Editorial: Changing our view of history

What an extraordinary piece of archaeology to discover Malta was occupied a thousand years earlier than originally thought! This impressive research places Malta even more firmly on the Mediterranean map of civilisations.

Nicholas Vella and Eleanor Scerri, both professors at the University of Malta, were digging through a cave in the northern parts of Mellieħa that has been open to the elements for centuries.

The area is used by rock climbers, picnickers and campers. It was at this inauspicious site that the researchers found stone tools, hearth, and cooked food waste, with evidence of red deer.

The significance was not lost on these intrepid explorers: the previous assumption was that Malta had been occupied by farmers.

This new finding showed that they must have been hunter-gatherers – and since the deer would have been extinct by this time, it also pushed back the first date that humans were on the island by a thousand years.

Their findings were published in the prestigious journal Nature, also authored by Dr James Blinkhorn of the University of Liverpool and MPI-GEA, where Prof. Scerri also works. The research was supported by Malta’s Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.

The research challenged the idea of how these settlers came here: at that time, they must have crossed from Sicily in simple dugout canoes across the dark expanses of sea, certainly no mean feat.

Imagine that research in an open cave could unearth such significant findings and then extrapolate this to understand how much more there is yet to be found out, not only about Malta itself but about civilisations in the Mediterranean.

There are so many mysteries to be unearthed but only if their importance is clearly understood and supported.

Every schoolchild knows that the Hypogeum was found when drilling a well for a new house a century ago. How much more could be found during excavations for new buildings and roads and infrastructure which could change our understanding of humankind’s development? Discoveries are made regularly.

Punic tombs were found just last September during trenching works near Mater Dei Hospital, as well as underwater relics dating back to the sixth century BC at il-Ballut ta’ Marsaxlokk.

The website of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage reports numerous finds – and yet the tragedy is that there are so many sites that we already know about, that await proper research and restoration, assessment and sometimes scheduling.

Malta deserves to have a detailed database of all its historic sites, indicating their current state and whether they are in a precarious state or not. It would at least be a starting point for funding and research, as well as for emergency interventions to prevent important clues being lost before we even have a chance to mull them over.

Our location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean defines who we are, and how we evolved over the millennia.

Malta’s rich history and heritage, lying everywhere we look, has given us a unique story which has attracted visitors for years and which will continue to do so for centuries to come.

It is a shame that a lot of history continues to be disrespected, and cemented over by the greed of the construction sector.

We have to safeguard every possible clue that might be waiting in plain sight or hidden.

That can only happen if we appreciate the importance of every aspect of our history and protect it for future generations.