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The little-known archaeological remains of an extensive Roman villa in Zejtun are once again being excavated by Archaeology students at UM. The site was discovered in the 1960s during the construction of a secondary school on the outskirts of Zejtun (St Thomas More College), and underwent systematic excavation campaigns between 1972 and 1976.

The remains that are visible today belong to a large farming estate, combining living quarters and an area dedicated to agricultural activity. Since its discovery the significance of the Zejtun villa lay in the presence of machinery designed to process olives to make oil. Such machinery includes a large limestone block with carefully carved sockets designed to secure a wooden screw press, and a number of decantation vats meant to collect freshly extracted oil.

Adjacent to this working area a number of rooms were revealed, which were carefully laid with terracotta lozenge-shaped tiles. Traces of painted wall plaster which once decorated these rooms were found.

Since 2006, a team from the Department of Classics and Archaeology of the University of Malta have been entrusted with re-investigating the site. For four weeks each year, a team of students reading for a degree in Archaeology work towards piecing together the villa’s complex history as part of their practical training in archaeological excavation. The students are taught how to dig systematically, carefully document their discoveries, and learn how to recognise and collect artefacts such as fragments of pottery, bone, shell and coins. 

The results borne out of ten four-week campaigns at the Roman villa have culminated in exciting results about the history of the site. Well before the complex was built, the site was occupied in Punic times when a large cistern was excavated in the rock to collect rainwater. The land was then used as an extensive vineyard to cultivate grapes, most probably for the production of wine.

Sometime before the first century BC, the vineyard was abandoned, and in its place the villa was built, clearly making use of recycled stone blocks which belonged to an earlier structure. This year, the department was able to conserve a hoard of Roman coins recovered from the site two years ago.

This was made possible thanks to a sponsorship made by the Farsons Foundation. A preliminary study of the coins and fragments of imported pottery are now indicating that the villa experienced a period of extensive renovation works during the Roman period, and continued to be used as an olive oil-producing establishment until at least the end of the third century AD.

This year the archaeologists are concentrating in two particular areas: the area to the north of the site which housed the olive press; and a series of walls to the south which marked the southernmost limit of the Roman villa. The team will be opening the site to visitors on Tuesday 24 July. Site tours will be given every half hour between 09:00 and 12:00.

To reach the site visitors should turn left on Triq Dun Lawrenz Degabriele from the Zejtun bypass, skirt the school and turn left again on Triq Luqa Briffa.

Further information about the activities of the Department of Classics and Archaeology can be found on the website and on the Department’s page on Facebook.