The Malta Independent on Sunday
Talk on the Maltese rural landscape development: AD 900 to 1900
The monthly lectures at Din lArt Ħelwa resume, after the Christmas holidays, with a talk by Dr Keith Buhagiar PhD entitled: Maltese rural landscape development: AD 900 to 1900, an overview of recently conducted archaeological and historical research carried out both locally and abroad investigating Maltese landscape development from AD 900 to 1900.
Dr Buhagiar will explain how the Maltese terrestrial geological formations and stratification are a determining factor in the formation of subterranean aquifers, water-harvesting and storage, landscape development and utilisation. An emphasis will be placed on Upper Coralline Limestone perched aquifer subterranean galleries and the agricultural estates ( viridaria) in which they are located. Do these water galleries share common characteristics with qanat technology of the Islamic and the Roman worlds? Are they part of a new agricultural package introduced during the Muslim or the post-Muslim period between the eleventh and the fourteenth centuries AD? Did perched aquifers located in Globigerina Limestone formations have an influence on settlement location in central and southern Malta?
Dr Keith Buhagiar is a PhD graduate in archaeology from the University of Malta specialising in rural landscape development, related water management systems as well as Maltese and Sicilian medieval and Early Modern cave-settlements. Dr Buhagiar lectures in palaeochristian and medieval archaeology at the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta. Research interest include central Mediterranean, North African and Near Eastern water management systems, Late Roman and medieval subterranean burial spaces, cave dwellings and rock-excavated oratories, as well as Mediterranean settlement location and distribution. Dr Buhagiar’s research has been widely published in both foreign and local specialist books and journals.
The talk is due to be held on 12 January at 6.30pm at 133, Melita Street, Valletta and will be conducted in English. Entrance is free, but donations to Din l-Art Ħelwa would be appreciated.