Clapham
Junction
Clapham
Junction, also known as
Misrah Ghar il-Kbir
(N
35° 51.13 E 014° 23.82) is a very
interesting place. It is located on the southwest coast of Malta 2 km east of Dingli.
It is an area the size of several football fields and is literally covered with
cart ruts. In fact the name, Clapham Junction, was coined because the tracks
resemble the railway switching yard of Clapham Junction in the UK. There appear
to be more cart tracks at this one site than in all the rest of Malta combined.
This site is best viewed from the air and the best photo I've seen is by Daniel
Celia in the book, Malta Before History 2004, on page 396 available from
When I think of this
location, the only reasonable explanation I can come up with is that the entire
site is the base of a large quarry with all the Upper Coralline Limestone (UCL) removed from above it.
The entire surface looks worked over, which makes sense for a quarry floor. Its
about 25 Ha (250,000 sq meters) in surface area with the main exit of the quarry
heading north and east toward Buskett and Valletta. Assuming that say 2 meters of rock
was removed from the entire surface (an arbitrary estimate) then the material removed
is about 250,000 x 2 = 500,000 cubic meters of rock, not much by today’s
quarrying standards, but an enormous size for a prehistoric one. No doubt this
amount of rock must show up somewhere if it was indeed removed from the site,
probably in the form of rubble. It certainly wouldn't have been shipped off
elsewhere 
because it would have had very little commercial value. I suppose it
could be part of the enormous number of rubble walls that now cover the island
but I hypothesize that much of it went into the land around Malta that flooded
during the final -17 to -5 m rise in sea levels following the last ice age.
..also coinciding with the period when the island was occupied by the temple
builders, from 7200 BP to 4500 BP. This of course, assumes the temple builders
are primarily responsible for the tracks, rather than later settlers who also
harvested rock from the site.
The caves, Misrah Għar il-Kbir, located within this area, and
apparently of Bronze age origin, are a post quarry construction. More recent and
obvious rock cuts are evident in various places, (Saliba
and Conti 1998 sites A-H) particularly around the perimeter, so the quarry has been used
as a source of UCL for a very long time. A local man (red pickup in photo) told me
that large slabs of rock were cut and dragged down the hill by local farmers (up to 100 pulling
on ropes) as recently as this past century.
With the exception of a small deposit near Valletta, Clapham Junction is the closest
and most convenient source of UCL for most of the eastern side of the island
(see diagram below. UCL is shown as dark green) and Buskett is a short walk away
on the path toward this eastern destination, as well as Rabat and elsewhere.
This particular rock was rough and fissured enough so that it could be broken up
with simple primitive tools, perhaps an advantage over other sources of similar
rock. Besides rubble, rock slabs have also been removed. This shows up us as
more obvious quarry sites where there are clear cuts visible (Saliba
and Conti 1998 sites A-H). There is a
new study, sponsored by Heritage Malta, recently completed, in which the entire
site was digitized using accurate state of the art 3D surveying techniques. A 3D
virtual tour will soon be possible, allowing researchers to explore the site on
their computers.
The ruts themselves are interesting. When I first visited the site, I had
trouble finding ruts at all. Most are very shallow, sometimes barely visible, and cover the entire
surface, reflecting, I hypothesize, the mining activity and rock removal from
the entire area. There are some deeper
ruts that are where the carts may have collected for their descent towards Buskett. These
tracks were probably maintained with some type of fill. Likely they were ground down to smooth the cart
passage to begin with, and then wore down with further use. When their depth reached 50
to 60 cm, the carts may have bottomed out and the tracks were likely refilled
with either a very hard and durable material, such as Torba, a rock-like cement
made by the temple builders (if wheels were used) or a slippery material like sand (if slides were in use).
I would expect to find
evidence
of filling, particularly further away under the farm fields where the
fill may have survived erosion, or in large cracks that needed to be traversed
along the way. There should be datable material in the sections of rut that
filled shortly after their use, also likely present under the farm fields where
the tracks disappear nearby. There are also prominent tracks disappearing over
the escarpment cliff created by the
Globigerina
quarry to the west.. ..though I have no idea why. Perhaps these tracks lead to
another source of UCL that was also transported along these tracks. The problem
is however very complex due to the evident use of the site throughout the
prehistoric, ancient and more recent times.
Buskett, less than 0.5
km away, is one of the few areas of Malta with a year round spring fed water
supply. It is the logical site for a settlement or camp where the prehistoric
quarry workers may have lived.
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