A cluster of five silos dating back to the Bronze Age period were recently discovered when excavation work, forming part of a project to extend the Luqa cemetery, was being carried out, The Malta Independent on Sunday has learnt.

Nathaniel Cutajar, from the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, told this newspaper that the superintendence had insisted with the Luqa parish church that an archaeologist should monitor the construction work for the enlargement of the cemetery, since various cisterns and silo pits had previously been discovered in the area known as Tal-Mejtin.

Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) chairperson Arnold Cassola, who provided photos of the silos, commented on the find, saying: “It is good to see that the Luqa Parish is collaborating with the superintendence to safeguard our national patrimony.

“It seems, however, that the Luqa local council was unaware of the discovery until now. It is extremely important that the local council is kept abreast of its heritage.”

Themistocles (Temi) Zammit – who discovered, among others, the Hypogeum, Tarxien Temples, Hagar Qim, Mnajdra, and St Paul’s Catacombs – had unearthed a number of silos in the same area, while British archaeologist David Trump had also discovered another cluster of pits in the 1960s.

Mr Cutajar said such silo pit clusters are evidence of ancient settlement, both from prehistory and from the Classical period.

“On the basis of earlier investigations, we know that the Tal-Mejtin silos in Luqa were in use since the Early Bronze Age, and possibly earlier.

“It is clear that the recently discovered silos are ancient in origin, even though they were used in later periods as water cisterns.”

Mr Cutajar said the tightly grouped cluster of silos is relatively well preserved and has a high intrinsic value.

The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage has taken measures to ensure the Bronze Age pits are preserved in line with the norms of the Cultural Heritage Act. The Luqa Parish Church, which is responsible for the project at the cemetery, is collaborating with the superintendence to ensure the recently discovered remains are safeguarded.

The Bronze Age culture replaced the Temple culture, which ended mysteriously in Malta some time around 2,500 BC.

Among the discoveries dating back to this period, which lasted till about 700 BC, are the cart ruts and the dolmens scattered around the Maltese Islands.

The Bronze Age was characterised by practices that were very different to the Temple culture, probably because new influences reached Malta from the outside world.

Metal was introduced to the islands as were different burial rituals. While the temple builders had practised inhumation, that is burial of a body in a grave, the Bronze Age inhabitants practised cremation, incineration of the body.

The first phase of the Bronze Age is represented by a cremation cemetery at Tarxien, while the second phase (circa 1500-700 BC) takes its name from a Bronze Age village at Borg in-Nadur in Birzebbuga, which was fortified by a massive wall on one side.

Bronze age man showed little sign of exceptional technical expertise or wealth further than his use of metal.

These people left pottery and clay idols, some of which are highly stylised with affinities to Mycenaean idols and Anatolian and Cycladic types.

According to Anthony Bonanno’s The Archaeology of Gozo: from Prehistoric to Arab Times, the Bahrija Phase was an intrusive cultural group (circa 900-700 BC). It represented the third and final phase, whose pottery suggests an origin or a strong cultural attachment from the Iron Age of southern Italy, Apulia or Calabria.