On May 17 students attending San Andrea Senior School, L-Imselliet (limits of Mgarr), who are members of Teenagers' Din l-Art Helwa, had the opportunity to clean and preserve the two archaeological features which were discovered when the Early School was being built and which are now in the school's car park.
One is a Punic tomb, while the other consists of a man-made cave, possibly used as a cistern. The tomb, part of a cluster of tombs in the area known as Ta' l-Imselliet Punic Tombs, is of the "rock-cut shaft" type. In fact there is a shaft dug in the rock leading to a chamber at the bottom of the shaft, which is also cut out from the rock.
This activity, organised by the Humanities Department in collaboration with Din l-Art Helwa, enabled the students to study the tombs from the historical, geographical, environmental and religious perspectives. On the day, Mr Stephen Briffa, the Humanities co-ordinator, gave a short introduction by giving an outline of the main aims and objectives of the event as well as introducing the main speakers.
Martin Scicluna, executive president of Din l-Art Helwa, gave a short explanation of the aims of Teenagers' Din l-Art Helwa. He said that he was very glad that such an activity was promoting cultural awareness from a young age. He congratulated the students for their enthusiasm and dedication, saying he was impressed with the amount of interesting and intelligent questions and comments put to him by the students.
Nathaniel Cutajar, an archaeologist from the Superintendence of Heritage Malta, gave an interesting lecture about the importance of these archaeological features within the school's landscape. With the aid of sketches, he also explained how the Punic people were thought to have lived and buried their dead within the valley next to our school.
Ms Allison Borg, history and geography teacher of Grade 8, made an interesting PowerPoint presentation about Punic tombs in Malta. She also explained the handout given to the students, which was to guide them throughout the activity.
The clean-up was carried out very professionally. The students were divided into four groups according to age and each group had a leader who was to record all the work being carried out. It was a great satisfaction to see the keenness with which the students, armed with ladders, shovels, trowels, wheelbarrows, gloves, buckets and spades, set off for this archeological experience. They were all looking forward to clean and preserve a part of the nation's heritage, which, besides, is included within their school boundaries! They were also looking forward and hoping for some interesting finds.
The students cleaned both tomb and cave of cans, plastic bags and packets, plants, weed, sticks, stones, rubbers and biros. Vegetation in and around the site was removed to prevent further damage through biological weathering and for better access to the tombs. However, great care was taken not to remove any indigenous plants.
Once cleaned, the students could observe the original features of these tombs, and chisel marks along the roofs of both features. This provided them with evidence that they were man-made and not natural features. Some pottery sherds were also found. These have to be cleaned and carefully labelled before they can be exhibited in the school.
What made the experience so unique for the San Andrea Senior School students was that with the valuable help of Mr Cutajar, they experienced the work of archaeologists and even that of a historian since they were looking for evidence and giving their own interpretations. Instead of learning through books and lectures, the students were learning "hands-on" and so learning through discovery.
This alternative day of learning was concluded with a discussion led by Ms Cynthia Degiorgio, the Environmental Studies teacher. In this discussion the students had the opportunity to present their own-recorded work and interpret it. The main lesson learnt was that with sensitive use of land space, it is possible for the past (tombs) and present (our school) to co-exist. Moreover, this activity has created greater awareness among the students of the school to stop anyone from littering the tombs. It was also suggested that in the next follow-up activity, these tombs will be professionally labelled and their access improved through the building of a gate and staircase.
San Andrea is grateful to Mr Scicluna who promised the financial help of Din l-Art Helwa for this "upgrading", which would not have been possible without the help of the teachers who supervised the students, Mr Edward Xuereb, the school's main contact with Din l-Art Helwa, and Mr Evan DeBrincat, headmaster of Senior School, who greatly encouraged and supported this activity.