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Ghar il-Kbir and Clapham Junction
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The Project will cost 296,906 Euros and will be partly funded by the EU
VALLETTA, Malta (di-ve news) -- October 23 2004 1300CET - Some new light will be shed on the mysterious cart ruts found all over Malta as a scientific research will be carried out to try and establish why, when and how where these enigmatic routes cut into rocks were used.
Heritage Malta will be the Project Leader in the Culture 2000 project entitled "The significance of cart-ruts in ancient landscapes". This is the first time that Malta is a project leader in such a project. During the launch of the project it was announced that there are two international partners involved: Faculty of Environmental Sciences University of Urbino Italy, and APROTECO -- association for economic development of Valley of Lecrin, Granada Spain. Local partners include: National Museum of Archaeology, Restoration Unit, MEPA and the University of Malta.
The project will cost 296,906 Euros, 49 per cent of which will be partly funded by the European Commission.
The cart ruts of Ghar il-Kbir, at Clapham Junction, Rabat Malta covering an area of about 250,000 square metres and Camino des los Molinos, Padul, Granada Spain were chosen for the study. These two sites will be compared to each other in the study. A technology developed by a team of Italian experts from the University of Urbino will be used to document the cart-ruts and the surrounding landscape found in the Malta and Spain.
The Curator Archaeology Sue Pasquale, said that Spain had never understood the importance of these cart ruts until recently. In the site chosen for the study in Spain a rusted cart which was used in the past 100 years was found, this shows that the ruts might have been still used until recently, she argued.
The Chairman of Heritage Malta Mario Tabone said that the study on the cart ruts "may throw light on Man's adaptation to and interaction with the environment. There was a time when the history of civilisation was written as if the environment was hardly a mentionable variable in the equation."
"Over the millennia, Man's genius has been precisely his ability to adapt to and exploit the particularities of the physical environment. There's hardly an environment, however hostile, where Man has not manage to settle, form communities and attain a creditable level of civilisation," Dr Tabone stated.
Architect from the Restoration Unit Herman Bonnici said that the project will commence this month and will end on September 31, 2005. In the first three months aerial and ground surveys will be carried out using photogrammetry and laser scanning techniques. In the following four months, the work will concentrate on the restitution and interpretation of the data collected from the sites in Malta and Spain. Workshops will then be held in these two countries and Italy.
The findings of the studies will be disseminated on two levels: A monograph containing detailed information and an interactive CD containing three-dimensional video animations of the sites. Additionally a website will be launched next December and updated continuously throughout the term of the project.
The Minister for Resources and Infrastructure Ninu Zammit while closing the launch said that this project will provide an important tool to historians and archaeologists interested in the study of cart ruts. Furthermore, it will contribute to instill greater awareness in these sites, he stated.
Through such projects, it will be ascertained that the personnel at the Restoration Unit of the Ministry for Resources and Infrastructure are kept abreast of new techniques in this field.
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(...) Ghar il-Kbir (The Great Cave) has collapsed. Its remaining cavities now used by sheep and goats, it resembles a Christmas crib and gives no indication that back in 1637 it housed 117 people. The last inhabitants of Ghar il-Kbir were relocated against their wishes in 1835. (...)
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