Tas-Silġ is a rounded hilltop on the south-east coast of the island of Malta, overlooking Marsaxlokk Bay, and close to the town of Żejtun.
[2] Tas-Silġ is a major multi-period sanctuary site with archaeological remains covering 4,000 years, from the neolithic to the ninth century AD.
[3] The site includes a megalithic temple complex dating from the early third millennium BC, to a Phoenician and Punic sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Astarte.
[3] The original name of the hill where the site is found is Ta' Berikka;[4] the name 'Tas-Silġ' derives from that of the nearby Church of Our Lady of the Snows [it] (Maltese: Knisja tal-Madonna tas-Silġ), built in the 1800s.
In 1996, the University of Malta restarted excavations, uncovering Neolithic and Late Bronze Age remains, and substantial deposits associated with ritual offerings in the Punic era.
The name derives from that of a small church dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows, which is found at the crossroads where the country road from Żejtun forks out in two directions, to Delimara peninsula and Xrobb il-Għaġin to the south-east and to the village of Marsaxlokk to the south-west.
The archaeological remains sprawl over two large areas to the north and south of the Żejtun to Marsaxlokk road (Triq Xrobb l-Għaġin).
In the deepest layer of deposits, archaeologists found various artifacts including pottery, lithics, and a standing fat lady.
An extension was added to the curved facade, and a monumental doorway flanked by two pilasters and topped with a huge stone slab was built.
A threshold slab pierced by three libation holes that divided the eastern part of the temple and the western side, as well as a series of ashlar foundation walls for a platform built to the south of the main sanctuary still exist.
[7][5] Red Roman flooring, opus signinam, made from crushed pottery, lime and white marble tiles, still exists on site.
[11] Large water storage areas under Tas-Silġ were recently found and mapped, and they probably date to the Punic or Roman eras.
[13] Within the sanctuary remains, an ornament with palm volutes measuring around 7.6 cm and dating to the sixth or seventh century BC was also uncovered.
Other similar elements were found in the Roman house at Rabat, and they are theorised to have formed part of a thymiaterion, due to their Egyptian funerary design.
[19] A remain of a column from the temple at Tas-Silġ, built in the Phoenician period, is today found at the seventeenth century Palazzo Marnisi in Marsaxlokk.
[21] New findings were discovered when Heritage Malta and the Ministry for Culture began a new project to restore and transform the ruins of a nineteenth-century farmhouse to serve as a small visitors' centre.