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3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 APRIL 2023 NEWS within a vertical natural fissure which was partially fashioned to be used as a well, which has a depth of around 8.5 metres. Investigations by the SCH sug- gest that the material found in this well, including the inscrip- tion, was "dumped there" at a later stage. It is an indication that the inscription was found in a different place from where it was originally located. But since the site does not contain any modern material, it is still considered as providing a secure archaeological context. Moreover, pottery found within the same site does not date to lat- er than the 13th century AD, thus placing the site within the Medi- e v a l period. The major ar- chaeological find led to a change in the development's plans at basement and ground floor level so that the more sig- nificant features will be retained and made permanently visible. The social housing project con- sists of a reservoir, basement on two levels with 66 garages and 117 overlying housing units set on five levels. All artefacts have been retrieved and are stored at the Superin- tendence's repository and labora- tory for the necessary conserva- tion and analysis. The Superintendence has also recently referred to the archaeo- logical potential of a neighbour- ing 23,468sq.m site earmarked for residential development by developer Anton Camilleri, which is just 108 metres away. According to the SCH any development that may be approved on this site should be subject to "ar- chaeological monitoring." Echoes of Muslim Malta Although the Arab domination of Malta lasted between 870 AD and the Norman conquest in 1091, a significant part of the population remained Muslim coexisting with Jewish and Christian communi- ties. Most of the archaeological evidence proving a Muslim pres- ence in Malta including the Mus- lim cemetery in Rabat date back to the Norman period. The Mai- muna stone presently held in the Gozo Archaeology Museum also dates to 1174. The stone includes a memorial prayer carved in Kufic script ded- icated to a young Muslim woman named Maimūnah. It also includes Qur'anic verses about death. But the exact location where the stone was found is not known although it is traditionally held that the stone was found in an area known as Ta' Majmuna, between the Gozitan villages of Xewkija and Sannat. A report made by Giliberto Abate in 1240 refers to the pres- ence of 836 Muslim households in Malta and Gozo along with 250 Christian households and 33 Jew- ish households. The document refers to only 47 Christian households in Mal- ta and 203 in Gozo. Although it is possible that the figures only apply to a specific portion of the island's population or that an 'M' standing for a 'thousand' was in- advertently dropped in front of the Christian population of Malta; the figures prove the survival of a large Muslim community even as late as 1240. In 1249, according to Ibn Hal- dun, the emperor Frederick II sent the Maltese Muslims into exile together with those' of Sicily, who are known from other evidence to have been exiled to Lucera in Sic- ily. But probably all that the Mus- lims had to do to escape expulsion was to accept formal baptism. According to the late Godfrey Wettinger this explains the sur- vival of the Maltese language "largely in the form it had taken during the centuries of Muslim hegemony", despite the steady en- try into the islands of settlers from Europe including churchmen and merchants. This included the sur- vival of words linked to Muslim religious practices. For example, the Maltese word Randan (Lent) comes from Ramadan – the holy month of fasting and sacrifice in Islam. Similarly, Għid (Easter) has its roots in Eid al-Fitr, the joyous Islamic feast that marks the end of Ramadan. Also, the Maltese word for 'Friday' (Il-Ġimgħa) is called so because it was the day in which Muslims on the island used to at- tend their weekly congregational 'Jumu'ah' prayers. Moreover, like both Muslim and Christian Arabs, the Maltese refer to their God as Alla, which derives from Allah. The discovery is "very significant and rare" according to the Superintendence for Cultural Her-itage, being the second Arabic inscription found outside Rabat The site where the inscription and other medieval artefacts were found