Although flying in Malta has yet to celebrate its first century, there are at least 800 planes lying on the seabed around the Maltese Islands.

Some are German planes, downed in World War II, and some of them still have the Nazi insignia just visible in the silt. Others are British, downed in a dogfight. Still others are the sad result of engine malfunction, both before, during and even after World War II.

Speaking at Din l-Art Ħelwa on Thursday, marine archaeologist Timmy Gambin spoke about Malta's underwater cultural heritage.

In August, an ancient vessel that once transported Phoenicians around the Mediterranean Sea was found near Malta, with its cargo still remarkably intact, a team of archaeologists from the US, France and Malta reported. The shipwreck, believed to be around 2,700 years old, has yielded some of the oldest artefacts of that civilization ever discovered.

"This discovery is considered to be unique ... because it is the oldest shipwreck in the central Mediterranean and is in a fantastic state of preservation," Timmy Gambin, who led a team to explore the site, said at the time (Maybe that was why he referred sparingly to this discovery in his presentation on Thursday). "The technical team is working on putting together the data," more than 8,000 photographs of the area, "so that's a lot of data crunching. They are creating a very high-resolution 3D model of the site."

Divers spotted the shipwreck a few months ago, roughly 120 meters  below the surface. The exact location of the site has not been revealed, but researchers say the ancient vessel was found about a mile off Gozo. Its remains were spread out over an area measuring 14 meters by five meters. Researchers said that they think the ship was en route to Malta from Sicily when it sank.

More than 50 amphorae -- containers with two handles and narrow necks used to hold wine -- and 20 lava grinding stones, weighing 77 pounds each, were found amid the wreckage, The Australian reported. The amphorae were of seven varieties, indicating that the vessel had travelled to numerous harbours before sinking. Researchers have brought several pieces of the wreck to the surface and plan to investigate the site further.

The ancient Phoenicians lived near present-day Lebanon and traded all along the Mediterranean coast. They thrived from about 1550 to 300 B.C. and were master seafarers. Only recently have archaeologists begun to understand Phoenician maritime technology.

Rather curiously, Prof. Gambin began his presentation by referring to cultural heritage on land rather than under the sea. The Maltese islands contain among the most concentrated remains from olden times. Finds on land, such as the obsidium, found at the National Museum of Archaeology, must have come from the islands of Pantelleria and Lipari as early as 5,000 BC.

This shows that trade of high quality goods was existing even then. (Remember that the Tarxien temple phase dates from 2,100 BC).

The Phoenicians came to Malta by sea and one of their earliest places of settlement was at Tas-Silġ, where the famous temple to Juno was erected. Cicero mentions this temple as among the richest in the Mediterranean in his Contra Verres, in which he alleges that Caius Verres despoiled this rich temple.

Other Roman remains, which we have now lost, were at Marsa, in the Ras Ħan¿ir area, now covered by the Marsa power station, where a series of Roman warehouses were built in the time of Emperor Julian. These warehouses (tesserae) were as big as the ones at Pompei, among the biggest in the Mediterranean. These were so big because they were not built with the Maltese population in mind (at that time some 12,000 in all) but so that the vessels that wintered in Malta could unload their grain into these warehouses to prevent it gathering mould.

Other remains that still lie under the silt in the Great Harbour derive from the big Battle of Malta in 1283 and, obviously, from the 1565 Great Siege as well as the two World Wars.

The Roman ruins at Ras Ħan¿ir and around the Menqa area were pillaged over the past centuries from their many Roman remains. There is, for instance, a column from Marsa in a private collection in Mdina.

However, it may still be possible to rediscover the Roman quay underneath all the rubble in the area.

Diving expeditions began as a casual sport by some British servicemen under John Wood. What began as a sporadic sport soon became more intense, as more and more historical artefacts were recovered. At one point, it was said that there were two stores full of objects brought up from the sea bed - 1,000 years of history in that deposit.

As more and more objects were recovered, some began to be exported to the UK. But local philanthropist, Olof Gollcher started to collect what was brought up. It was only very recently - in the 1990s - that scientific explorations began, with all the proper safeguards in place.

A place that is today land, used to be sea. The great Salina area was a big lagoon 7,000 years ago and it is still rather easy to find out where the original quay was. This was besides the catacombs and the church nearby, near Ta' Cassia. It may be possible that the original quay can be rediscovered underneath the silt.

The battles, especially in the Grand Harbour, and World War II, have led to many shipwrecks but a systematic study of the Maltese sea can still bring to light many forgotten ones. In particular, World War II and Operation Pedestal in particular, have been the cause of many shipwrecks which lie around Malta.

As regards submerged planes, there are two schools of thought. Some would like to bring them up, as happened with the Spitfire so lovingly restored by the Aviation Museum. Others would want to leave them there, on the seabed. It may be possible to build up 3-D images of the planes as they lie on the seabed.

There is much that can be done in this regard, especially in the educational field, where students have proved to become extremely interested in what lies underneath the sea.