Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/5171
Title: The past environment of the Maltese Islands : the Marsa cores
Other Titles: Marsa cores
Authors: Carroll, Francis A.
Fenech, Katrin
Bonanno, Anthony
Hunt, Chris O.
Jones, Anne M.
Schembri, Patrick J.
Keywords: Environment (Aesthetics)
Ecology -- Malta -- History
Animals -- Malta -- History
Plants -- Malta -- History
Antiquities, Prehistoric -- Malta
Excavations (Archaeology) -- Malta -- Marsa
Issue Date: 2003
Publisher: OTS Foundation
Citation: Carroll, F. A., Fenech, K., Bonanno, A., Hunt, C. O., Jones, A. J., & Schembri, P. J. (2003). The past environment of the Maltese Islands : the Marsa cores. Exploring the Maltese Prehistoric Temple Culture (EMPTC), Valletta.
Abstract: Prior to the arrival of the first settlers in the Neolithic, the environment of the Maltese Islands is generally thought to have been extensively forested. The introduction of agriculture by these first settlers is believed to have been accompanied by intensive tree felling through slash-and-burn to gain precious agricultural land for crops, while sheep/ goat herding would have additionally reduced the tree cover. Many writers on the Temple Period connect the sudden decline of this culture with a severe degradation of the environment. Pollen analyses from a Bronze Age cistern by David Trump (2000: 99-100) revealed that the Bronze Age environment then was "already" very much like today's: mainly open country and steppe. A similar conclusion was reached by one of us on the basis of analysis of molluscan remains from the Zebbug Period tomb at the Xaghra Stone Circle (Malone et aI, 1995: 342). A scientific study of the biological and chemical components, of two cores retrieved from the Ta' Ceppuna area (Marsa) by a mechanical corer in June, 2002, which was sponsored and funded by the OTS foundation, is aimed at providing much needed new data on the nature of the Maltese environment prior to the arrival of the first settlers and to assess the magnitude of the impact human activity has had. Although current research is only at the embryonic stage and it will be a number of years before investigations are complete, it is possible to present here some very early results from the first year's work.
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/5171
Appears in Collections:Melitensia Works - ERCSciGeo
Scholarly Works - FacSciBio

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