Abstract
The end of prehistory in the Maltese archipelago is characterized by the production of a problematic class of pottery, until now attested just at the site of Baħrija, on the western coast of Malta. Such a production represents a break with the tradition in terms of repertoire of shapes, style and technology and it has been interpreted as the result of contact between locals and foreign immigrants. The recent overall reappraisal of the unpublished ceramic assemblage collected during the excavations carried out at Baħrija, represents a unique opportunity to focus on the technological aspects of the production, trying to shed light on the issue of the break with the tradition and the impact of external influxes. Petrographic analysis on thin sections and chemical analyses via X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (LA-ICP-MS) have been carried out to characterize the Baħrija pottery production in order to interpret from a different angle the issue of the possible arrival of newcomers and establishment of a foreign enclave in Malta, which until now has been hypothesized only on the basis of the sudden emergence of the Baħrija pottery.
Highlights
Dating to the Oligo-Miocene era of the Tertiary period, the geology of the Maltese islands is entirely composed of sedimentary rock (Fig. 1)
The classificatory system here adopted is organized in Groups, linked to the geological/lithological nature of the tempers (I = Intrusive, S = Sedimentary), and Fabrics according to a general criteria proposed for Central Mediterranean prehistoric pottery (Levi et al, 2017)
This result is coherent with other studies of Bronze Age pottery from Malta (Barone et al, 2015; Jones et al, 2014) outlining the scarcity of imported vessels compared with other insular environments in the Mediterranean, for example the Aeolian Islands (Williams, 1980, 1991; Levi and Jones, 2005; Levi and Fragnoli, 2010; Jones et al, 2014; Levi et al, 2019)
Summary
Dating to the Oligo-Miocene era of the Tertiary period, the geology of the Maltese islands is entirely composed of sedimentary rock (Fig. 1). 4100–2400 BCE, represents the climax of Maltese prehistory with the development of one of the most splendid megalithic civilizations in the Mediterranean region, culminating with the culture of the Tarxien Temple. Such a phase appears to correspond to a prolonged time of isolationism, in which the communities of the Maltese Archipelago reached a sort of self-sufficiency which translated into the interruption of external relations, above all with Sicily (Bonanno, 2008). The appearance of the first Mycenaean goods together with cultural elements derived by Sicilian cultures marks the subsequent Borġ in-Nadur period (Middle Bronze Age), which represents the last Maltese prehistoric culture before Phoenician colonization in the course of the second half of the 8th century BCEE (Tanasi and Vella, 2014)
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