Orientations of the Phoenician and Punic shaft tombs of Malta

Abstract

When the Phoenicians extended their sea trade to the western Mediterranean they found Malta's exceptional harbours a convenient refuge from bad weather and a safe place for wintering. It is not known when the first contacts with the indigenous population occurred and how they affected the prevailing Bronze Age culture. Diodorus Siculus hints that the impact was very positive when he comments that the inhabitants of the island received assistance in many respects from the sea-merchants, which enabled them to shoot up quickly in their manner of living and increase in renown One of the earliest Indications of the extent of penetration of Phoenician culture is provided by the discovery of Phoenician remains dating to the late eight Century BC (about 725 B.C.) in a tomb at Ghajn Qajjet on the Mdina/Rabat plateau, the area of the highest population density at that time, which is about 8 km away from the nearest harbour. The fairly rapid spread of Phoenician burial custom is manifested by the presence of many roughly rectangular shaft tombs in several localities In Malta and Gozo dating to between the seventh and the sixth Century B.C. and later. Interestingly, the pottery found in Maltese tombs of the early period is different from that of other colonies in the central Mediterranean, that is Carthage, Sicily and Sardinia. Then, from the mid-Sixth Century B.C. onwards, as Phoenician supremacy declined and Carthage assumed control of the central and western Mediterranean, Malta became a Carthaginian colony with a difference. Since the Island was not on the main trade route between Carthage, Sicily, Sardinia and the western colonies, Malta preserved its Phoenician culture and only acquired a Punic character very gradually. This deep-rooted Phoenician-Punic culture persisted until at least the first century AD even though the Island had fallen under Roman rule in 218 B.C.