In a decision bound to leave conservationists and the archaeological community dumbstruck, the controversial development of a villa with a pool within the limits of Gozos Xaghra Stone Circle has been given the green light. As reported by The Malta Independent on Sunday back in July, the Malta Environment and Planning Authoritys Development Control Commission had been advised to grant permission to a private developer to build a two-storey house and swimming pool adjacent to Gozos prehistoric Xaghra Circle.
The real prehistoric religion of Malta Forget the goddess theory, which you hear every tourist guide trying to explain the huge statues at the National Museum of Archaeology or while touring Hagar Qim. That may not have been the original religion of Malta. This was the startling starting point in a lecture “Ritual, Space and Structure in Prehistoric Malta and Gozo: New Observations on Old Matters”, given by Dr Caroline Malone, co-director, Xaghra Stone Circle excavation during the recent Heritage Malta international conference held at the Grand Hotel in Gozo.
A Massey researcher studying modern day witches and pagans in the Mediterranean island republic of Malta says she has had to conceal the identities of those she interviewed to protect them.
Social anthropologist Dr Kathryn Rountree believes the people she interviewed for a book could risk losing their jobs if they became known as practising pagans in the strongly Catholic country. Dr Rountree, a senior lecturer in the School of Social and Cultural Studies in Auckland, says Catholic disapproval of alternative religions meant extreme caution and attention to ethical research practices were vital in her approach to interviewing pagans and witches, as well as Catholic priests, about the existence of paganism in Malta.
With a working title Between the Worlds: Witches and Pagans in Malta Today, it will be the first book to explore neo-paganism in an overwhelmingly Catholic society.