USA Organization Helps Fund Environmental Research in Malta

Sarasota, Fla. – August 23, 2004 – The impact of 6,000 years of human activity on an environment is the question at the center of research being conducted on the islands of Malta and Gozo, located in the Mediterranean Sea halfway between Sicily and North Africa. The project is funded in part by The OTS Foundation based in Sarasota.
          The research project, undertaken jointly by The University of Malta and The University of Huddersfield, UK, is designed to help date the past environment of the Maltese Islands.  An advanced Stone Age civilization built megalithic architecture on Malta before Egypt had crowned its first Pharaoh king.  It had been proposed by archaeologists that the unexplained demise of the Maltese “Temple Culture” may have been brought on by exhaustion of the island’s limited resources.  Preliminary findings indicate several major changes in Mediterranean sea level since the Ice Age. 
          The OTS Foundation, a nonprofit organization fostering international awareness and understanding of the importance of Malta’s prehistoric heritage, sponsored and funded the retrieval of two geological samples from a site at Marsa on the island of Malta. Researchers will conduct C-14 dating of organic material found in these samples to provide much needed new data on the nature of the Maltese environment prior to the arrival of the first settlers. Additionally, the research will assess the magnitude of the impact of human activity on the land and sea around the Maltese islands. Unstratified pottery shards, found on-site as a result of preliminary building work, ascertain that human activity took place in Marsa from at least 3600-3300 BC onwards.
          In addition to funding the removal of samples, The OTS Foundation provided funding for a pollen analysis microscope and the University of Malta archaeology laboratory. The OTS Foundation raises money through donations and conducting educational trips to the Maltese Islands.

Ms. Katrin Fenech
examines a sample from the Marsa Project