Newly-found catacombs will not be reburied

The catacomb network at Ta' Bistra, a section of which had been unearthed during road works in Targa Gap, Mosta, will not be reburied.

When road works are complete, the safekeeping of this early Christian burial place (thought to be about 1,600 years old) should fall under the heritage authorities and the site could be made accessible to the public.

A spokesman for the Roads and Urban Development Ministry said yesterday road plans had actually been changed after it was decided that the catacombs, located exactly beneath the road level, should remain uncovered. Instead, a narrower, one-lane road would be constructed between the burial site and a rubble wall which, an archaeologist suggested, probably dates back to the middle ages.

The road - formerly used by motorists driving towards Burmarrad Road from Rabat and past the Jesuit retreat house of Mount St Joseph - will be turned into a one-way road uphill.

"The main carriageway uphill and downhill (Napuljun Tagliaferro Raoad) will be the stretch of road leading to the roundabout", the spokesman said, explaining that few motorists other than residents would have any reason to use the catacombs' road, where a 5kph speed limit will also be imposed.

The catacombs beneath the road, visible through a large hole, make up less than a third of a 92-metre-long complex unearthed last January.

While some burial chambers remained intact through time, there was evidence that parts of the catacombs had been ruined at a later date when a quarry was dug close to the site.

The other end of the catacombs networks is found beside the main carriageway, close to a farm that is partly built and partly hewn in the rock. The section beneath the farm had been partly ruined when the catacombs were dug out at a later stage, probably to make more room for animals. Some chambers in the complex open onto private fields.

Researchers knew of the catacombs before road works started because the burial site, cut into a ridge in the landscape, was recorded by Charles Zammit in 1933.

In the 1980s, when plans were drawn up to build the road running over the catacombs (not the recently unearthed section), the government of the day faced opposition from the Museum of Archaeology which claimed that the road would ruin the archaeological site. Concrete planks were laid beneath the road to bridge the catacombs.

The Roads Ministry spokesman said the practice had changed towards the better as the current roads being done up by Italian protocol funds provided for environmental monitors who constantly oversaw the developments and reported any findings deemed important to the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage.

Road excavations between Mosta and Zebbiegh unearthed part of the historical Victoria Lines - built by the British Forces between 1870 and 1899 - some two weeks ago. A part of the wall on the road side was yesterday being uncovered to be eventually restored and appreciated by road users.