Latest Fieldnotes

This is a small (partial?) panel, a cup with four rings on sandstone, built into the ornamental arch that gives the ruined mansion of Arch Hall it’s name. There are one or two other lines that may indicate some more designs were part of the original composition.

Borg in-Nadur is under the care of Heritage Malta and is not currently open to the public. As well as the temple, there’s the remains of a bronze age settlement to the south west and the possible remains of a room to the south east.

The area immediately in front of the (unusually not concave) facade of the temple is being used for vegetable cultivation and there’s a security hut, similar to those I’d seen at Ta’ Hagrat and Skorba.

The site was noted possibly as early as 1536, but definitely from 1647, with excavations being carried out by Margaret Murray in 1920s.

It’s hard to make out the site apart from its entrance megaliths but aerial photos do show a four apse structure to the south east of the main enclosure. There’s a fair bit of rubble around, from excavations and local field clearance.

Posting this a bit after the event

Visited 21st December 2007 for the Solstice sunrise (ok technically I think we were a day out this year)

Arrived at 7.00am in the pitch black, the sky was clear and Venus was very clear in the sky. We were even treated to a brief meteor shower above Venus.

Some of the stones are roped off at the moment as is the santuary to allow the grass to recover.

Due to the hills don’t trust predictions of local sunrise times, if you actualy want to see the sun as it creeps above the horizon you need to add about 45 minutes to an hour to official sunrise time

That said it was worth being there early as there are some wonderful light & shadow effects on the surrounding hills as the sun rises

We were finally treated to a an amazing sunrise at about 9.15

We spent a full two and a half hours at the circle chatting with others and taking in the majestic views, before finally retiring to the cafe in the car park as you enter Keswick – highly recomended after freezing your nuts off at Castlerigg ;-)

Finally thank you to LivingRocks, who we spent ages chatting with and has kindly posted the photo I requested to remind me of the stunning sunrise

Dolmen hidden in the industrial estate near the disused Hal Far airfield in the south west of Malta. I got lost before I got here, but if I’d followed the signs to the Playmobil factory, I’d probably have found it.

At Bingemma gap, along the Dwejra section of the Victoria Lines, there’s a tiny chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Itria with a Punic tomb underneath it, but if you look to the right of the chapel, there’s a path down to a network of rock cut tombs believed to date back to the Bronze Age but also reused in Punic times, by early Christians, and also as refuge for local farmers during WWII.

I’ve not as yet managed to find any evidence of the exact age of these tombs (the map clearly says prehistoric) but spent a very pleasant hour or so scrambling in and out of them in glorious sunshine.

A collection of three round barrows north of the tiny hamlet of Holworth. The biggest is the most easily accessible as it is next to the road. It’s very scruffy, covered in hawthorn and has a tin box on it for some reason. West of it in the middle of a field is a small scrub covered round barrow. South of this is a low round barrow in the corner of the same field.
These appear to be part of a chain, with the Lord’s barrow and the Five Marys to the east and Moigns down/Poxwell to the west. I will revisit these soon as I was pushed for time and the footpath was a waterlogged mess.

This is a single large bowl type round barrow south of Whitfield farm long barrow. It is tree covered and looks like a clump of foliage in the summer.

I parked with room to spare by the footpath next to Cwm cottage farm. Heading north, amongst the trees was nice, then came the hills proper but with neatly cropped grass, then it got swampy and the gorse and dead bracken really hampered me , I decided to just go to the nearest hill top, I stepped over a low fence and there were the stones, without knowing exactly where it was I had almost unswervingly walked straight to it. Cool.... This is a really nice little stone circle with what looked to me to be an entrance at the north of the circle, The two outer rings are nearly all gone leaving not even an impression of their former selves. Good views to the north when it’s not raining, a nice place to revisit in better weather, like the man Greywether said before easter (but not in the rain)

The hillfort is a lot easier to find than the nearby stone circle and can be seen for miles around. Easy to get to as it is near two lanes to the northwest and the south east but not so easy to get up. It had rained fairly constantly all morning but stopped whilst I was exposed on top of the hill. The main entrance was apparently the most northern of the two with earthworks extending beyond the walls. The southern entrance is however now the most visually impressive with a small room between the entrance and the ditch, the bank and ditch running north from here is also in good condition six feet between ditch botttom and bank top. Coflein hints that it might be an example of a vitrified fort.

This site is only open to the public on Tuesdays from 11:30 – 13:00 – so would tie in nicely with an earlier visit to Ta’ Hagrat if you plan carefully.

The site was noted in 1914 by Themistocles Zammit but not excavated until 1937 by Captain Charles Zammit – with only preliminary work carried out then and further investigations put on hold by the outreak on WWII. A full survey was eventually conducted from 1961 (David Trump) and showed that despite the poor state of preservation, it was indeed a very important site.

There are two temples here – enclosed by a nasty wire fence with a guard portacabin inside but a blue tardis loo outside (cheers!) – and then to the east, behind a low wall, are the remains of two huts.

Skorba has infact given its name to two of the periods of Maltese prehistory – Grey Skorba (4500 – 4400 BCE) with its undecorated grey pottery and finds of hunting implements and obsidian and flint – and then Red Skorba (4400 – 4100 BCE) with its pottery covered with a red clay slip and highly polished; however finds from the site show its use for perhaps 2000 years.

The wire fence only really encloses the better preserved west temple, and cruelly cuts through the ground plan of the east temple, leaving the red skorba huts outside and almost hidden – I’m glad I rechecked my notes and found the huts as they revealed important finds (a group of figurines, pottery and goat skulls) and were suggested (by Trump) to be part of a shrine.

The west temple has a trefoil shape, with only really the back apse and one megalith at the entrance with any height. A noteable feature is a series of libation holes at the entrance – the flooded area when I was there. Libation holes may have been used for liquid offerings, but there’s also some discussion that they were used as a tethering point for animals (for sacrifices).

Skorba is signposted from the road from Mosta/Mdina to Mgarr – watch out for the square to your left after the road climbs uphill as the temples are at the end of this, at the edge of the village.

I parked the car by the bridge to the south, and walked across three soggy fields following the river. As I approached where I thought it would be I just couldn’t see it, But then I saw it above me amongst the trees on private property, it looked to be quite big . I took a couple of photos across the muddy flood water and squelched back to the car.

This site is currently only open to the public on Tuesdays 09:30 – 11:00.

It’s signposted but the easiest way to find it is to head west towards the dome of the church in Mgarr and watch out for a side street to the left about 200m before you reach it.

The site has a low wall but high railings surrounding it, and a security hut and portaloo – and a gate with a big padlock!

The site was excavated by Sir Themistocles Zamit over various periods from 1923 to 1929, and then restored in 1937 by his son, Charles.

There are two buildings here – a main temple with a smaller one to the north.

The main building follows the usual trefoil pattern with apses arranged around a central room, and the floor of this central area is lower than those of the apse rooms. The main facade is concave, and there are 3 large steps from the forecourt through the restored trilithon into the temple.

The small temple has a similar if slightly more irregular shape, but without the impressive entrance stones.

I guess I approached from the easy direction, as I pulled off the main road (Ghargur to Mosta) heading west from San Pawl tat-Targa Cart Ruts just before Mosta fort and with a group of houses to the left, and looked to the right and there was the walled enclosure!

Overlooking St Paul’s Bay, dolmen A is the larger of the two with a capstone 3.6m x 1.7m supported on three (?) stones about 1.4m high; dolmen B is smaller, supported by the edge of the plateau on one side and low stones on the other – its capstone is about 3m long.

The winter greenery made it difficult to work out this site, but it must look fantastic in the summer (I bought “Malta before History” – Miranda publishers – expensive but exquisite – see page 394 – as my holiday souvenir) with ruts running straight across flat ground and bending round and down the slope.

There’s extensive quarrying in the area – almost right up to the edge of the ruts.

In the north east of Malta, the easiest way to find this temple is to follow signs near Bugibba and Bur Marrad and Naxxar to Plant Supplier Ltd as it’s directly opposite.

The temple is not signposted or labelled, and is supposedly closed, but there was nothing blocking my way, so I walked up the track beside a modern building.

To the left were huge stone blocks, and then an archway – described as dolmen-like elsewhere – which I used to enter the temple. Being winter, the ground was covered with a plant like giant clover, and I used the paved blocks to pick my way cautiously across the soggy site. It was hard to make out the four apse plan (excavations here in 1927 by Zammit) but the (more modern?) steps at the original entrance to the temple stood out.

It’s thought to be the only temple orientated east-west on the island and its most precious find was a decorated limestone slab – see link – which is on display at the National Museum of Archaeology though I missed it – pah!

Originally excavated by Vasallo circa 1840, this site was badly damaged by bombing in the 2nd World War and has now disappeared under modern development.

Great place to visit, well maintained, the capstone is an incredible size and tonnage – new info boards here guessing how they did it. Just down the lane from llugwy is the ancient iron age village (4th century settlement), follow the road up and it’s on the left, follow the field across past the ruin of a 13c church.

The museum is on the main street in Valletta, Triq Ir-Repubblika, it’s identified by flags outside, and is only a few minutes walk from the crazy bus terminus. Open daily 09:00 – 19:00 (last admission 18:30) and costs 2.33 euros (seniors and students 1.16, children 0.58, 5 and under free). There are currently guided tours in English every day at 10:00 and 15:00 at no extra charge. There’s a well stocked shop and visitor toilets. Officially there’s no photography inside, but no one seemed to mind me taking pictures without flash.

I had arrived a little later than planned due to a long wait for a glorious 1960s Bedford bus and some crazy traffic, but tacked onto the 10am tour less than half way round and was very glad I did – a very well informed guide explained the temples and their finds with a fair amount of humour too.

The first part of the museum (nb only the ground floor is open – but seeing as it’s this floor which covers the prehistory I wasn’t bothered that the planned expansion upstairs and galleries on Phoenician and Roman culture, through 1800 CE, were still unfinished) explains the cronology of the period covered (5200 to 2500 BCE) and the possible construction techniques used, before moving on to look at most of the main sites in order and in detail, with fabulous scales models to see.

Some information about the finds:
there are loads of headless bodies, with sockets where the neck should be, to insert a choice of heads (from Hagar Qim); a green stone cylinder with gold inlay (unique to the islands) and red stones inset (from Tarxien); a sherd with a solar wheel decoration (from Hagar Qim); the Venus of Malta; a clay statuettte of a pregnant woman and a whole display case of stone carved and clay phalluses (maybe the temple builders were indeed part of a fertility cult); and most importantly, the “Sleeping Lady” found at the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum.

The largest room is devoted to the Tarxien temples, and has many of the original spiral carved stones, moved to the museum to prevent damage from weathering – replicas are now in situ there. Many of the stones are shown alongside photos of their excavation.

The museum building is the Auberge of Provence, and the guide explained its history with the Knights of St John in the 16th century.

An essential visit!

This site is not open to the public and is enclosed behind a high brick wall. However, it’s only a few minutes walk from the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum and the Tarxien temples, so it seemed rude not to try to visit.

From the main square where the buses stop, head north north east along a road that bends to the right, until you reach a roundabout. Follow the footpath round to the first exit and cross the road immediately opposite church with a huge purple cross to its left.

There are signs to the temple but ignore these and go up the steps towards the church and in front of it, turn to your left. There’s a gate in the wall facing you, and the wall that runs from here down the the building adjoining the church hides the temple.

The site is under the care of Wirt Artna and is open by appointment. I didn’t have one, so had to content myself with standing on tip toes to balance my camera on the wall, and then walked round the block to find the back gate (which is beyond another gate, which fortunately was opened for me – sadly that gate keeper didn’t have the set of keys to let me into the temple itself).

Excavations were carried out here in 1909 (Ashby and Peet) and a further survey in 1971 (Evans). There is a curved facade which is paved, and from the front of the structure, the upright megaliths left of centre lead through to the corridor of the trefoil building to the apses of the temple. Noteable features are to the left – niches in the wall, and the stone quern (sometimes described as a dugout canoe) across the threshold to one of the rooms. To the north, and visible on my photo taken from the back gate, is another structure, not at all well preserved, but thought to be another trefoil temple.

I tried to get there in December 2007 but the road is now shut (access only). I spoke to Cadw about the work in the area immediately around the site, and they inform me in is totally within the law but does worry them. Me too. Shame.

Alternative route to Tre’r Ceiri, carry on the road to Llithfaen, in the village take a right as if going to the welsh language school, after a few old cottages on your right you can park on the left, in a nice car park with picnic tables. Facing out of the car park you here take off across to Tre’r Ceiri, it’s a good approach to this fantastic example, keeping left form the bridle way, then cross a stile over a fence and then another over a wall near a farmers trailer and head up to it across the heather.
There’s stunning views from this location. With over 150 huts, and in places 15 foot high walls it’s well worth the walk up. We stayed for two hours and had it to ourselves. You can then come back on yourself and go up Yr Eifl with its ancient cairn, this pre-dates Tre’r Ceiri ( although there is a bronze age cairn on Ceiri-pre-dating the hill fort) the top of the cairn takes up most of the summit but has been disrupted, it’s worth the climb if you have the energy left.

Cydonia is one of the five great cities of Minoan Crete, although exact location of the ancient city was not even resolved until the latter half of the 20th century. The most powerful center of western Crete, Cydonia produced Bronze Age pottery and Linear B writings circa 1700 to 1500 BC, and was one of the first cities of Europe to mint coinage. A temple of Britomartis was erected on Mount Tityros near the city.

HISTORY Cydonia was likely established as a Neolithic settlement in the fourth millennium BC. Archaeological excavations in the old town of present day Chania have revealed the remains of Middle Minoan Period Cydonia. These explorations are difficult, since the entire Venetian city of Chania was developed over Cydonia, with virtually no recorded medieval or modern mention of the ancient city specifics until the first finds in 1965. (Andreadaki,) Ancient mention of the civilization in Cydonia is also made by Polybius, Strabo, Scylax and by Hanno in the ‘’Periplus’’. (Smith, 1878) Interestingly Pashley was able to work out rather accurately the location of ancient Cydonia without any archaeological data; he deduced the location near the port and Old Town from passages in the classical literature. (Pashley, 1837)

The Minoan culture likely peaked in Cydonia at a similar time to that of Knossos, (Hogan, 2007) around 1800 to 1500 BC. After the Minoan Period, the Dorians from mainland Greece colonized Cydonia, possibly as early as 1100 BC. By about the sixth century BC the Aegina peoples established control of Cydonia, although contact with Aegina has been verified to much earlier Bronze Age times; in particular, the Minoan goddess Britomartis was adopted by people of Aegina within the Bronze Age, and was one of the first images used in Aeginean coinage. During the maritime expansion of Aegina in the Archaic Period Cydonia would have been an ideal naval stop for the Aegina fleet on its way to other ports known to have been controlled or visited by that emerging power.

In 429 BC, the Athenians laid waste to Cydonia to assist the neighboring city of Polychna. In 343, BC, Phalaikos, leader of the Phokaians, unsucessfully laid siege to Cydonia. In the third century BC Cydonia was in war with Phalasarna, Elyros, Aptera and Polyrrenia. At 219 BC, the Cydonia joined the Aitolian and thence the Achaian Federation. As the Romans conquered other Cretan cities, Cydonia fell to Roman forces led by by Caicilius Metellus in 69 BC.. Panares, one general of the city, signed a truce, while Lasthenes, the other general, fled to Knossos.

ARCHITECTURE AND ART Recent excavations indicate a palace building at Cydonia dating to the beginning of the Neo-palatial Period (Middle Minoan III). Numerous elements of pottery, coinage and Linear B writing have been recovered in subsurface excavations, and considerable numbers of coins and ceramic objects have been found at other Aegean centers with whom Cydonia traded. For example, Cydonian inscribed stirrup jars for transporting perfumed olive oil or wine have been found at many sites in the rest of Crete and the Greek Mainland, while fine ceramic products of Cydonia have been recognized in many of the Aegean centers, including Cyprus and Sardinia. Many of the Minoan, Hellenistic and Roman finds are housed in the Khania Archaeological Museum.

COINAGE As one of the first European cities to mint coins, Cydonia first began this activity by overstriking coins of Aegina, with whom a close relation was maintained in the mid first millennium BC. One silver coin struck in Cydonia was that of a stater featuring the Minoan goddess Britomartis. Many of these early specimens were actually overstrikes of coins of Aegina. Britomartis exhibits the early custom of grape cultivation in this region with grapevines enwreathing her hair.

ENVIRONMENT Cydonia is characterized in ancient literature as having a highly protected harbor, which circumstance can be witnessed today. In addition to the sizable city developed by this natural harbor there was a considerable agricultural adjunct territory governed by Cydonia.

From its center at Kastelli Hill, Cydonia controlled an expansive area: the Khania Plain to its south towards Malaxa Mountain (Verekynthos) and Aptera; the Akrotiri peninsula to the east; and towards Polyrrhenia at the west. An an area of roughly 100,000 square meters has been deduced for the Minoan settlement of Cydonia, excluding the extended farms and outlying peasant communities. For example, the hilly countryside near the city was known to have been used for growing grapes, as attested by a third century BC stone inscription found at Cydonia. (Chaniotis, 1999)

REFERENCES
* Maria Andreadaki-Vlasiki, “Discoveries at Khania in Western Crete” with Metaxia Tsipopoulou, Athena Review, vol.3, no.3,, pp 41-52
* William Smith (1878) ‘’A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography’’, J. Murray Publisher
* Robert Pashley (1837) ‘’Travels in Crete’‘
* C. Michael Hogan (2007) ‘’Knossos’’, The Modern Antiquarian
* Angelos Chaniotis (1999) ‘’From Minoan Farmers to Roman Traders: Sidelights on the Economy of Ancient Crete’’, Franz Steiner Verlag, 391 pages ISBN 3515076212

These barrows are fairly easy to get to from a national trust car park at South Down. Public footpaths lead across Chaldon Down, but it was particularly wet and filthy when I went there. The easiest three barrows to see here consist of three and a single round barrow further to the east.
The three barrows are a medium and a small bowl type and a very small low type. Both have large clefts in their tops from old diggings.
The eastern barrow is on the crest of a hill and has an O.S. concrete trig point on it and overlooks Durdle Door and West Lulworth. A stone is marked on some maps, it is a memorial stone to Llewellyn Powys a local writer.

I had noticed a large round barrow in Came Wood while driving past. This is not visible during the summer months, the foliage is too dense. The barrow turned out to be a large bell type up close, this is very similar to Culliford Tree barrow which is only about 100 yards away to the east. If anything this barrow is in better condition as it lacks the large excavation cleft in its crown.
An added bonus while in the wood was a large ring or disc barrow about 50 yards east of the bell. It is about 15 yards across and has a bank about 3 feet high. It has an outer ditch about 3 feet deep and about 3 yards across. This has no visible burial mound inside the bank and could be a ring barrow or a possible pond type like the one adjacent to Culliford tree.

There are smaller cairns all over this area. Beyond the hill near the stones, on rough ground can be found the sight of a WW2 plane crash (the Bachelor Baby).