A team from the Gibraltar Museum composed of Professor Clive Finlayson and Drs Darren Fa and Geraldine Finlayson will be in Malta next week at the invitation of the Superintendence of Heritage of the Government of Malta, GibFocus said. The team have been invited on account of their expertise in prehistoric archaeology and the work they have been carrying out in Gibraltar.
Part of the visit will be dedicated to visiting an archaeological excavation in progress in a cave site on the island of Gozo where the team will advise on the work being carried out.
During the visit a possible long-term collaborative project will be discussed in which the “Gibraltar model”, which has been successfully applied to understanding the Rock as a prehistoric landscape, may be applied to the Maltese Islands.
Like Malta, Gibraltar has strong links with the UK. A Maltese community has existed in Gibraltar since shortly after the British conquest in 1713. When the British conquered Gibraltar, the majority of the inhabitants fled and sought refuge principally in the nearby Spanish town of San Roque, leaving behind a place to be taken by immigrants, mostly from Malta and the Italian city of Genoa. Years of coexistence and intermarriage on the colony soon led to a coalescence of Maltese, Italian and Andalusian culture, preserving the Mediterranean and Catholic uniqueness of the colony despite centuries of British occupation.
Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Peter Richard Caruana QC GSD is of Maltese descent and is a Gibraltar politician. He has been Chief Minister of Gibraltar since 1996, when his party, the Gibraltar Social Democrats, first came to power. His party was re-elected to office in 2000, 2003 and 2007. He is a barrister by profession and was appointed a QC for Gibraltar in 1998.
