Legislating, protecting, knowing : legal issues and cultural heritage in the Maltese Archipelago

Abstract

‘They used to see this woman carrying a large stone on her head. She had a baby ... some say that she carried her baby in her arms, others that she carried the baby in a pocket of her dress, others that the baby was placed in a sling across her body; in her pocket were more than 300 square metres worth of broad beans; she also had four kilograms of flax; when she walked she ate beans, worked the flax, and steadied the stone on her head. In Gozo she built the small stone hut at Ta’Ċenċ, called Id-Dura tal-Mara. From there she carried the stones to Ġgantija, in Xagħra, as she had carried the standing stone to Qala, and the stones to Borġ Għarib near Għajnsielem. On the Ta’ Ċenċ heights, on the windswept plateau, there is a construction similar to Ġgantija, and along the edge there are remains of many stones forming a wall. Even these were carried by this woman. About the standing stone they say that it was carried by a woman one and a half times taller than the stone. She used to climb over it to work flax. In her pockets she could hold more than 600 square metres worth of broad beans.’