The Għar Għerduf catacombs at

Ta' Kerċem Taw, tav, or taf is the twenty-second and last letter of the Semitic abjads, including Arabic ''tāʾ'' , Aramaic ''taw'' 𐡕‎, Hebrew ''tav'' , Phoenician ''tāw'' 𐤕, and Syriac ''taw'' ܬ. In Arabic, it also gives rise to the derived ...

, also known as Għar Gerduf, are the only surviving early

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

catacombs Catacombs are man-made underground passages primarily used for religious purposes, particularly for burial. Any chamber used as a burial place is considered a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire. Etym ...

paleochristian Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the History of Christianity, historical era of the Christianity, Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Spread of Christianity, Christian ...

hypogea A hypogeum or hypogaeum ( ; plural hypogea or hypogaea; literally meaning "underground") is an underground temple or tomb. Hypogea will often contain niches for cremated human remains or loculi for buried remains. Occasionally tombs of thi ...

Gozo Gozo ( ), known in classical antiquity, antiquity as Gaulos, is an island in the Malta#The Maltese archipelago, Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Republic of Malta. After the Malta Island, island of Malta ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. Għar Għerduf is a unique Roman burial site in Gozo, which has for centuries attracted the attention of scholars interested in Maltese archaeology. The site was visited by erudite visitors who often included a description of the place as they did for

Ġgantija Ġgantija (; "place of giants") is a megalithic temple complex from the Neolithic era (–2500 BC), on the List of islands in the Mediterranean, Mediterranean island of Gozo in Malta. The Ġgantija temples are the earliest of the Megalithic Temp ...

and the

Xagħra Stone Circle The Xagħra Stone Circle (), also known as the Xagħra Hypogeum or the Brochtorff Circle, is a Neolithic funerary complex located in Xagħra, Gozo, Malta. It consists of a series of caves which were used to bury the dead, and which were surround ...

History

The catacombs are dug into the Globigerina Limestone, on the western slope of Lunzjata Valley. The probable first mention of the site was made by the Maltese historian

Giovanni Francesco Abela Giovanni Francesco Abela (1582–1655) was a Maltese noble who in the early 17th century wrote an important work on Malta, ''Della Descrittione di Malta isola nel Mare Siciliano: con le sue antichità, ed altre notizie'', "description of Malta ...

, who described the site as a cave which was one of the many , that is, crypts of ancient cemeteries''.'' The complex has suffered extensive damage, due to widespread quarrying during the nineteenth century, with Vassallo dating the mutilation to the 1870s. The site, however, had been in a poor state of conservation for centuries: The Gozitan historian

Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis Canon Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis (, 30 October 1712 – 30 January 1770), often called de Soldanis (), was a Maltese linguist, historian and cleric from the island of Gozo. He wrote the first lexicon and systematic grammar of th ...

already said the catacombs included only one passageway, the only one of many that remained by the mid-18th century. Originally, the complex had a long corridor which extended for around 14 metres in an east-west direction. A number of

arcosolia An arcosolium, plural arcosolia, is an arched recess used as a place of entombment. The word is from Latin , "arch", and , "throne" (literally "place of state") or post-classical "sarcophagus". Early arcosolia were carved out of the living rock ...

are hewn into the walls. These vary in size, some having one trough-tomb, others having from three to five. Four of these tombs with headrests can still be identified. During Late Antiquity, Ghar Għerduf may have served as a burial ground serving the Roman settlement at

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...

. Għar Gerduf is the only late Roman and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

catacomb in Gozo described by Prof. Mario Buhagiar in his archaeological survey of 1986, for which the exact whereabouts are known, and that is still visible.

Conservation

Għar Għerduf was the only Phoenician,

Carthaginian The term Carthaginian ( ) usually refers to the civilisation of ancient Carthage. It may also refer to: * Punic people, the Semitic-speaking people of Carthage * Punic language The Punic language, also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian, i ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

site in Gozo featured in the ''List of Buildings, Sites and Remains'' for the purposes of Article 6 of ''The Protection of Antiquities Act'' of 1925. By then, however, the surviving remains were already in an abandoned and poor state. Għar Gerduf suffered substantial mutilation during the second half of the nineteenth century. Almost all the internal wall partitions aligning the ''arcosolia'' were chiselled down, while the floor was lowered by several metres to form two interlinking and split-level halls. Luckily, however, the ceiling preserves enough information to permit a reliable reconstruction of the hypogeum’s original set-up. This resulting peculiar configuration is, in turn, unique when compared to other sites in Malta and in other countries. In 2000, the site's protection was extended through Government Notice 856 of 2000 which designated Għar Għerduf and a 100 metre buffer zone as a Class A Site of Archaeological Importance, a scheduling which is comparable to that given to

Mnajdra Mnajdra () is a megalithic temple complex found on the southern coast of the Mediterranean island of Malta. Mnajdra is approximately from the Ħaġar Qim megalithic complex. Mnajdra was built around the fourth millennium BCE; the Megalithic ...

and

Ħaġar Qim Ħaġar Qim (; "Standing/Worshipping Stones") is a megalithic temple complex found on the Mediterranean island of Malta, dating from the Ġgantija phase (3600–3200 BC). The Megalithic Temples of Malta are among the most ancient religio ...

. By the mid-2010s, plans were submitted for construction within the remains' archaeological buffer zone, which would have made access to the site difficult. NGOs and activists called for the remains to be protected and saved. By 2017, several fissures and overgrown weeds were plainly visible in the catacomb structure. The site was eventually saved from development, with the building permit issued on the basis of wrong data being rescinded. In 2019, public authorities bought up €400,000 worth of land in the area through expropriation to aid the protection of the site. Authorities are working on cleaning and improving access to the site, with further excavations not being excluded.

References

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