Updated at 6.30 pm with Flimkien Għal-Ambjent Aħjar and Din L-Art Ħelwa comments

An archaeology expert who saved two prehistoric "shark teeth" from being bulldozed during roadworks in Gozo was threatened with legal action by the cultural watchdog for hindering work on site.

Dawn Adrienne Saliba is insisting she did nothing wrong as all she did was try to save the fossils which she discovered during ongoing roadworks close to her home in Triq Ta’ Viani and Triq Ġorġ Pisani, in Victoria, on Sunday. She reported them to the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage the following morning and even alerted several other authorities in her attempts to try to save other potential fossil finds from destruction. 

The roadworks are part of the controversial Marsalforn project to widen the arterial road and develop another road to reroute traffic away from Victoria’s centre.

Desperate to save the fossils, on Wednesday Saliba told Times of Malta this week  - in an opinion piece - how she was bounced between various authorities – including the superintendence for cultural heritage – as she attempted to inform them about her find and stop the works to protect any other fossils on site.

The day after her opinion piece was published, she received an e-mail from Cultural Heritage Superintendent Kurt Farrugia giving her an ultimatum to hand over the fossils or face legal action as he claimed she was in breach of the law. In the email Farrugia also asked her to apologise for reporting the matter to the European Archeological Association  - something she did not do, she said.

But Saliba has been insisting she did nothing illegal. She alerted the superintendence hours after finding the fossils and was told to hand them over to the site's archaeological monitor but, when she tried, she could no longer access the site as it was cordoned off and was not given a way to contact the monitor.

She has sent a legal letter to Farrugia. In the letter, signed by lawyer Claire Bonello, the superintendent is asked to “desist from your aggressive and intimidatory behaviour”.

The letter notes Saliba has not breached any laws – “to the contrary – she has carried out her civic duty with the intention of preserving artefacts and palaeontological heritage. She should be commended for her action and not have to face baseless and slanderous accusation in her regard”.

Saliba explained how she handed over the fossils – which she never intended to keep – to the archaeological monitor of the site last Friday after finally being put in contact with him.

However, she will not be letting go of her fight: to push for better preservation of palaeontological finds.

She has now written to the Maltese MEPs about the “outrageous letter threatening and bullying me”, sent to her by Farrugia and added that the superintendent was failing to protect the country’s heritage as was its duty.

“A head of a governmental agency should not threaten a whistleblower or a person speaking truth to the press,” she told MEPs.

She noted that the road project during which she found the fossils was connected to the widening of Triq Marsalforn, “which is not only going to destroy vital ecological habitats but also these two fossil-containing layers (C1 and C2). If I found two megalodon teeth and one possible large rib bone in this tiny patch, how much more is there to be destroyed on Triq Marsalforn?”

When Saliba, who is the president of NGO Malta Arch and who is doing post-doctoral work in archaeology, visited the site on Sunday she found the two Caracharocles megalodon teeth and two small man-made caves cut into the limestone. The Natural History Museum of Gozo verified the teeth, Saliba said.

Soul-destroying and mind-numbing bureaucratic labyrinth

The fossil once belonged to a megalodon, an extinct species that resembles a giant shark but is not actually related to the shark. The megalodon has been regarded as one of the largest and most powerful predators to have lived – at a time when the islands were under water.

Saliba decided to file a report about the remains and to halt the works in progress before more damage could be done – but was unaware of the “soul-destroying and mind-numbing bureaucratic labyrinth” she was about to get herself into.

After filing a complaint with the heritage watchdog – the superintendence of cultural heritage – she called the police, who informed her to call the local council. The council told her they would read her complaint at the next meeting. She called the ministry and was sent to the Planning Authority, which sent her to Infrastructure Malta that sent her back to the ministry.

Saliba said that, throughout all this, she was informed that the superintendence of cultural heritage only monitors archaeological, not paleontological, remains.

Through her e-mail exchange, she called on the superintendence to ensure that its monitors on such sites are trained to look for and recognise paleontological remains, as well as archaeological remains.

The superintendence said the permit for the road works in question were issued subject to archaeological monitoring conditions.

“An archaeological monitor, who is very experienced, has been present on site since the start of the works, following the issue of the Terms of Reference by the Superintendence. The archaeological monitor on site had already reported to the superintendence that he observed natural stone inclusions, commonly found in our geological deposits. The site was inspected by the Superintendent himself, who confirmed the presence of these deposits. These deposits are being recorded by the archaeological monitor, in line with Superintendence Terms of Reference,” the superintendence said.

Follow-up questions were then sent asking what law could have been breached, what will be done with the fossils and about the staff training to identify paleontological remains.

The superintendence said it had no further comments to make.

Environment NGOs condemn Cultural Watchdog’s threats to Saliba

In a statement, Environment NGO Din L-Art Ħelwa called on the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage to issue an “unequivocal” public statement acknowledging the mishandling of the palaeontological remains.

The NGO said it was concerned how instead of the Superintendent praising  Saliba’s discovery and her call to stop works for further investigations, she was threatened with legal action and an intimidating attitude. 

 “To add insult to injury, the archaeological monitor did not take control of the situation, stop works on site and carry out the obligatory recording, collection and labelling of the finds. Instead, these paleontological remains were left scattered across a publicly accessible site, vulnerable to theft or further damage.” 

The NGO said despite what Saliba was told, the Cultural Heritage Act defines cultural heritage as “movable or immovable objects of artistic, architectural, historical, archaeological, ethnographic, palaeontological and geological importance”

It recommended the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage to endorse community participation in the protection of cultural heritage and issue clear guidelines on what the public should do in similar circumstances as Saliba encountered. 

In a separate statement, Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar condemned the threatening stance the Cultural Heritage Watchdog adopted towards Saliba.

It also condemned how the authority allowed for further destruction of archaeological remains in the area, despite the Superintendence claiming the site to be closely monitored.

“One shudders to think how much heritage has been lost over the years, not just archaeology but also architecture, from an Arab-period house in Safi, Medieval houses in Siggiewi, the magnificent 1537 Armoury of the Knights in Qormi and the Bovile at Manoel Island, to mention just a few,” the statement read.