Caves in context : the late medieval Maltese scenario

Abstract

Areas of the Maltese countryside containing a britt le limestone deposit known locally as Mtarfa Member contain numerous cave-sett lements of unknown antiquity. Even though remaining in use until the early modern period, and some until the fi rst few decades of the twentieth century, the available archaeological and landscape evidence hints at a twelft h century date, and might indeed be related to a period of agricultural expansion experienced by Maltese rural areas during this period. The various late medieval Maltese cave typologies, the rock-cut churches – several of which were situated within the precincts of palaeochristian hypogea, and the hydraulic strategies employed by the cave occupants in order to retrieve a perennial water source from the occupied landscape are all discussed. This study forms part of a broader research project, aimed at investigating Maltese late medieval sett lement location and any related water management systems. Landscape and sett lement analysis is based on available archaeological, archival and historical evidence, together with extensive personal non-invasive fi eld research conducted in various parts of the archipelago.