In search of Gozo's ancient town : written and non-written sources

Abstract

The controversy over the origin of Gozo's main town has been the subject of much research during the past years. There is general agreement that it originated from an inland settlement in central Gozo during the Bronze Age. However, two sites are quoted for its location: one, as being that on a flat-topped small hill, the other on a humped meadow just beneath it. The former is claimed to have been a Greek acropolis (Bres 1814), the latter, the site of the old Roman oppidum. Another suggestion which, in my opinion, contains a sort of a compromise between these two theories (Bonanno 1990) contends the existence of an upper city and a lower city. This latter suggestion is almost identical to an older one by Can. Gian Piet Francesco Agius de Soldanis in his Il Gozo Antico-Moderno e Sacro-Profano, some two hundred years earlier. Those who are acquainted with historical publications on Gozo and have read Agius de Soldanis, will agree that Il Gazo Antico e Moderno, which may be said to be a compendium of places, churches, events, persons, and all that made Gozo since the Deluge, has since served as a primary source material to those writing about their home-town. Many, in fact, - not excluding, of course, those writing about the main town of Victoria - refer to Agius de Soldanis as "the father ofGozitan historiography". Some still look at him as a model, almost an idol, whose glorification of Gozo has become synonymous with patriotism. The excessive exaltation of Gozo has naturally given rise to anomalies and anachronisms. Sometimes whole passages or episodes were invented to glorify Gozo, a device not unusual with biased writers. Abela, for instance, invented a Maltese medieval period to give a picture of a Catholic Malta; Valentini created a royal visit by Frederick IV to set up a Maltese link for an Italian heritage; and the Jesuit Gerolamo Manduca literally fabricated Pauline traditions to give a sound base for an alleged Apostolic origin of Christianity in Malta. It is thus no wonder that even in Gozo today, some writers appear to be much more arduous in their use of imagination than in their research in the history of their island. I propose three main considerations in my search for this ancient town. The first regards the antiquity of the site as an urban centre; the second regards the cultural development effecting its social and economic activities; the third regards the physical size of the site and its exact geographical location.