ROMAN MALTA IN A DAY S t ra p on yo u r s and als t his summe r and follow in the footste ps of E l s a, an inhab it ant o f the ancie nt Roman town of Me lite , t od ay t he o ld c ap it al of Mdina and its suburb Rabat.
Elsa, a young woman aged between 18 to 24 when she met her demise, lived in the early centuries of Imperial Rome. Her skeleton was unearthed in August 2013 in a ‘shaft and chamber tomb’ discovered within the bedrock below the site for the new visitor centre for St. Paul's Catacombs in Rabat. The catacombs, which sprawl over an area of over 2000 square metres, are an underground labyrinth of interconnected passages and Roman tombs which represent the earliest and largest archaeological evidence of Christianity in Malta. A short walk away, just outside the walls of Mdina, the Domvs Romana is a welcome pitstop from the heat of the midday sun. Enter its neo-classical portico into a world of cool marble, elegant mosaics, and refined glassware. Built between 50BC and 50AD, this fine townhouse is the only urban dwelling of its kind on the Maltese Islands and was originally owned if not by the Protos or Governor of the Island himself, then by someone who was wealthy and well connected enough to
possess statues of the imperial family. Take a snapshot next to Claudia Antonia, Emperor Claudius' daughter, and compare her patrician visage to that of Elsa's. Both women might have been contemporaries, though separated by a few rungs down the social ladder and a considerable number of miles. This year the Domvs, the first museum to be erected on Malta, is celebrating the 140th anniversary of its accidental discovery with new interpretation panels and screen displays, a retractable skylight, and exciting international excavations to commence later in the year. Down the hill from Rabat to St. Paul's Bay, make an appointment with Heritage Malta to visit San Pawl Milqi. Overlooking the once-important harbour of Salina, San Pawl Milqi is one of the many rural farmsteads with olive presses dotting the countryside, constructed during the Roman colonisation of Punic Malta between 218 BC and the 6th century AD. According to legend, this particular Villa Rustica welcomed St. Paul the apostle after his shipwreck in 60 AD. Now it’s time to kick off your sandals and have a swim next to the Island where the ship carrying the Apostle is said to have foundered. For more information and to watch a documentary about the reconstruction of Elsa's face log onto www.heritagemalta.org
