Ta' Ġawhar Tower is a round Punic-Roman tower in the village of Safi,

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 ...

. The tower is the best preserved of the six

Punic-Roman towers in Malta The remains of six Punic-Roman towers have been identified in Malta. They are believed to have been built while the island was part of the Punic or Roman Empires. Their architecture suggests a late Punic origin, and they remained in use throug ...

at approximately seven wall courses high. The tower was probably built at the time of the

Punic Wars The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Ancient Carthage, Carthaginian Empire during the period 264 to 146BC. Three such wars took place, involving a total of forty-three years of warfare on both land and ...

, although it continued in use during the Roman period before its destruction in the 3rd century AD.

Description

Six round towers survive in various degrees of preservation on the main island of Malta. Thought likely to be of

Punic The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people who migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' ...

construction, they appear to have been built in response to the period of unrest associated with the

in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. The remains of Ta' Ġawhar Tower consist of the lower seven courses of the tower. It is built up of large

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

blocks, typical of Punic architecture. The walls at the foundation level are 3 metres thick, and the tower has an overall diameter of 14 to 16 metres. The tower also has a rectangular cistern attached to it. The Ta' Ġawhar Tower was excavated by archaeologist

David Trump David Hilary Trump (August 27, 1931 – August 31, 2016) was a British archaeologist known for his work in the area of Maltese prehistory. In 1954, Trump helped John Davies Evans excavate at Ġgantija Ġgantija (; "place of giants") is a meg ...

in the 1960s. Finds included two bronze buckets, a double-bladed axe head, a gold wire earring, and a carbonised bread roll buried following the burning of the building. Two coins were found: one was minted in Malta dated to 35 BC with the legend of Arruntanus Balbus, and the other was a coin of the 3rd century AD representing the Roman emperor

Claudius II Gothicus Marcus Aurelius Claudius "Gothicus" (10 May 214 – August/September 270), also known as Claudius II, was Roman emperor from 268 to 270. During his reign he fought successfully against the Alemanni and decisively defeated the Goths at the Battl ...

. Trump dated the destruction of the tower towards the end of the 3rd century AD, and suggested an association with the invasion of the

Heruli The Heruli (also Eluri, Eruli, Herules, Herulians) were one of the smaller Germanic peoples of Late Antiquity, known from records in the third to sixth centuries AD. The best recorded group of Heruli established a kingdom north of the Middle Danu ...

in 269. The tower is scheduled as grade 1 national monument by the

Malta Environment and Planning Authority The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA, ) 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 ...

and is also listed on the

National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands The National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands (NICPMI) is a heritage register listing the cultural property of Malta. The inventory includes properties such as archaeological sites, fortifications, religious buildings, mon ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ta' Gawhar Tower Towers in Malta Archaeological sites in Malta Ruins in Malta Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Malta National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands Limestone buildings in Malta Safi, Malta

Description

Further reading

See also

References