Water management technology as a contributing factor in the development of the rural landscape of the Maltese archipelago : making a case for the late medieval period

Abstract

This study synthesises archaeological and historical research in order to investigate Maltese water management technology in the High and Late Medieval periods, more specifically between 1091 and 1530. Maltese terrestrial geological formations and stratification are a determining factor in conditioning the formation of subterranean aquifers, water-harvesting and storage, landscape development and utilisation. Central to this study are reservoirs, cisterns, wells and perched aquifer galleries. These water features have for centuries provided farmers tilling arable land with a supplementary water source other than the limited and erratic seasonal rainfall. The data and conclusions presented in this thesis are the result of extensive personal field and archival research and include an assessment of the available documentary sources of evidence including place-names and cartographic sources. An emphasis is placed on Upper Coralline Limestone perched aquifer subterranean galleries which so far have not been scientifically dated. Comparative research suggests that a number of these share common characteristics with the qanat technology of the Islamic and the Roman worlds and were possibly part of a new agricultural and technological package introduced into the archipelago during the Muslim or the post-Muslim period between the twelfth and the fourteenth centuries AD. The influence other perched aquifers located in Globigerina Limestone formations had on archaeologically-significant remains in the vicinity was also investigated. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, an understanding of the mechanism behind the workings of the mean-sea-level aquifer led to a dramatic shift in the water management and distribution policies practised on the islands and resulted in an ever-decreasing reliance on perched aquifer systems. The twentieth-century contamination of most local perched aquifer sources with nitrates, a by-product of agricultural activity, made these no longer fit for human consumption, but they are still a precious aid to agricultural activity taking place in an otherwise semi-arid context. So are the Upper Coralline Limestone perched aquifer galleries, many of which still supply the specifically designated agricultural areas they were meant to service with a perennial water supply.