Chapter 11 : conclusions

Abstract

There is now a large degree of synergy exhibited by the various classes of palaeoenvironmental data investigated through the FRAGSUS Project on Malta and Gozo and the direct inter-linkages and associations of aspects of the environment with human activities during the last 8000 years. The geological setting and well dated palynological, molluscan and soil/sediment data present a background picture of vegetational and landscape change throughout the Holocene, with some very specific data on trajectories of clearance, erosion and farming activities in various valleys of the Maltese landscape. Nested within this broader framework, there is an immense amount of more specific data on the development of and changes in palaeosols, the frequencies and types of soil erosion and formation of valley fill sequences, as well as the dynamics of near-shore, valley and plateaux landscapes through prehistoric and historic times in both Malta and Gozo. Within these, there is an exceptional amount of data concerning the impacts of the first farming communities and the resilience of these island landscapes during the Neolithic period between the seventh and third millennia bc. The following summative interpretational sections attempt to draw out the main themes and trajectories of landscape change that have occurred during the Holocene in the Maltese archipelago.