Brochtorff Circle dig reveals remains of at least 800 people

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Key facts

• The site is the Xagħra Circle, also called the Brochtorff Circle, on Gozo; “Brockto” is a misspelling.
• Joatar Tabone, who found it while bird hunting, rediscovered it in 1964, after its last recording in the 1820s.
• An Anglo-Maltese team co-directed by Caroline Malone of Cambridge and Simon Stoddard of Bristol excavated the circle from 1987 to 1994.
• The subterranean structure was a communal burial hypogeum divided into three sections, not a three-level underground temple.
• A roof collapse around 2000 BC sealed the hypogeum and preserved its contents exceptionally well.
• Excavators recovered more than 200,000 human-bone fragments representing at least 800 individuals, not 800 complete skeletons, together with many well-preserved artefacts.
• The finds included anthropomorphic figurines, but the results do not support calling them some of the world's oldest figured sculptures.
• Only part of the hypogeum was excavated before work stopped in 1994 for lack of funding; the University of Bristol later produced a virtual reconstruction of the site.

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