Torba floors from the Maltese Islands: a preliminary analytical study

This study analyses twelve selected mortar and plaster floor surfaces, called torba, dating to the 4th and 3rd millennia BC, from three Neolithic sites in the Maltese Islands: Skorba, Santa Verna and Taċ-Ċawla. Traditional geoarchaeological methodologies of soil and sediment micromorphology as well as spectroscopic techniques of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) have been applied. The results suggest that torba is more varied than previously thought, providing a more nuanced picture of differing flooring materials. Both earthen-based as well as lime-based torba were present at Neolithic sites in the Maltese Islands. The analysis revealed that most of the torba material was unfired earthen material consisting of terra rossa and calcite. Nevertheless, two torba floor samples were lime-based involving the heat-treatment of terra rossa and calcite. This lime-based torba was obtained for mortars and plasters as early as the Neolithic period in the Maltese Islands.