Għar Dalam: A Window into Malta’s Past Quaternary Faunas

Description What inhabited the Maltese Islands before the arrival of Man? This publication strives to answer this long-standing question. Through an in-depth comprehensive analysis of 19th, 20th, and 21st century excavation records of all Maltese fossiliferous sites known to date, this research proposes a new biochronological scheme of faunal assemblages, the oldest of which dates back to the early Middle Pleistocene, extending our protohistory as far back as c.400 thousand years before present. Għar Dalam is undoubtedly the most famous of such sites, containing sediments which probably date back to the late Middle Pleistocene until modern times. Its excavations and stratigraphy are analysed in great detail and a new, and more detailed stratigraphy of it is also compiled. The Pleistocene and Holocene faunal assemblages of Sicily are also studied and compared with those of the Maltese Islands. Various faunal exchanges are known to have occurred between both islands during the Pleistocene, and similarities as well as differences between the faunas of both islands have been identified.