Petition launched to save Santa Verna temple landscape

Activists have launched a parliamentary petition  pushing for urgent protection for the archaeological landscape around the prehistoric Santa Verna temple in Xagħra, Gozo.

They are warning that construction in the area is threatening invaluable heritage, including the remains of children recently found in a Neolithic tomb.

The petition calls on parliament to extend the buffer zone around the temple to include the entire archaeological landscape of Xagħra, covering sites such as the Xagħra Circle, Ġgantija Temple, In-Nuffara Hill to the east, Triq Knisja to the north and west, and Triq San Anard and Triq Xagħra to the south.

A map of the area of the ancient temple site.

The proposal aims to safeguard not just the temple core, but also caves, rock-cut features, burial pits, and any terrain that may contain intact prehistoric stratigraphy.

“At least 18 houses, swimming pools, and two roads are being planned near the temple and where a Neolithic burial pit containing the remains of seven children were found,” said Dawn Adrian Saliba, the petition's applicant and president of the Malta Arch collective.

The group said that in Ta’ Lablab, just five minutes from the megalithic site, a prehistoric burial containing children’s remains was partly bulldozed before a local resident spotted human bones scattered across the area.

“However, instead of expanding the temple’s buffer zone and protecting the area, authorities approved continued development of roads, houses and swimming pools—one road actually cuts through the temple’s protective zone,” the collective said in a statement.

Santa Verna includes the remains of a five-apse temple and, according to Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar, has a history spanning the entire Maltese prehistoric period, beginning around 5000 BCE.

The petition also notes the environmental and archaeological value of the soils around the site, which contain ancient DNA, seeds, pollen and ash. “Once the data is destroyed, it is gone forever,” it reads.

Such material, it argues, could shed light on the domestic and ritual life of Malta’s Temple Period and even on the newly discovered hunter-gatherer culture in Malta.

This year, a team of archaeologists led by professors Eleanor Scerri and Nicholas Vella published research in Nature suggesting that human presence in Malta predates the Temple Period by at least 1,000 years, with the earliest settlers being hunter-gatherers.

The petition calls for a full public study of the area and an Emergency Conservation Order to halt plans for villas and houses in the vicinity of the historic site.

It also calls for archaeological monitoring independent of developers, protection of nearby caves, and the recovery and proper study of displaced soil and artefacts.

It had gathered nearly 500 signatures at the time of writing.

The petition follows recent clashes between NGOs and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.

NGO Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar earlier this year also called for a halt to all works in the vicinity of the site and a proper study of the area. 

The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage insisted however that no works were taking place within the temple’s buffer zone and that permitted works in the broader Area of Archaeological Importance were under constant archaeological supervision. It denied claims that it was failing to protect the area. 

A walk and talk will be held on Saturday, August 23 at 5pm, starting at the Viewpoint near Xagħra Cemetery.

Speakers will include Sandra Gauci (ADPD), Arnold Cassola (Momentum) and Luke Said (PN). Saliba will lead an Archaeology Awareness Walk along a public path near the Santa Verna Temple.