A seminar related to the Archaeotur project was held at Heritage Malta’s St Angelo Hall at the Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa recently.

Archaeotur is a cultural project co-financed under the Italy-Malta Programme Cohesion Policy 2007-2013. It aims to conserve, interpret and market particular archaeological sites across the Maltese and Italian borders, most of which were not accessible to the public.

This seminar follows an equally interesting seminar that was held in Ragusa in April, that focused on the Sicilian sites pertaining to this project that involve, Cava Celone, Cisternazzi and Donnafugata (Ragusa), and Mezzagnone, Pirrera, Parco Archeologico di Santa Croce Camarina and Mirio (Santa Croce Camarina).

During the seminar, a number of Maltese and Sicilian speakers discussed the development of adequate legislations which were designated to prevent the destruction of archaeological sites. Moreover, they all agreed that a changing global society was demanding a different kind of experience from visits to museums and cultural sites, such as multisensory interpretations.

One of the main speakers of the seminar focused on the work undertaken to install protective shelters on the megalithic temples of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, and explained the complex process of deciding whether it is really necessary to intervene on a site and the consequences that such an intervention might have in the long-term.

The participants were also accompanied to visit a number of local archaeological sites, including St Augustine’s and Ta’ Bistra Catacombs, which next year will be open to the public as a consequence of this project by Heritage Malta.

Further information may be found on www.archaeotur.eu.

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