Exploring taskscapes in neolithic Malta : towards a territory-based approach

Abstract

The present research explored the relationships between megalithic monuments, funerary and domestic sites, and the affordances of the surroundings landscape. The study compared the data from the different site clusters within Malta and Gozo. It examined patterns in the relationships between the location, the site catchments through formal Site Catchments Analysis (SCA) with different walking times, using Tobler’s off -path hiking function. The use of viewsheds of these two classes of sites was also explored. The research explores the known characteristics of the territory visible from these sites within their landscape and taskscape setting, by exploring the relationship of the sites with the surrounding geology, soil families and soil complexes. The relationship between visibility and site catchment was examined closely and as noted through site catchment analysis, all types of sites are very closely connected with each other and within the landscape in terms of walking distances. Although such a relationship is also observed visually through the cumulative viewshed analysis sites for megalithic sites, their surrounding sites, landscapes and taskscapes, such a pattern is not mutually reciprocated for funerary sites and its surroundings, thus the intervisibility between megalithic monuments and funerary sites is not mutually reciprocated between all sites.