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Photo
Album Page 1 - (Page2) Click to enlarge photos. |
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| These two arial
photographs of Dingli Cliffs (centre) were taken at our request by HMS Falcon's helicopter
in 1965. They clearly show the gradual collapse of the cliffs over the millennia probably
due to the massive amount of caves on the cliff faces, coupled with erosion of the blue
clay layer at the base of the cliffs. Caves like these still abound, like Ghar Hassan and
many others along the south side of the island. It is my opinion that Bronze age people,
and possibly even Neolithic, inhabited these caves, and much evidence is still buried
under the millions of tons of what is now the scree, or 'Rdum' below the cliffs. The Colour photograph on the left also shows the result of a collapse of the rock face due to erosion of the foot of what must have probably been a cave in the cliff face. The photograph on the right, which is just above Ghar Mirdum, illustrates the breaking away of the roof of the cave, leaving behind what appears to be the cliff end of the cave. |
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The Exploration & Discoveries in Ghar Mirdum |
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| Venturing down the West Entrance | Best foot forward. (Yardstick is 2 foot long) |
Going deeper down to Chamber A | Ernest and I at the West Entrance on day one! | ||||
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| Showing the make-up of the passageways - just rocks. | And further in. | First dig at top level chamber - Roman pottery found here. | Chamber A looking up at the entrance. | ||||
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| Guest for the day being guided down the rope ladder. | Entering The Kitchen, after the Rope Ladder descent. | The first step-down to the Roman pottery find from the cave entrance. | Mr. Francis Mallia, Curator of Archeology, being helped down a rope ladder to the lower chamber. | ||||
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| Four of the team in one of the Chambers. Note the large boulders to both sides, which make the entrance. | The Author taking measurements of the top chamber. | Ernest surveying the top chamber with liquid compass. | The team examining the day's finds of a mixture of potters shards. | ||||
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| The laborious task of passing bagged finds and equipment through The Squeeze. | Vincent Bugeja & Ernest German enjoy coffee break in 'The Kitchen'. | Handing over some of the many finds to be labelled and packed. | Part of a large clay pot seen lying on the rubble. Note acetylene carbide lamp on left. | ||||
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| Vincent Bugeja painfully negotiating
The Squeeze. ('Censu', as he was known, passed away some years ago.) |
Ernest German scraping the surface to uncover pottery. | The author cleaning the new finds of soil. | Ernest taking a close look at some new finds. | ||||
