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The Social Context of Maltese Prehistoric Art

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The Social Context of Maltese Prehistoric Art THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF MALTESE PREHISTORIC ART Andrew Townsend Art is stylized communication. equally important are buildings, (Devereux 1971) pottery/stone containers, altars and objects used for personal ornamentation. Introduction From the outset, the subject of this paper Art and context provokes a number of challenging Before attempting to define the social questions: What exactly is a social context of art, it must first be context? What is the social context of art? acknowledged that prehistoric cultural And, to what extent does prehistoric art remains, whatever their nature, are a constitute a window through which we in manifestation (materialization) of socio­ the present can observe or 'read' the past economic activities taking place in a given (Hodder 1991)? It has to be said that the social environment (Townsend 1997a answers to these and many related 1997b). A social environment is one i~ questions have been approached by way of which humans live and interact with each a varied and somewhat turbulent other. The particular way those humans trajectory of theoretical discourse in live and how they interact within their archaeology over the past four decades, social environment is commonly referred and it has only been with the emergence to as "social organisation". Social of post-processual and cognitive organisation is generally categorised into approaches of the 1980s and 1990s that units such as chiefdoms (Earle [ed.] 1991; progressive insights have been attained. Kirch 1989), corporate groups (Hayden & In anthropology, the situation has Cannon 1982) or others (Service 1962). generally been different and here the art With prehistoric societies (i.e., without of 'primitive societies' (Forge [ed.] 1973; written texts) archaeologists use evidence Fraser 1962; Jopling [ed.] 1971) has been from settlement patterns, trade, at the forefront of investigations (Layton subsistence activities and the presence of 1991). ceremonial structures, on which to build inferences for the type of social It is proposed in the present paper that organisation they might be dealing with. the art created on the Maltese islands This is also a theme which is of great during the Temple Period (c. 4100-2500 concern to archaeology and anthropology BC) constitutes a body of data which as it is inextricably linked to the nature facilitates, at very least, a preliminary and quantity of art produced by a given analysis of its social context. However, society. For example, hunter-gatherer "art" alone, as an individual body of data societies who rely on seasonally-factored or as a concept, cannot sustain an mobility for group survival (Henry 1989) argument; it must be evaluated in terms have little or no desire to produce large, of the social environment or cultural heavy or cumbersome objects-which milieu (Townsend 1997a, 1997b) in which includes art objects (Muentserberger it was produced, used and in which it 1971: 8). Rather, mobile groups produce functioned (Talalay 1993: 38)-a whole and use highly portable personal constellation of different factors have to be ornaments, or resort to body decorations taken into account. These include the in order to communicate social (non­ geographical status and physical verbal) information (Goldschmidt 1981: morphology of the islands and the 97). Sedentary farming communities, availability of space and resources, for however, are able to produce and make these are all factors which affect the way use of much larger objects such as statues, human social groups develop and interact. for if required, those objects can remain in It is also not just objects such as figurines one specific locale throughout the course or statues that should be considered when of their functional life-in permanent speaking of Maltese prehistoric art; settlements or ritual/ceremonial centres. Facets of Maltese Prehistory In the case of Temple-Building Malta and elsewhere on the Maltese islands, Gozo, society produced and used an array Stoddart et al. (1993) have suggested an of art objects which varied not only in island-insularity scenario. In essence, terms of form, but also, physical scale,l during the Zebbug phase (c. 4100-3800 and by implication, transportability BC) there was inter-community rivalry (Townsend 1997a, 1997b). taking place on the islands which operated through the exchange of exotica What evidence is available for the nature such as obsidian and other materials. of social organisation of the Maltese This was at a time when the islands were islands during the Temple-Building an active component of the central Period? Colin Renfrew (1973), by using Mediterranean exchange system. If the the distribution (clustering) of temples on model suggested is correct, there followed the Maltese islands, developed a most a period of socio-economic insularity useful chiefdom-based model for social whereby the Maltese islands became a organisation during the Temple-Building 'closed society' (Evans 1977: 21)­ Period. In comparing the Maltese case commencing in the Ggantija phase (c. with Easter Island in the Pacific, he 3600-3300/3000 BC). It is during the suggested that the islands comprised a latter that the first temples are social matrix of six territories and using constructed and hails the beginning of art data from semi-arid south Iran, suggested production on a grand scale. Stoddart et that the total human population would al. (1993) suggest that the earlier rivalry have been in the order of 11,000 via exchange, witnessed during the individuals. Furthermore, it was possible Zebbug phase was now focused on the for chiefs in each territory to mobilize construction of temples. labour in order to build ceremonial centres such as the temples in which Both models noted above are extremely 'priests' are thought to have officiated. useful for envisualising the socio-economic Based on the nature and quantity of state-of-play during the Temple-Building evidence currently available, is Renfrew's Period, but it is clear that far more data is model realistic (Townsend 1997 a)? As needed in order to make higher level noted earlier, a given social environment interpretations. Perhaps more comprises all aspects of human existence problematic is the sudden change that and activities which include ceremonial, takes place at the end of the Tarxien mortuary and domestic components, and Temple phase, when the islands appear to collectively, can be considered to be social have experienced a radical change in 'whole' (Hodder 1992: 24). One component cultural practices-as denoted by the of the Maltese whole which is missing at Tarxien Cemetery Period (c. 2500-1500 present is firm evidence for settlements. BC). During this phase, temple Thus, a model for social organisation construction is non-existent and, along which is temple-specific in terms of its with new cultural practices and forms construct is taking into account only part (cremation-urn burials, figurines, pottery of the story. The problem is further types) there is the appearance of metal perpetuated by absent data from the objects (copper axes) for the first time. temples themselves, resulting from Attempting to understand the Tarxien nineteenth century excavation activities­ Temple-Tarxien Cemetery interface a time when excavations were not (Dixon 1998; Evans 1956; Pace 1995; scientifically controlled as they are today. Trump 1976) and subsequent Other strands of evidence apart from developments has to be one of the main ceremonial structures are available for tasks of Maltese archaeological research inferring socio-economic processes that in the future. At this stage, it is might have taken place during the important to note the apparent dichotomy Temple-Building Period. Using data which can be observed between the recently obtained from the mortuary site 'exaggerated' (Evans 1973: 519) forms of of the Brochtorff Circle in Gozo (Bonanno the Temple-Building Period and the much et al. 1990; Malone et al. 1993, 1995a; humbler manifestations of the Tarxien Stoddart et al. 1993; Trump 1995) and Cemetery Period. 1 Some of which are very large. With little settlement evidence to go by 118 The Social Context of Maltese Prehistoric Art and loss of contextual information which are possibly indicative of the resulting from nineteenth-century practice of animal husbandry in terms of a excavations of the temples, it would seem social context (rather than solely for that a fairly bleak picture exists in terms subsistence) (Keswani 1994). of making headway with new models for social developments and changes on the At c. 4100 BC-the beginning of the islands during prehistory. Zebbug Phase (c. 4100-3800 BC)-there is Notwithstanding this, what can we glean a radical shift in cultural practices but from the art productions of the Temple­ this cannot, and should not, be assumed Building Period? to be indicative of the arrival of a new population on the islands (Evans 1984: Anthropologists have, for a long time now, 493). The first evidence for mortuary valued art in terms of what it is able to practices in the form of rock-cut tombs tell us about society and there is a rich used for collective burials appears, body of data at the disposal of examples of which are know at Ta' Trapna archaeologists to do the same-providing (Zebbug) on Malta (Baldacchino & Evans the limits of the data are given due 1954) and at the Brochtorff Circle on Gozo respect. Even when no art is found on a (Malone et al. 1995a). Associated with the particular site then this may be tombs is anthropomorphic imagery of two considered negative evidence (Stone basic types. One type is the so-called 1981). It has to be admitted that in some 'statue-menhirs', one example from the cases, for instance, when a site has tombs at Ta' Trapna (Zebbug) undergone little excavation, any art (Baldacchino & Evans 1954: plate 3; objects recovered may be of only slight Evans 1971: fig. 57, plates 61.7 & 61.8) information value.
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