A robot in a swimming pool and the magic of the ancients. Malta Training School day 6

What can a robot do in a swimming pool? What influence do the ancients have on us? Can we still feel their magic now? These and other questions are answered in the latest text from Malta. An island where archaeology is in the air.

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After yesterday’s lecture on the Rov’s it was time to try one out. Laura, the specialist in underwater robots, brought one especially so that we could play with it. The baby, as it seems, is equipped with sonar, a navigation camera and a photogrammetric camera. We learn about the navigation and capabilities of this small robot. Everyone has the opportunity to try operating the ROV. Due to the weather, there is a storm at sea today, the exercises take place in a large pool on the seashore. Waves pouring over the wall into the pool add to the attraction.

The next stop is the Heritage of Malta conservation centre ( www.heritagemalra.org) . We see the studios for the conservation of paintings, paper and ceramics and metal. This is where artefacts excavated from the water are restored. This type of artefact has only recently been conserved in Malta, but the methods are being developed very dynamically. The building itself was built as an English hospital in 1830. In later times it was given a neo-classical character.

Our last stop in Malta is the temples of Hagar Quim. They were built some 3,300 years BC. All the temples are similar to each other. The central part is a corridor with apses on the sides and one in front. The apses are usually 3 or 5. The largest stone used for construction is 20 tons. It is amazing how Neolithic builders extracted such boulders using water and antlers. A furrow was found in the rock, which was then worked on. Water poured into it through temperature differences widened the crack. There are many interpretations about these sites. Probably festivals or events took place in front of the temple. Ordinary people could only see the passages and the apses were invisible for them and are interpreted as special places.

An interesting theory concerns the connection between these temples and the sea. According to one Maltese scholar, the central corridor was supposed to contain water. The apses, on the other hand, represented land. The passage between one apse and the other was supposed to symbolise the arrival in Malta of the ancestors of the people who built the temples.

We leave the temples at sunset feeling the strong storm wind on our faces. I have seen pictures of these temples many times, but only when I arrived here I felt their power and magic. The place itself is incredibly charming, in the air you can even feel the spirits of the ancients. To feel it you have to be here.

This is the last entry from Malta. But it’s not the end, it’s just another stop on the road of discovering the archaeological mysteries of the seas and oceans.

More about underwater archaeology on underwater.net

Source: podwodna.net