno, A., Gouder, T., Malone, C. and Stoddart,
S. 1990. Monuments in an island society: the
Maltese context. World Archaeology 22 (2),
190-205.
- Stoddart, S., Bonanno, A., Gouder, T., Malone, C.
and Trump, D. 1993. Cult in an Island Society:
Prehistoric Malta in the Tarxien period. Cambridge
Archaeological Journal 3(1), 3-19.
- Malone, C., Stoddart, S. and Townsend, A. 1995.
The landscape of the island goddess ? A Maltese
perspective of the central Mediterranean. Caeculus
(Papers on Mediterranean Archaeology,
Archaeological Institute, Groningen University)
2, 1-15.
- Malone, C., Stoddart, S., Bonanno, A., Gouder,
T., and Trump, D. 1995. (eds.) Mortuary ritual of
fourth millennium BC Malta: the Zebbug tomb from
the Brochtorff Circle (Gozo). Proceedings of
the Prehistoric Society 61, 303-345.
Research Aims and Current Results
The Gozo project was started in 1987 to investigate
unsolved problems of the fourth and third millennium BC
in Malta, the phase of temple construction. These
problems were defined as 1) the reconstruction of
funerary ritual (investigated through excavation at the
Brochtorff Circle), 2) the understanding of settlement
organisation (investigated through regional field survey
and limited excavation) and 3) the investigation of
environmental change (investigated through the study of
environmental indicators such as molluscs).
In practice, most effort has been invested in the
excavation and study of the patterns of art and mortuary
ritual at the Brochtorff Circle and this is the principal
focus of the current post-excavation work. The seven
fieldwork seasons of excavation at the Brochtorff Circle,
based on a unique Anglo-Maltese collaboration, were
completed in 1994. The achievements comprise the
substantial excavation of the largest and most intact
funerary temple hypogeum discovered and analysed under
modern conditions in the central Mediterranean; a
sequence of 13 radiocarbon dates for the principal phases
(Zebbug, Tarxien and Tarxien Cemetery); recovery of
prehistoric art and architecture in context; meticulous in
situ recording of a substantial sample of human bone.
The 1994 excavation season uncovered substantial deposits
of super-imposed, articulated individuals (some with
simple gravegoods of cowrie shells and pottery) adding a
further dimension to complexity of human burial. There is
now substantial evidence for many phases of funerary
ritual, including the manipulation of human bone in
various stages of articulation.
An associated project is also under way in
collaboration with the Department of Computer Science of
the University of Bristol and the University of Malta to
make computerised reconstructions of the Maltese temples
and subterranean mortuary structures such as the
Brochtorff Circle at Xaghra.
