Heritage Malta has joined forces with the Malta Standards Authority in a bid to give a boost to the monitoring of the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Accidentally discovered by a stone mason in 1902, and later fully excavated by Sir Temi Zammit, the Hypogeum dates back to 3600 BC. To ensure its continued safety, only 80 visitors are allowed to view it per day.
The project which was launched on October 1 and is predicted to last just over two years. The cost of the project will be € 451,000, 85 per cent of which will be funded through the Norwegian Funds Mechanism, with the remaining 15 per cent coming out of Heritage Malta’s own funds. Heritage Malta was introduced to this grant programme in 2004, when the monitoring project had started to take shape.
“This collaboration has been evolving since 2004 when MSA, through its Metrology Directorate, established the National Metrology Services and through EU funding equipped itself in the fundamental areas of mass measurement, dimension measurement and temperature and humidity measurement,” representatives of the Malta Standards Authority and Heritage Malta said.
The project will set out to enhance the way the Hypogeum is monitored in an attempt to keep track of the site’s deterioration and hopefully help establish ways to combat nature’s assault on the priceless prehistoric underground cavity. Both parties are aware that one can never know enough about this ancient site, and that new discoveries about its condition will constantly crop up.
“It is not the case that something is lacking in the way the temples are currently being monitored. One never knows enough and things can become very complex once one embarks on such a monitoring strategy. The monitoring is specifically meant to intensely assess and study such environments with a view to protect the intrinsic material content that makes up the site. In effect, the past intensive study and the continued monitoring of the environment to date, has helped the Scientific Committee arrive at a decision to embark on the tenting project of both Hagar Qim and Mnajdra. This temporary measure is meant to arrest the aggressive environmental factors that have a huge bearing on the deterioration of the site, with a view to study means to better protect the site for the continued enjoyment of the present and future generations.”
The sensing systems employed will relate to monitoring of temperature, relative humidity, surface temperature using thermography and other sensors, air current speed and direction using hot wire anemometer and other instruments. All instruments will have a data logging capacity which in turn will be networked into an on-site computer, enabling forwarding capability using GPS modem, or ADSL depending on the site. Remote data and instrument management will also be possible on some instruments.
The project marks the first collaboration between Heritage Malta and the Malta Standards Authority and is geared specifically towards the improvement of the Hypogeum, with other temples currently being taken care of by separate initiatives.
“Another project unfolded between 2005 and 2006, focusing on the environmental monitoring of the megalithic temple sites of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra. The project costs EUR 159,000, funded completely by European Commission’s pre-accession funds. As a result of the project, a world leader in environmental monitoring, the Italian national Institute for Environment and Climate Sciences (ISAC), developed and implemented an intensive monitoring programme, during which the skill transfer was conducted to enable Heritage Malta to sustain and develop the monitoring programme.
The collaboration between MSA and HM is taking place in the context of a project focused specifically on the needs of the Hypogeum. This is a first project initiated jointly between the two entities. Other possibilities for improved monitoring also exist and will be considered when funding availability is made.”