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Għar Dalam
Għar Dalam ("Cave of Dalam" (a fifteenth century family name), ) is a 144 metre long phreatic tube and cave, or cul-de-sac, located in the outskirts of Birżebbuġa, Malta. The cave contains the bone remains of animals that were stranded and subsequently became extinct in Malta at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. It has lent its name to the Għar Dalam phase in Maltese prehistory, and is viewed as one of Malta's most important national monuments. Pottery similar to that found in Stentinello was found at Għar Dalam, but lacking details such as stamp decorations. Dwarf elephant, hippopotamus, giant swan, deer and bear bone deposits found there are of different ages; the hippopotamuses became extinct about 10,000 years ago, whilst the deer species became extinct much later, about 4000 years ago during the Chalcolithic. It is also here that the earliest evidence of human settlement on Malta, some 7,400 years ago, was discovered. Recent history The cave was first investig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birżebbuġa
Birżebbuġa (; sometimes shortened to B'Buġa) is a seaside town in the Southern Region of Malta, close to Marsaxlokk. It is approximately from the capital Valletta, and it has a population of 9,736 as of March 2014. The town is popular among Maltese holidaymakers, and is known for its sandy beach, Pretty Bay. The village is also notable for its important archaeological sites, especially Għar Dalam, Ta' Kaċċatura and Borġ in-Nadur. Etymology "Birżebbuġa" means "well of olives" in the Maltese language. Such linguistic evidence established early inhabitants were in the south of the island since the first millennium. The name also indicates climate and food. History Prehistory Near the village of Birżebbuġa is ''Għar Dalam'', meaning a dark cave. Għar Dalam Cave is a highly important site, as it was here that the earliest evidence of human presence on Malta was discovered. Artefacts date back to the Neolithic Period some 7,400 years ago. The display area consists ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italians
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Leithia
''Leithia'' is a genus of extinct giant dormice from the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Sicily. It is considered an example of island gigantism. ''Leithia melitensis'' is the largest known species of dormouse, living or extinct, being twice the size of any other known species. Discovery and taxonomy The species were first named by Andrew Leith Adams in 1863 from remains found in caves in Malta and were assigned to the living genus ''Myoxus.''Adams, A. L. (1863), ‘Observations on the Fossiliferous caves of Malta’. ''Journal of the Royal Society,'' 4 .2. pp.11–19. ''Leithia'' was proposed in 1896 by Richard Lydekker as a new genus, suggesting an arrangement currently recognised as the subfamily Leithiinae; the names honour Leith Adams. It is estimated to have weighed up to . In the time before the Mediterranean islands were colonised by humans, dozens of mammal species endemic to the area, some unusually large like ''Leithia'', some unusually small (such as pygmy eleph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dwarf Elephant
Dwarf elephants are prehistoric members of the order Proboscidea which, through the process of allopatric speciation on islands, evolved much smaller body sizes (around ) in comparison with their immediate ancestors. Dwarf elephants are an example of insular dwarfism, the phenomenon whereby large terrestrial vertebrates (usually mammals) that colonize islands evolve dwarf forms, a phenomenon attributed to adaptation to resource-poor environments and selection for early maturation and reproduction. Some modern populations of Asian elephants have also undergone size reduction on islands to a lesser degree, resulting in populations of pygmy elephants. Fossil remains of dwarf elephants have been found on the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus, Malta (at Għar Dalam), Crete (in Chania at Vamos, Stylos and in a now-underwater cave on the coast), Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades Islands and the Dodecanese Islands. Other islands where dwarf ''Stegodon'' have been found are Sulawesi, Flores, Ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Deer
The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of western Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa; its early ancestors are thought to have crossed over to Morocco, then to Algeria, Libya and Tunisia via the Strait of Gibraltar, becoming the only species of true deer (Cervidae) to inhabit Africa. Red deer have been introduced to other areas, including Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Peru, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina. In many parts of the world, the meat (venison) from red deer is used as a food source. Red deer are ruminants, characterized by a four-chambered stomach. Genetics, Genetic evidence indicates that the red deer, as traditionally defined, is a species group, rather than a single species, though exactly how many species the group includes rem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Borġ In-Nadur
Borġ in-Nadur is an archaeological site located in open fields overlooking St George's Bay, near Birżebbuġa, Malta. It is occupied by a Tarxien phase megalithic temple as well as the remains of a Bronze Age village which includes the earliest fortification in Malta. The site is located close to various Bronze Age cart ruts and silos, a Roman villa at Ta' Kaċċatura, as well as Saint George Redoubt which was built thousands of years later in 1715–1716. Megalithic temple A temple was constructed in the area in around 2500 BC, during the Tarxien phase of Maltese prehistory and the last phase of the Temple period. The architecture shows a typical four-apse plan, although the wall made up of megaliths is quite low. The temple's entrance has two upright megaliths which can still be seen. A large covered niche stands close to the entrance but its capstone is now broken into three pieces. The temple lacks the artistic decorations associated with similar temples from the era suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ta' Kaċċatura Roman Villa
Taw, tav, or taf is the twenty-second and last Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician Tāw , Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew Tav , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic Taw , Syriac alphabet, Syriac Taw ܬ, and Arabic script, Arabic ت Tāʼ (22nd in abjadi order, 3rd in modern order). In Arabic, it is also gives rise to the derived letter Ṯāʼ. Its original sound value is . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek alphabet, Greek ''tau'' (Τ), Latin alphabet, Latin T, and Cyrillic script, Cyrillic Te (Cyrillic), Т. Origins of taw Taw is believed to be derived from the Egyptian hieroglyph representing a tally mark (viz. a X-cross, decussate cross) Z9 Arabic tāʼ The letter is named '. It is written in several ways depending on its position in the word: Final (''Fathah, fatha'', then with a sukun on it, Arabic phonology, pronounced , though diacritics are normally omitted) is used to mark feminine gender for third-person perfect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Baldacchino
Joseph G. Baldacchino (17 July 1894 – 6 July 1974) was a Maltese archaeologist. He was born in Siġġiewi and spent his early childhood in that locality until 1901, when his family moved to Tarxien. In 1909, the family moved to Qormi, where he studied medicine, graduating as a medical doctor in 1919. Although he worked as a general practitioner for over a decade, by 1930 he was showing a deep interest in paleontology. He was appointed curator of natural history within the Malta Museum Department in 1933. He continued work on the Għar Dalam Museum and excavated the cave at this site. His hypothesis formulated at this time, that the cave was originally divided by an ancient river is still considered as valid today. After the war he was appointed director of the Museum Department in 1947. Under his directorship the department toiled to bring out material stored during the war years and display it once again. A number of restoration and excavation campaigns were conducted at Ħa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malta Environment And Planning Authority
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA, mt, L-Awtorità ta' Malta dwar l-Ambjent u l-Ippjanar) was the national agency responsible for the environment and planning in Malta. It was established to regulate the environment and planning on the Maltese islands of Malta, Gozo and other small islets of the Maltese archipelago. MEPA was bound to follow the regulations of the Environment Protection Act (2001) and the Development Planning Act (1992) of the Laws of Malta. The national agency was also responsible for the implementation of Directives, Decisions and Regulations under the EU Environmental Acquis as Malta is a member of the European Union, while considering other recommendations and opinion of the Union. The Authority employed over 420 government workers, from a wide range of educational backgrounds, all within their merit of profession. On 4 April 2016, MEPA was dissolved and two new authorities were established to take its place: the Planning Authority and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major
Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major (15 August 1843, Glasgow – 25 March 1923, Munich) was a Scottish-born, Swiss physician, zoologist and vertebrate palaeontologist. Major was born in Glasgow and studied at Basel and Zurich Universities in Switzerland and later Göttingen in Germany. He graduated in medicine at Basel in 1868 and became a physician in Florence, Italy. Like many early naturalists he spent his free time studying fossil mammals. His first publication was on fossil primates in 1872. The Italian government supported him in 1877 and he collected fossils from Calabria, Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily. In 1886, he stopped practising as a physician and began to study fossils in the Greek Archipelago with his collections going to the College Galliard at Lausanne and to the British Museum (Natural History). In the British Museum collections he took a keen interest in material from Madagascar. He studied the lemur fauna, both extant and extinct, discovered the new family Megaladap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
