Death and burial in Malta : understanding tomb contexts of the archaic period

Abstract

As the culture which escorted the Maltese Islands out of prehistory, the Phoenician Period is a key chapter in the Maltese story. In spite of the crucial role they played in Malta’s past, the main sources of information about the Phoenicians have predominantly been the tombs and burial contexts scattered throughout the Maltese Islands; this is because the remains of buildings and inscriptions are less numerous in comparison. The Archaic period of Phoenician Malta is more obscure than the subsequent centuries of Punic occupation because the culture had just begun to be established on the islands after the Bronze Age, which is why the artefact assemblages from the earliest tombs should be used to increase our understanding of both life and death at the point of Malta’s ushering into the Classical age. This first stage of Punic influence also signals the increase of Malta’s involvement with the rest of the Mediterranean, which is to be expected due to the well attested-to seafaring and mercantile nature of the Phoenician and Punic peoples; foreign influences on the Phoenicio-Punic way of life can be seen in funerary contexts in the form of imported pottery and other grave goods, and these shall feature heavily in this study. Since Malta and Gozo where part of the greater Phoenician and Punic sphere, also looking at tomb contexts of the same period from Carthage and the Phoenician homeland shall place the islands’ history in a wider context, as well as make for a more holistic research exercise.