M
MALTA
ECHOES OF PLATO’S ISLAND
The Prehistoric Society of Malta
2001
Photograph by Anton Mifsud
Before the invention of the telescope by Jan Lippersheim in 1608, Nicolaus Copernicus produced this map (1543) challenging the theory prevailing at the time that the world was at the centre of the universe — several ancient texts had then reached Europe from fallen Constantinople. Copernicus was supported in his hypothesis by the observations of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler in 1609, when Galileo built his own telescope and also confirmed Copernicus through his observations of the solar system.
MALTA
ECHOES OF PLATO’S ISLAND
Anton Mifsud Simon Mifsud Chris Agius Sultana Charles Savona Ventura
The Prehistoric Society of Malta
2001
MALTA: ECHOES OF PLATO’S ISLAND
Anton Mifsud, Simon Mifsud, Chris Agius Sultana, Charles Savona Ventura
ISBN No. 99932-15-02-3.
First published by the Prehistoric Society of Malta, July 2000.
Second Edition, September 2001, revised by Anton Mifsud.
© The Prehistoric Society of Malta.
Except when stated otherwise, line drawings by Tabitha Mifsud, photography and full text by Anton Mifsud.
Cover design by Tabitha Mifsud and Proprint Co. Ltd. Underwater photography by Chris Agius Sultana.
All rights reserved. No part of this volume may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means with the prior permission of the Prehistoric Society of Malta. (E-mail - [email protected]).
Printed by Proprint Co. Ltd., Shepherds Street, Mosta, MST 08, Malta.
Sole distributor — The Prehistoric Society of Malta (e-mail - [email protected]).
To Maria, Michaela and Zea Preface to the first edition
The present theme of Plato’s Island was initiated by one of Malta’s senior archaeologists, definitely not a diehard archaeologist, and presently the Head of Archaeology and Classics at the University of Malta. During his lecture at the Medical School on St. Luke’s Day, 1998, Anthony Bonanno made mention of Giorgio Grongnet, the architect of the Mosta Dome, and one of the chief proponents for the identification of Plato’s island in the Maltese islands — Grongnet had dedicated the greater part of his life to the solution of this problem, and his manuscript is still to be found at the National Library in Valletta. He had unfortunately lost his credibility when he attempted to sustain his hypothesis through a forged inscription, a circumstance which he himself freely admitted. It was also during 1998 that I was actually conducting research in order to disprove this very hypothesis as then being resuscitated by Chris Agius Sultana from Rabat. The outcome was a reversal of my original intention in liaison with my fellow authors.
Which category of archaeologist – scholar of antiquities – is best suited to deal with the main theme of this publication? Is it the professional, the quack or the amateur?
The professional archaeologist is not necessarily fully qualified to dictate an exclusive interpretation of accumulated data, for archaeology embraces a multitude of disciplines, and the professional archaeologist’s exclusivity lies solely with his license to dig and to report faithfully upon what he has destroyed. (My personal preference for a truly professional archaeologist outside of the Maltese Islands is Paul Bahn. He makes archaeology intensely interesting, and is honest enough to admit a soft spot for Indiana Jones).
One category of professional archaeologist who qualifies for a key role in such an investigation on Plato’s Island is the specialized underwater archaeologist who is well equipped for the job. Advances in underwater technology have been responsible in recent times for the discovery of ancient sites lost by submersion, and for operations upon the Titanic and the Kursk. This brings us to the diehard archaeologist, the graduate in archaeological studies who raises an eyebrow, or both, at the mere mention of Plato’s Island, and who immediately betrays his prejudice by refusing to consider any evidence linked with this theme. He would have to insist that the Russian submarine was a collective burial site because a large quantity of bodies was discovered inside it, in the same way that the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum is still assumed to represent a collective burial site on the same grounds.
Genuine scholarship requires no added weight of authority, and the efforts of quack archaeologists are not worthy of consideration — a quack is strictly a person who claims a doctoral qualification when he has none.
Prehistoric interpretation is open to all scholars with sufficient gray matter in their skulls to exclude personal bias in favour of logical processes. The theme of Plato’s Island is ideally dealt with by the genuine amateurs of archaeology, particularly those scholars who have no personal interests in gain or promotion through the hypotheses they formulate. It is this last category that we have attempted to emulate.
Preface to the second edition
This early second edition has been occasioned through the rapid exhaustion of the first. It has been made possible through the collaboration of a number of friends, chief among whom I would like to include Edwin Lanfranco, Geraldine Camilleri, Joan Marler and Linda Eneix. Abigail has once more read the final draft.
At the turn of the millennium, Atlantis has been included in the "traditional" works of archaeology, albeit in a disparaging context, where the attempts of genuine amateurs to identify Plato's island are denigrated in a most unscholarly manner. The bi-monthly Americal journal Archaeology and the textbook by the same name have both neglected to disguise their bias when dealing with the theme. Thus both publications have attempted to pontificate from their mythical ivory towers by emarginating amateur archaeologists in general to an-"other", a "pseudo-", "on the fringe" and a dowright fraudulent category of archaeology of the Piltdown type; the self-styled true professional archaeologists are assumed to be themselves, the "searchers," with a self-awarded exclusive right to the interpretation of archaeological data. (It is as if the culprit for the Piltdown forgery has been identified, and Woodward Smith of the British Museum exonerated from any participation in the fraud). But truly remarkable are the comments relating to the opinion of the "scientist" in these matters, for the authors seem to ignore the fact that most "searchers" or so-called "professional" archaeologists lack the required quantum of basic scientific knowledge, whether this is anatomy, biology, botany, physiology, pathology, bacteriology, forensics, physics or chemistry - one lecture on radiocarbon dating is hardly satisfactory to professionalize a graduate in archaeological studies. On the other hand, the contrary is true for most amateurs. Three of the four authors of this publication are scientists who are fully accredited also in the United Kingdom. Less than a century ago one sole Maltese scientist in the same discipline, Temi Zammit, proved his archaeological worth by challenging even Arthur Evans over Tarxien, and Zammit's dating of Tarxien has remained unchanged although also challenged later by Arthur's namesake, John D. History repeats itself, and once again the amateur researcher will topple the professed searcher over. The evidence for our hypothesis on Plato's Island is being presented not to the searchers' establishment for any form of approval, but to a jury of readers for their final decision.
A. M.
Table of Contents
Preface vi List of illustrations ix Introduction 1 The Twentieth Century 1 An assessment of the megalithic structures 1 The ancient texts 2 The Egyptian Priests 2 The library of Alexandria 2 The antiquity of sources in the texts 4 Severe losses of ancient texts 4 Corruption of texts 4 Politics and prehistory 6 Discoveries confirming the texts 6 Solon and Psonchis in Sais 8 Fact or Fiction 10 Acceptance of Plato’s story 12 Similar cataclysms in historical accounts 12 The search for Plato’s island 12 Malta as a remnant of Plato’s island 14 Criteria for qualification 16 1. A larger landmass in antiquity 16 (a) Early antiquity 16 The early scholars 16 Bathemetry in the nineteenth century 16 Fossil remains 18 Stratigraphy 18 (b) Later antiquity 18 The ancient geographers 18 Cart ruts 24 Biogeographic index 26 2. Floral, faunal and anthropological links with the Pelagian islands and North Africa during the prehistoric period 26 Podarcis 26 Anthropological links 28 Cultural links with the countries dominated by Plato’s island 28 Links with ancient Tyrrhenia 28 Links with ancient Egypt 28 Links with ancient Libia 30 3. Tectono-seismic profile of the Maltese islands 32 Tilting 34 4. Catastrophic events on Malta 36 The flood in ancient cultures 36 Torrential flooding events 36 Human victims of flooding events in the late Neolithic 38 Land submergence and subsidence 40 Submerged temples 42 Land movements on Malta during the Holocene 44 Volcanic activity on Malta 44 5. The Chronology 46 Absolute dating 46 Relative dating 46 Radiocarbon dating 46 6. Features on Malta compatible with Plato’s description 48 Geography 48 The western ocean 48 The Straits of Heracles 48 Plato’s relative geography 52 Cultural and physical features 52 Cultural features 52 Physical features – cart ruts 52 Physical features – temples 54 7. Other ancients texts confirming the geographical position of Plato’s Atlantika 56 Ogygia 56 Malta or Crete 56 Chaldean links 58 Conclusion 58 Summary 58 Endnotes 60 References 64 Plates 73 Index 84
List of illustrations
Figures
Figure 1. The ancient texts 3 Figure 2. The antiquity of sources for the ancient texts 5 Figure 3. Corruption of the texts 5 Figure 4. Revival of the ancient authors 7 Figure 5. Mythology transformed into history 7 Figure 6. The story on the temple walls 9 Figure 7. Features of Plato’s Island 11 Figure 8. The Parthenon 11 Figure 9. Graham’s Island 13 Figure 10. The search for Plato’s island 15 Figure 11. Deodat de Dolomieu 17 Figure 12. The Central Mediterranean sea floor 19 Figure 13. Ptolemy’s maps confirmed after seventeen centuries 21 Figure 14. Ptolemy’s maps of the Maltese Islands 22 Figure 15. A wider latitude for Malta 23 Figure 16. The extensive networks of cart ruts 25 Figure 17. The Maltese wall lizard, Podarcis filfolensis 27 Figure 18. Links with ancient Egypt 29 Figure 19. Links with ancient North Africa 31 Figure 20. Tectono-seismic profiles of the Central Mediterranean 33 Figure 21. The Pantelleria Rift and Tilting 35 Figure 22. Major flooding events in the Mediterranean 37 Figure 23. Alluvial nature of human remains in the hypogea 39 Figure 24. Maltese human remains in alluvial events 41 Figure 25. Submerged prehistoric man-made structures 43 Figure 26. Land displacements in recent times 45 Figure 27. Radiocarbon dates for prehistoric Malta 47 Figure 28. Landmasses between Libia and Sicily 49 Figure 29. Small islands 50 Figure 30. The Straits of Heracles and the western ocean 51 Figure 31. Cult of the Bull 53 Figure 32. They built many temples to their gods 55 Figure 33. Malta or Thera 57 Figure 34. Links with Babylon and King Ninus 59
Plates
Plate 1. Poseidon and the dolphin 73 Plate 2. Secondary sources for the ancient texts 74 Plate 3. Volcanic ash at Mriehel 75 Plate 4. George Zammit Maempel and the distribution of volcanic ash areas 76 Plate 5. Elevation of sea level associated with Mediterranean seismic events 77 Plate 6. Aerial views of submerged features 78 Plate 7. Cart ruts on elevated areas – interrupted by land movement 79 Plate 8. Vestiges of cart ruts leading to the sea 80 Plate 9. Disappearing cart ruts 81 Plate 10. Submerged man-made structures at St. George’s Creek 82 Plate 11. The INA and ITV 83
ix
MALTA: ECHOES OF PLATO’S ISLAND
completely reversed it. Three sites at Introduction Tarxien established a new order in The most ancient architectural civilisation Mediterranean prehistoric archaeology. on the planet is represented by a megalithic The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, the Tarxien culture which flourished for a thousand temples and the Tarxien Cemetery site years between 3600/3500 and 2600/2500BC, delineated a new sequence, where art in and which was concentrated on the tiny architecture was first manifest in Neolithic Maltese archipelago in the Central Malta at around 3000BC6; calibrated Mediterranean. The radiocarbon dates have radiocarbon dating has since pinpointed the said so.1 The dates have also indicated Tarxien date to 3100BC7. that, just after its sudden termination around 2600/2500BC, the pyramidal form of An assessment of the megalithic megalithic culture appeared in Egypt. structures The megalithic structures of the Maltese The small size of the Maltese archipelago of islands were already known abroad as today militates against the prominent temples in the sixteenth century, such as by archaeological position it assumes. Its Nostradamus8. Quintinus described the megalithic monuments, decorative art and megalithic temple at Grand Harbour which statuary are the remarkable survivors of its is now lost, but which was also confirmed by civilisation.2 The temples of Malta never later visitors. 9 fail to amaze all nationalities, except for the native Maltese. Yet how could such a small Maltese megalithic architecture developed surface area produce a civilisation in insularity, as an isolated phenomenon, antedating the Egyptian one by a thousand without any parallels elsewhere on earth, years?3 Equally enigmatic are the and with no known external source of circumstances of its sudden and abrupt inspiration. These unique constructions, termination, followed by a complete break the world‘s most impressive prehistoric in the archaeological record, and monuments, appeared before the temples of represented by ―several feet of fine sand, the eastern Mediterranean and also before containing no stones or broken fragments of the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge. rock and no traces of any Bronze Age pottery ―Neolithic Malta … developed, in its or metal, clearly showing that this layer had insularity, in its own most original been deposited by centuries of wind and manner‖.10 ―No significant parallels are at rain, untouched by the hand of man‖4. present known to the temples, the carving, Although several hypotheses have been put the statuettes, or the pottery … they remain forward to explain its sudden and complete an isolated phenomenon in prehistoric elimination, such as famine, plague, Europe‖.11 ―Archaeologists have not ceased warfare and over-exploitation of natural to scour the Mediterranean from the Levant resources,5 a more satisfactory to Spain in search of the culture from which interpretation in this regard is still Malta drew its inspiration‖.12 wanting. ―It should now be clear to all serious and The twentieth century unbiased students of megaliths that these Problems with Maltese prehistory were structures of great stones came into existence sparked off at the turn of the century with in many separate societies: Malta…‖13 ―It is Albert Mayr (1901), who identified the now not possible to derive the (Maltese) megalithic structures on Malta and Gozo as temples from outside, and the spirals prove prehistoric rather than Phoenician. Malta‘s older than those of Mycenae … The world‘s prehistory was carried back from 1500 to most impressive prehistoric monuments … 3000 BC. Merely a few years previously The great stone monuments of Malta, and Arthur Evans had established Bronze Age the finds that go with them, have long Crete as the cradle of Mediterranean presented difficulties to the archaeologist … civilisation. Mayr had barely shaken the the tree-ring calibration … sets aside Cretan cradle in the Aegean when a series entirely the traditional links with the of archaeological discoveries in Malta Aegean‖.14
1 Malta: ―The temples of Malta are actually older matter was the history and religion of than the temples of the eastern ancient Egypt. As is usually the norm with Mediterranean, older even than the ancient texts, the writings of Manetho have pyramids. Therefore, even though they knew reached us only through ―fragmentary and nothing of writing, wheeled transport or the often distorted quotations‖ by Josephus and use of metal, the Neolithic inhabitants of the Christian chronographers, Africanus Malta must have been sufficiently and Eusebius. Both the Jews18 and the sophisticated in their own social early Christians19 modified Manetho‘s text organisation to construct these to suit their religious and political extraordinary monuments without external inclinations.20 The Jews amended the help‖.15 sections which associated their lineage with the leper communities. The modifications Trump described the Maltese temples as made by the Christians were aimed at ―site-orientated spatial systems of cyclopean synchronising the Egyptian accounts with or orthostatic masonry‖.16 An architectural the Biblical chronography.21 assessment defines them as a ―series of unique constructions that to this day testify Nevertheless these surviving fragments of to the skill, ingenuity and sublimated Manetho‘s text have been constantly ambitions of these early inhabitants of the utilised by archaeologists to build up the Maltese islands‖.17 succession of Egyptian kings where the archaeological evidence was inconclusive, The ancient texts and Manetho's division of the rulers of People have been writing stories for a very Egypt into 30 dynasties is still accepted tale long time. Almost invariably with the quale. ancient authors, supernatural beings were invoked as active participants in their early The Egyptian priests prehistoric past. God of the Israelites The priests in ancient Egypt were in an created the universe and picked them out as ideal position to render an account of its the chosen race; he punished them for their ancient history. There was unlimited transgressions, and aided them in the wars access to ancient documentary evidence in against their enemies. Other civilisations the form of inscriptions on the temple walls, too had their unseen god who influenced clay tablets and texts of papyrus. The human lives in a supernatural manner. In Egyptian priests were well versed in Greek, a material world such ancient texts, tinged and were able to produce good and reliable as they are with the supernatural, would be historical accounts. frowned upon with good reason, particularly when they fail to measure up to scientific Before the conquest and Hellenization of methods. The main error with the ancient Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, texts has been their absolute chronology; in Greek scholars visited Egypt and obtained Genesis, for example, on the one hand information on its ancient history from the Adam had lived for nine centuries, and on experts themselves, the priests living on the the other, the world had been created a fertile Delta of the Nile. mere four millennia before Christ. The archaeology of the lands of the Bible, The library of Alexandria however, tends to confirm the events From the 3rd century BC, shortly after the recorded in it. And the recently discovered Greek conquest of Egypt, the library of Dead Sea scrolls of Qumran (1947, 1956) Alexandria became the outstanding centre have confirmed both the Greek version of of Greek culture. It was the most celebrated the ancient Hebrew texts (Septuagint: repository of the ancient texts in antiquity. Alexandria 3rd century BC) and the Latin The institution was intended from the very one (Vulgate of St. Jerome, 3rd century AD). start as a great international school and Unfortunately however, although not library. Ptolemy I founded the Museum, or always accurate, the ―imperfectly preserved‖ Shrine to the Muses, which included the ancient text of Manetho has always been library itself and a school. A strong Jewish the professional archaeologist‘s mainstay of presence in Alexandria was a significant ancient Egyptian chronology. feature at the time, and thus the library also became the largest centre for Jewish Manetho was an Egyptian priest who wrote scholarship in the ancient world. in the third century BC, and his subject
2 Echoes of Plato‘s Island
The library of Alexandria was instituted in the third century before Christ. It housed over half a million texts, mostly in Greek, representing the knowledge of antiquity. It survived several waves of destruction, before its contents were transferred to other centres such as at Constantinople.
Since the third century before Christ ancient scholars studied the scrolls in the Alexandrine library and included them in their own writings, thus helping to preserve the original contents through these secondary sources.
Figure 1. The ancient texts
3 Malta: The library served as a repository for every was destroyed by fire in 391 AD, this time Greek work of the classical period that was by Christian elements under Theophilus. In then available, and eventually housed more 412AD Cyril succeeded his uncle than half a million volumes. The institution Theophilus as Patriarch of Christianity. was directed by great scholars such as Cyril's order that all Jews be expelled from Callimachus, who utilised their time in the Alexandria was objected to by the Roman library conducting valuable research. Thus, prefect Orestes, and Cyril‘s monks although several of the ancient documents murdered Orestes. They also murdered were subsequently lost, their contents have Hypatia, the daughter of the been preserved in secondary sources — in mathematician Theon, the last keeper of the records of those scholars who the Alexandria library. As a Neoplatonist researched them in antiquity and in more philosopher and astronomer, Hypatia was recent times. treated as a witch and burnt alive by Cyril‘s monks.24 The library itself was ransacked of The antiquity of sources in the texts all objects of value and then burnt. A Turkish admiral at Constantinople compiled the Piri Reis map in 1513. It Amru the Moslem conquered Alexandria in depicts regions now lying in the South Pole 642 AD, and several thousands of ancient which have since been covered, before 4,000 texts in the library were utilised as fuel to BC, by a mile thick layer of ice; these heat up the public baths; the supply lasted regions were officially discovered in 1818. six months. The Piri Reis map had been compiled from earlier compilations of maps and texts in The texts which survived the several the library of Alexandria, by authors dating holocausts in the library of Alexandria were to the fourth century BC and earlier, but eventually transferred to other centres of who had themselves compiled their work learning, notably Constantinople. During from earlier documents. A seismic profile of the 11th to 12th centuries AD there was a the ice cap in question was carried out in revival of the ancient texts through Latin 1949 by the Swedish-British Antarctic translations from the original Greek and expedition, and the United States Air Force Arabic. 25 And when the Venetians seized has reviewed their readings and confirmed Constantinople in 1204, several more of the accuracy of the Piri Reis map.22 these documents became available once Whatever process was involved in its more through their dissemination by the creation, there can be no doubt that the Piri victors. Reis map confirms the authenticity and antiquity of the sources in the Alexandrine Barbarian invasions have on several texts. occasions destroyed Greek and Roman manuscripts in their wake; a few popes as Severe losses of ancient texts well, such as Gregory, destroyed classical literature in order to minimise distractions The ancient texts have suffered the same in the laity. Similarly, in the New World, vicissitudes of time and prejudice as practically all the Mayan ancient texts of archaeological specimens have. Most of the Yucatan were destroyed by Bishop Landa.26 writings of the ancient authors have been lost, since other ancient authors whose Corruption of texts texts have survived refer to several others now no longer extant. The ancient texts continued to be more or less available, predominantly in secondary The great library of Alexandria survived a sources, up to the present time. There had fire by Julius Caesar in 49 BC, and suffered been, however, significant modifications in great losses during the civil war under the versions of these texts during the Aurelian in the late third century AD. Renaissance. Three instances which have a direct bearing on the present theme are the In the reign of Theodosius I, between 379- works of Lucanus, Ptolemy and Pliny the 395 AD, violence by Christian elements Elder. A comparison of the versions of against pagan sites was widespread Lucanus‘ Pharsalia – the Civil War is a through the empire. Iconoclasm was diffuse particular case in point, where the location and the sacred precincts were ―purged by of the straits of Heracles is omitted in the fire.‖23 The daughter library in Alexandria recent versions.27 In Ptolemy, the translation by Müller (1883) is different
4 Echoes of Plato‘s Island
Figure 2. Antiquity of sources for the ancient texts.
The Piri Reis map was discovered in 1929 in the Topkapi, Constantinople, the depository of the ancient texts after their dispersal from Alexandria in the 8th century AD. It was drawn in 1513AD — spherical trigonometry as applied to maps was ‗discovered‘ in Europe at the turn of the 18th century AD. Antarctica was ‗discovered‘ in 1818, and its outline beneath the ice (as it appears already on the Piri Reis map) was confirmed by seismic profile in 1949.
Figure 3. Corruption of the ancient texts
The ancient texts were subjected to the whims and prejudices of several ‗scholars.‘ The Italian Ludovico Domenichi (left) corrupted the content of the ancient texts by incorrect translation. The chaplain of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Fra Giuseppe Vella (right), falsified documents in an attempt to attenuate the Arab presence in Sicily and Malta.
5 Malta: from the four earlier versions (1490, 1520, Maltese had featured significantly during 1540 and 1574),28 in some of the readings of the same war. The contents of the dossier latitude for the Maltese islands. And were never published, and were ―destroyed whereas the original Pliny (Book 7: 56) under statute‖ in 1973.35 Distortion of mentions the military encounter between archaeological evidence in Malta and other the Athenians and the Atlanteans as the Mediterranean islands has featured also in first documented battle, and that the recent years.36 weapons used were wooden sticks hardened with fire because of a lack of the knowledge Discoveries confirming the texts of iron, this detail is omitted in the more The ancient scholars such as Thales recent versions.29 (585BC), Pythagoras (500BC), Aristarchus (280BC), Eratosthenes of Cyrene (240BC) Attempts at distortion of ancient documents and Hipparchus (150BC) had investigated have complicated the issue even further. In astronomy; physics had been studied by the local scenario, there is the classical Aristotle (350BC), Plato (400BC) and instance of falsification of ‗Arabic‘ Democritus (440BC). After their dispersal documents by the Abate Giuseppe Vella, in the seventh century AD, the ancient Chaplain of the Sacred Order of Jerusalem texts were practically ignored right up to in Palermo in the late eighteenth century. the fifteenth century AD. It was shortly The prevalence of prejudice over logic in after the capture of Constantinople, in such instances is further manifest by the 1454, that Greek scholars such as attitude of the authorities towards this Bessarione, Crisolora and Calcondila once forgery. Notwithstanding the exposure, the again acquainted Europe with Greek Abate‘s action was then considered to have literature, and the contents of several more been a ―beneficial imposture‖.30 of the ancient Greek texts made their appearance amongst the scholars of Europe. Politics and prehistory Literary works, which were based on these Unfortunately prehistoric interpretation ancient texts, started to appear in the late has often been tarnished on political fifteenth century, and these are particularly grounds. ―There was a long dispute whether useful as secondary sources of original texts it (Malta) was in Europe or Africa, but the which have since been lost. British Parliament at last ended the matter by declaring it to be in Europe‖.31 ―Though European scholars who had access to these Malta is classed with Europe, it boasts that ancient documents included Galileo, honour more from an act of the British Copernicus, Leonardo da Vinci and parliament, passed in its ‗omnipotence,‘ Nostradamus. Copernicus (1543) confirmed than from any intrinsic claims of the island that the earth moved round the sun. When itself, to that distinction. It lies to the south Galileo supported Copernicus, Rome of the whole maritime frontier of Algiers, as excommunicated the former in defence of well as of most of the shores of Tunis and Genesis. It then became necessary for Morocco. Ptolemy32 places Malta, with scholars such as Nostradamus and sufficient reason, in Africa; and the earlier Leonardo da Vinci to write in code.37 geographers chiefly adopted the same classification‖.33 The early Christian church The ancient texts were still considered to be also acknowledged the situation that Malta largely mythological in nature until formed part of the group of islands on the Heinrich Schliemann‘s discovery of Homer‘s African Pelagian block.34 Politically, it has Troy and Mycenae in the 1870‘s. Arthur also been linked to North Africa for a short Evans picked up Schliemann‘s trail and while — in the sixteenth century, Malta discovered the land of Minos in Crete; their formed with Tripoli the joint domain of the joint discoveries transformed the purely Knights of St. John. mythological dimension of the ancient texts into a more historical one. During the last war, the British administration investigated the Maltese Other discoveries followed as a result of links with Africa, in a confidential dossier of exploration rather than excavation. the Colonial Office (1941-3), under the title Burckhardt confirmed the ancient texts of of ―Information re Continent in which Malta Eusebius and Eratosthenes when he is situated.‖ Britain was at war with Italy, discovered the ‗rose-red city‘ of Petra in and the Italian affiliations of several Jordan in 1812. And the maps of the
6
Echoes of Plato‘s Island
Figure 4. Revival of the ancient authors. With the return of the ancient texts from Constantinople to Europe, there was a revival in scientific matters. Copernicus (left) and Galileo (right) showed that the world was not at the centre of the universe. Galileo was excommunicated for his hypothesis, which he was eventually obliged to renounce.
Figure 5. Mythology transformed into history. The archaeological discoveries towards the end of the nineteenth century showed that the texts of the ancient authors were not myths but fact. Heinrich Schliemann (arrowed in left photograph) poses in front of the Lion gate at Mycenae — Schliemann had also discovered Homer‘s Troy. The photograph on the right shows the excavation on Crete under Arthur Evans, which uncovered the land of Minos and the palace of Knossos.
7 Malta: ancient geographers such as Claudius full administrative powers over Athens Ptolemy have also been confirmed in this around 594 BC. Through this office Solon way — in 1888 Henry Morton Stanley was successful in implementing major discovered the Ruwenzori mountain range changes to improve the political, in Central Africa, and this has been administrative and social structures of the identified with Ptolemy‘s Mountains of the nation.43 Moon, the source of the Nile in Central Africa. Some ancient geographers remain Solon had travelled widely. In 590 BC he unknown, as in the instance of the Piri Reis left Athens for ten years and visited Säis in map, already referred to above. Egypt, ―on the Canopian shore, by the Nile‘s deep mouth‖; there he conversed with the The accounts of the ancient authors have wise men of Säis, particularly with been thoroughly researched in recent years, Psonchis, the most learned of the Egyptian and several extinct sites have been high priests, upon points of philosophy and identified, if only in part.38 One of the very history. According to Clement of recent (1998) is based on the account given Alexandria, Psonchis had instructed by Strabo of ancient Alexandria. In Pythagoras in the science of the Egyptians. conditions of poor visibility underwater, Solon also visited Heliopolis and conversed over an area of 27 hectares, Franck with the priest Psenopbis.44 Goddio‘s team have uncovered the submerged Antirhodos island, the site of The ancient Greeks had lost most of their Cleopatra‘s palace; this lay under layers of records in a major flood45. In fact, Psonchis thick silt and a one-metre crust of thus addressed himself to Solon — ―You calcareous deposit, at a depth of five to six have no antiquity in history, and no history metres beneath the surface of Alexandria of antiquity.‖46 bay, not far from the modern city‘s shoreline.39 In the meantime, the Tower of It was a different situation in ancient Babel has been reported as identified in Egypt, as Psonchis explained to Solon. Pontus, in the Black Sea, as described by ―Whatever happened either in your country some ancient Aramaic Biblical texts.40 The or in ours, or in any other region of which Black Sea is also the site of the most recent we are informed, if any action which is discovery associated with the descriptions noble or great, or in any other way by the ancient authors (Strabo, Arrian and remarkable has taken place, all that has Aristotle)— the sunken city of Phasis, the been written down of old, is preserved in our destination of Jason and the Argonauts.41 temples; whereas your people and the others are but newly equipped, every time, with The sunken site par excellance is the island letters and all such arts as civilised states described by Plato in the fourth century require … when the flood comes … it leaves before Christ. In 1939 the Director of the none of you but the unlettered and the Department of Antiquities in Greece, uncultured … with no knowledge of what Spyridon Marinatos, picked up Arthur happened in olden times in this land and in Evans‘ trail and identified the island of your own‖.47 Psonchis then proceeded to Thera-Santorini in the Aegean Sea with outline the most remarkable event in the Plato‘s Island. In 1977, Marinatos was prehistory of the ancient Athenians, when supported by James W. Mavor, the naval they had led the military forces of the engineer who designed the Alvin, the eastern Mediterranean against those of research submarine of the Woodshole Atlantika in the west. The defeat of the Oceanographic Institute. The Thera Atlantean forces was immediately followed hypothesis has enjoyed the greatest by a cataclysmic disaster, which submerged popularity to date. The theme of Plato‘s Atlantika beneath the waves for all time.48 Island had originated in Egypt. ―In comparison of what then was, there are remaining in small islands only the bones of Solon and Psonchis in Säis the wasted body … the mere skeleton of the Solon was an Athenian of royal lineage, well country being left.‖49 Psonchis also gave known for his poetry and verse. According Solon several details about Atlantika before to Plutarch,42 he flourished around 600BC. its submergence. Because of his fair-mindedness and integrity, which earned him the trust of all The civilisation of Atlantika had been the Athenian social classes, he was given established for a millennium in advance of
8 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Solon’s manuscript Atlantikos to Plato.
Solon Plato (Munich)
Plato and Krantor confirm Psonchis the story on the to Solon columns of the 600 BC temple of Neith at Säis in Egypt.
Plato and his disciple Krantor also saw the columns of the Egyptian temple on which was preserved the story of Atlantika (Proclus 76: 1-10; Plato Timaeus 23 A4).
Figure 6. The story on the temple walls 9 Malta: the Egyptian one.50 It had lain close to the description of the lost island of Atlantika. straits of Heracles in the western ocean.51 Around 387BC Plato founded his Academy, ―Atlantika was the way to other islands, and an institution devoted to the pursuit of from these you might pass to the whole of philosophy and scientific research; the most the opposite continent which surrounded the notable student in the Academy was the true ocean; for this sea which is within the philosopher Aristotle. Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real Fact or fiction sea, and the surrounding land may be most Ironically Aristotle is practically the only truly called a boundless continent‖.52 ancient author who treated the story of his tutor as fictitious. This must have been a The Atlanteans, or Atlantoi, had built purely subjective view. Another of Plato‘s impressive temples to their gods.53 They disciples, Krantor, was more objective, for built triremes in their shipyards,54 and had he visited Egypt himself and actually saw developed an intricate network of channels the story of Atlantika still engraved on the over the rocky terrain in order to transport temple walls. Proclus (410-485AD) wrote in their water and goods across the country.55 his Comments on Plato‘s Timaeus61 that the They performed bull sacrifice.56 They were first commentator on the work of Plato was successful in their military ventures, and Krantor. According to the latter, Plato had had subjected the lands of ancient Libia and not invented the story (and Plato himself Egypt, and the western Mediterranean as had insisted that the story was true62) but far as the Tyrrhenian Sea;57 their empire had copied it from the Egyptian institution. excelled that of Libia and Asia put As a proof Plato referred to the Egyptian together.58 priest who said that those items are chiselled into the columns and preserved till On his return to Athens, Solon put the the present day.63 Strabo (67 BC –23 AD) details of Psonchis‘ account to writing in the declared in his Geographia that he fully manuscript Atlantikos. This text has since agreed with Plato that the story was not been lost, but its contents reached his great fiction.64 And at the time of Ammianus grandson, Plato, a scholar, thinker and Marcellinus (330-400AD), a noble Greek of historian like himself, and one of the Antioch, the story of Plato‘s Island was still profoundest minds of the ancient world. considered in Alexandria to have been a ―Solon intended to use the story of Atlantika historical fact.65 for his poem … my great grandfather Dropidas had the original writing, which is And it may have been equally so in Athens. still in my possession, and was carefully The Parthenon was the chief temple of the studied by me when I was a child‖.59 Greek goddess Athena on the hill of the Acropolis at Athens. It was built between Plato was born in Athens in 427BC. Family 447 and 438 BC. Just under the ceiling of connections brought him into contact with the portico, a continuous, low-relief frieze Socrates, one of the world‘s greatest decorates the top of the outer wall of the thinkers, and a decisive influence on Plato. cella of the Parthenon;66 some of the friezes Socrates left no written records, and it was have been transferred to the British through Plato that most of the former‘s Museum. Although it is traditionally teachings were brought down the interpreted as a procession, David Pinnegar generations to modern times. After the has reviewed the entire frieze as one whole, death of Socrates, Plato travelled and has concluded that the Parthenon extensively. In 395BC he visited Egypt represents a ‗Council of gods‘, and was built together with Krantor, one of his disciples, to commemorate Athena and Hephaestus and together they confirmed Solon‘s account for championing the victory of the with the Egyptian priests Pateneit, Ochalpi Athenians over the Atlanteans. The frieze and Ethimon, respectively at Säis, also confirms, according to Pinnegar, that Heliopolis and Sebennytus in Northern the story of Atlantika was common Egypt. They also saw the columns on which knowledge among the Athenians of the was preserved the story of Atlantika.60 Back time, and that they accepted it as the in Athens Plato put the episode in writing truth.67 Solon had brought the story to once again in his Timaeus and Critias, both Athens in 590 BC. of which have survived, and have thus furnished mankind with a unique
10
Echoes of Plato‘s Island
Figure 7. Features on Plato’s Island Tarxien temples on Malta — they built impressive temples to their gods, and their shipyards were busy building boats (engravings on slabs at Tarxien temple).
Figure 8. The Parthenon in Athens Pinnegar believes that the frieze represents a council of the gods, and that the Parthenon was built to commemorate the victory of the ancient Athenians over the Atlanteans.
11 Malta: Socrates (469-399 BC) flourished during the In 1808, a volcano in San Jorge (Azores) building of the Parthenon, and his rose to several thousand feet. In 1811, comments to Critias in relation to Solon‘s another volcanic island, Sambrina (Azores), story was that ―this story will be admirably rose and later sank. The islands of Corvo suited to the festival of the goddess which is and Flores in Azores, mapped since 1351, now being held, because of its connection constantly changed their shape, with large with her (Athena had founded both Athens parts of Corvo having disappeared into the and Egypt68). And the fact that it is no sea. In the Fernando Noronha group of invented fable but genuine history is all- islands, volcanic activity in 1931 erupted important.‖69 Socrates did not commit two new islands, which later sank again. In himself to writing, except through his pupil, the Salvage islands, near Madeira, small Plato (427-347 BC). Since Plato was born volcanic islands appeared in 1944.71 after the Parthenon was finished, it is more than likely that Socrates informed Plato The island of Surtsey erupted through an about the Parthenon and its purpose, and undersea volcanic eruption off the that Plato subsequently went over to Egypt southwestern coast of Iceland in 1963. with Krantor to confirm the story of Solon‘s Other islands erupted near the Azores in Atlantikos on the walls of the Egyptian the 18th and 19th centuries and disappeared temples. after years or merely after a few days.72
Acceptance of Plato’s story Closer to the Maltese islands, Graham‘s Most of the other ancient authors, whether island surfaced through volcanic eruption in Greek, Roman or Christian, accepted the July 1831 between Malta, Pantelleria and existence, sublime status and eventual Sicily, and disappeared once again the submergence of Atlantika as outlined by following December. It had attained a Plato. The list of these ancient historians circumference of 3240 feet and a height of who quoted Plato‘s account as genuine is 107 above sea level, and it ―emitted vast significant, and includes, in chronological volumes of smoke, ashes and scoriae‖.73 order, Thucylides (460-400 BC), Apollodoros (2nd cent. BC), Timagenes (1st cent. BC), An opuscolo published in Malta reports the Strabo (1st cent. BC), Diodorus Siculus (1st story of Paolo Diacono,74 who, when writing cent. BC), Philo Judaeus (20 BC – 40 AD), about the period 352-366 AD, reports that Pliny (61 – 113 AD), Pomponius Mela (1st ―there was a generalised earthquake on cent. AD), Plutarch (46-120 AD), Tertullian earth, and the waters rushed out of their (160-220 AD), Arnobius Afer (3rd cent. AD), normal limits, and many islands around Marcellinus (330-395 AD), and Kosmas Sicily, and many cities and peoples were Indikopleustes (6th cent. AD). 70 inundated by the waves; and it was at this time that at Cape San Dimitri, in the island Similar cataclysms in historical of Gozo, close to Malta, several places were accounts swallowed up, so that today, when the waters are calm, one can still see several Several instances are recorded of natural houses, and the vestiges of places lying occurrences involving phenomena similar to under the water. Besides, in several those on Plato‘s island. On Santorini in the maritime sites around the Island of Malta, Aegean a volcanic eruption in 1500BC one could see deep cart ruts in the rock, destroyed thirty-two square miles of land which extended for long distances into the surface rising a thousand feet above sea sea.‖75 This account has since been level; its force was three times that on corrupted into the locally well known legend Krakatoa in 1883. of San Dimitri. Similar inundations at this
time, the late 4th century AD, also occurred In more recent times, similar events have elsewhere in the Mediterranean, as is likewise been recorded. In Jamaica, an attested by the recent discovery of earthquake in 1692 sank the greater part of Cleopatra‘s palace in Alexandria harbour.76 Port Royal into the sea. In 1775, an earthquake shook Lisbon, killing 60,000 The search for Plato’s island persons in several minutes and lowering the level of the quay and docks to six hundred More than 5,000 publications exist on feet below sea level. Plato‘s island alone. Although the most popular hypothesis favoured the island of
12
Echoes of Plato‘s Island
Fig. 9 Graham’s Island
Graham‘s Island as surveyed by Dr. John Davy, senior medical officer with the British forces in Malta (1832). In July 1831, the island surfaced through volcanic activity between Malta, Pantelleria and Sicily, and then disappeared once again beneath the surface the following December.
13 Malta: Thera (Thera-Santorini) in the Aegean, the was not fought with bronze weapons, so opinion of serious scholars is that the site that the submergence of Atlantika occurred was in the Mediterranean, with North before the Bronze Age; it took place during Africa obtaining the majority of proponents the preceding period, the Stone Age. Yet (15), followed by the Holy Land (9), both the Theran (Marinatos and Mavor) Tartessos / Southern Spain (9) and Crete or and Turkish (James) hypotheses date the Thera (9). Next in line is another battle, between Athenians and Atlanteans, Mediterranean island, including Malta (6).77 and the ensuing destruction of Atlantika, to the Bronze Age at approximately 1500BC. Initially the Atlantic Ocean seemed to be Thus this extract from Pliny excludes both the most logical place to search in, and hypotheses for Bronze Age Thera and several theories were put forward since the Tantalis. discovery of the New World, such as by Bacon in 1614, Kircher in 1655, and Furthermore, James saw the essential Donnelly in 1882. Geological evidence elements of Plato‘s story as lying in the deriving from plate tectonics has, however, association of Plato‘s Island with Egypt and disproved the possibility that the Atlantic Athens, and this posed him with the major Ocean could be the site of Plato‘s island.78 problem to his own hypothesis. Nor was he able to identify a megalithic culture which The search was then transferred to the was a thousand years earlier than that of Mediterranean, with Marinatos and Mavor Egypt.85 The only option is Malta. placing Plato‘s island in the Cretan Island of Thera. Galanopoulos and Bacon have also Malta as a remnant of Plato’s island located Plato‘s Island in the Eastern Malta has been proposed as a remnant of Mediterranean, but they too have offered no Plato‘s island since at least 1525,86 a few adequate explanation for the location of the decades after the ‗return‘ of the ancient straits of Heracles.79 texts to Europe from Constantinople. After a silent period during the time of the In dealing with the megalithic constructions Knights of St. John (1530-1798), a of Europe and the Mediterranean, Mavor resurgence occurred during the British erroneously asserts that theirs was period (1815-1964). In the nineteenth universally a funerary function, and that century, the names of Grongnet87 (1854), they were contemporary with Minoan Borzesi (1830) and Godwin (1880) were Crete, whence they derived.80 This has long associated with Plato‘s Island in Malta, and been disproved, particularly with regard to in 1910, Dr J. J. Borg re-proposed the the megalithic structures on the Maltese hypothesis on the basis of the Maltese islands.81 prehistoric flora. ―The tradition of the submerged Atlantis to which many ancient Recent geological evidence from Santorini writers refer, and which when deprived of has not confirmed the Thera-Santorini its legendary character will be found to theory.82 Furthermore, this hypothesis is apply to the submerged land between Malta presently losing favour, after analysis of and Africa ... It is the duty of local volcanic ash has shown that the island was archaeologists to try to unravel this legend destroyed at least 150 years before the and to separate the real from the unreal; collapse of the palaces on Crete, showing and I am confident that the solution of this that the Minoan eruption significantly mystery will throw much light on the preceded the decline of the Cretan significance of the prehistoric monuments in civilisation.83 Malta and other countries bordering the Mediterranean‖.88 Fifty years later, a In recent years, Peter James (1995) has captain in the Royal Navy, Eric Brockman identified Plato‘s Island with the Turkish commented thus ―upon this western edge of city of Tantalis, which was described by the islands, the megaliths of Hagar Qim Pliny as having been destroyed by an and Mnajdra, and that lonely survival of earthquake. However, James has the lost continent, the islet of Filfla … overlooked a crucial element in Pliny‘s solitary in a silver sea, remnant of a great account of Atlantika. Pliny affirmed that expanse of hill and valley which once the battle in question had been fought with stretched unbroken towards what was to be wooden sticks hardened with fire, since the Carthage, the Atlas, and the great lakes of knowledge of iron was lacking.84 The battle the Sahara‖.89
14 Echoes of Plato’s Island
The Maltese architect, Giorgio Jules Verne (1870) included Grongnet, researched for several Atlantis in his 20,000 leagues decades on Plato’s Island and under the Sea, and associated concluded (1854) that its it with Thera-Santorini in the remnants are the Maltese Eastern Mediterranean. Islands.
Ignatius Donnelly’s publication on Atlantis (1882) was well received Galanopoulos supports world wide. He hypothesized for Marinatos and Mavor in Plato’s Island in the Atlantic placing Atlantis in the Eastern Ocean. Mediterranean on Thera- Santorini.
Figure 10. The Search for Plato’s Island 15 Malta: In 1989 Attard presented his research on islands were significantly larger in their Plato‘s Island in Malta in the novel The surface area during prehistoric times. Atlantis Inheritance. The early scholars Criteria for qualification The French geologist, Knight Commander According to Plato, what remained of of the Order, Deodat de Dolomieu, whose Atlantika were a few small islands.90 The name is still associated with the Dolomite other small islands close to the Maltese are Alps, was one of the first persons to record Pantelleria and the Pelagian group. In the observation that the present surface order to substantiate the hypothesis that area of the Maltese islands is not sufficient these central Mediterranean islands to account for the extensive valley represent the remnants of Plato‘s island, a formations such as Wied il-Ghasel, Wied il- number of basic questions require to be Ghasri and Wied ix-Xlendi, amongst others. addressed. The creation of such deep and precipitous valleys would have required a very 1. Is there any evidence that the extensive land surface to hold the waters Maltese islands once constituted a which dug them out over the millennia. significantly larger landmass? From the nature of the extensive fracture 2. Are there any links in life forms lines along the southern shorelines of the between the individual central Maltese islands, Dolomieu concluded that Mediterranean islands? they must represent the remains of an 3. Is the seismo-tectonic profile of the ancient mountain. Moreover, the north- central Mediterranean islands north-east inclination of the beds indicated compatible with such a cataclysmic extensive and sudden land submergence in event as described by Plato? the south.92 Dolomieu‘s observations were 4. Has there been any evidence of validated by other scholars, such as the significant land displacements voyager Commendateur Saint-Priest93 and during the presence of man in Houel.94 Malta? 5. Does the relative chronology of The clay, which had been deposited into the Plato‘s description fit the dates for fissures and crevices over Malta‘s land the end of the Temple period in surface, was considered to be extraneous to Malta? the islands. ―Another circumstance to be 6. Are there features on the Maltese observed is, that in the hollows and vertical Islands which conform to those clefts dispersed over Malta and its sister described by Plato? isles, large quantities of a peculiar clay, both 7. Are there any secondary sources of gray and red, are often discovered. This relevant ancient texts which have substance, deposited in heaps, is evidently been ignored? no native of the isles themselves. It is a puzzle with geologists.‖95
1. A larger landmass in antiquity After his visit to Malta in 1828, the American scholar, Andrew Bigelow, was A - Early antiquity already starting to question the opinion prevailing at the time, that Plato‘s island The present surface area and configuration lay in the Atlantic. ―What is truly of the Maltese islands is by far too small to extraordinary is, that the relative position of have permitted the accumulation of the these three (Maltese) islands, the analogy of large volumes of water necessary to carve their substances, and almost uniform out the extensive valleys and deep ravines resemblance in the arrangement, dip and cutting their surface en route to the coast. inclination of their respective strata, can Furthermore the presence of similar valleys leave no doubt in reflecting minds that they beneath the present sea level along the all were once united; and in fact, that they northeastern coast of the archipelago91 are only fragments of a vast insular mass indicates a surface tilt since their the remainder of which has been carried formation. away by some mighty inundation. … the
rocks which edge the coasts are the obvious Several scholars from diverse disciplines remains of the portion which has been have clearly indicated that the Maltese destroyed.‖ 96
16 Echoes of Plato’s Island
The French geologist, Deodat de Dolomieu, Knight Commander of the Order of St. John, was the first to point out that the present surface of the Maltese Islands is not sufficient to have accumulated the waters which have dug out its massive valleys. Dolomieu also attributed the fracture lines along the southwestern shorelines to the previous presence of a much larger landmass towards the South. Furthermore, the downward inclination of the geological layers towards the Northeast (as above at Dwejra in Gozo, and below at Cirkewwa in Malta) clearly indicates an extensive and sudden land submergence towards the South.
Figure 11. Deodat de Dolomieu. 17 Malta: Bathymetry in the nineteenth century submergence of the ―post-Miocene land‖, followed by an upheaval of parts of it, and The British Navy under Admirals Smyth this as evidenced by the ―shattered and Spratt carried out surveys of the sea conditions of the strata‖ and by the Graham floor around the Maltese Islands, and these Island episode.100 bathymetric studies confirmed that relatively shallow ridges of the sea floor still ―I agree with Dr Falconer [the British connect Malta to the North African palaeontologist working in the Sicilian shoreline. These features are reminiscent of caverns] (Palaeontological Memoirs, 2: 301) the shoals described by Plato, although they that at this time ‗there must have been would have had to be much shallower then. continuity of land between Sicily and Malta, According to Smyth, an elevation of sea and Sicily and Cape Bon,‘ at all events, that level by 250 fathoms would connect the Africa, Malta, and Italy were then united.‖ islands with Sicily, Italy and Tripoli The hypothesis for an African source of through narrow strips of land or ridges, elephant and hippopotamus during the broken by two narrow channels Pleistocene is no longer acceptable to the approximately five miles broad.97 The majority of palaeontologists. recent study by Glomar Challenger of the
Mediterranean Sea floor has confirmed the However, the vast numbers of fossils findings of Admiral Smyth.98 discovered in Malta clearly indicated that
―in order to have maintained so numerous a The hypothesis of submergence and flooding fauna, there must have been a greater of the Maltese islands had also been raised lateral extension of both islands.‖101 by Captain Spratt to explain the pell-mell arrangement of the fossil mammalian Stratigraphy remains discovered in the Maltese caverns. George Sinclair, a civil engineer in the Fossil remains in Malta show the service of the British Admiralty in Malta, ―connexion of Malta with Europe and Africa corroborated these statements in 1924. He by land that must have existed to serve as a examined both the interior and the exterior highway of migration between them, but stratifications of Ghar Dalam, and which has since subsided beneath the correlated these with the depression of sea Mediterranean. These submerged lands are levels and land elevations in the really now indicated by the bank called the Mediterranean since the Palaeolithic Adventure Bank discovered by Admiral period.2 He concluded that, in between the Smyth, between Tunis and the northwest various periods of submergence of the part of Sicily. … and also by another bank Maltese islands, a land bridge was in … as a well-defined, but more deeply existence with Africa during the middle submerged, ridge, connecting the south- Palaeolithic period.102 eastern end of Malta with Tripoli, and which I have named the Medina Bank.‖99 B - Later antiquity Fossil remains Evidence also exists for a larger Maltese landmass during its occupation by humans. The major research carried out on these Some medieval maps do not speak of Malta fossil remains was by the army surgeon and but of a certain Gaulometin or Galonia leta, naturalist, Arthur Leith Adams, in the and combine Malta and Gozo into one big 1870‘s. Speaking to the inaugural assembly island.103 Malta was formally placed on the of the Maltese Archaeological Society in European map with the coming of the Order 1866, Leith Adams stressed that the of St John in 1530. present size of the Maltese islands was
―perfectly inadequate for the maintenance of the fauna just named‖ (hippopotamus and The ancient geographers elephant), and that an extension of the A southern extension of the Maltese islands southern regions of the Maltese islands in historic times is recorded in the annals of must have been present during the Claudius Ptolemy (fl. 121-151 AD), the Pleistocene.1 Leith Adams then proposed a
2 The period when stone tools were unpolished, 1 The Pleistocene period extends between approximately before 10, 000BP. (BP denotes ‗before approximately 1.6 million and 10,000 years ago. the present time‘).
18
Echoes of Plato‘s Island
Bathymetric studies of the Mediterranean sea floor were carried out by Captain Spratt in the middle of the nineteenth century (above left). Martin Morana (1987) has adapted these readings and prepared a simplified bathymetric map (above right).
The Maltese islands (transparent horizontal arrow) are shown at the top of a mountain on one side of the Pantelleria Rift (transparent vertical arrow). The Pelagian Islands (white horizontal arrow) lie on the other side of the Rift. (Photograph of the Central Mediterranean sea bed, courtesy of Marie Tharpe of the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory).
Figure 12. The Central Mediterranean Sea Floor
19 Malta: renowned ancient geographer, geographer, Marinus of Tyre, related the mathematician and astronomer of story of the Greek Diogenes who carried out Alexandria. Astronomy was not his strong such an expedition in the middle of the first point, and his ―Ptolemaic system‖, where century AD.110 Diogenes started his the earth was considered to be at the centre expedition inland from Rhapta,111 on the of the universe, was eventually proved east African coast. After a voyage of 25 days incorrect. As geographer, however, Ptolemy he reached two vast lakes of fresh water at had revolutionised geography through the the base of a snow-capped mountain chain tabulation of latitudes and longitudes in the which provided the water to the lakes maps which he produced. He had unlimited through the melting ice, and thus the access to the ancient documents in the waters of the sources of the Nile. Whatever Alexandrine library, and his research were the sources of Ptolemy‘s map, it is included the Mediterranean and the correct, in the same way that the Piri Reis Maltese islands. Although his readings map is. outside the Mediterranean were sometimes erroneous, his Mediterranean latitudes in Ptolemy gave readings of latitudes which particular were significantly accurate. Since demonstrate that the expanse of the he assigned 500 stadia104 for one degree of Maltese Islands extended significantly latitude, his errors in this parameter were southward in ancient times. He included slight.105 When studying Ovid‘s comments two co-ordinates of latitude for the Maltese on Cosyra being close to Malta, Ptolemy Islands which today fall well to the south of explained this by stating that Cosyra was the Maltese Islands; one is to the south of the ancient name for Chemmona (Comino Gozo and the other even further south of island), which was, and is, approximately Malta. Ventura explained this phenomenon three miles to the west of Malta, and that it by attributing errors to Ptolemy‘s co- could be reached in the space of fifteen ordinates. However, this is most unlikely minutes, presumably by sail rather than by with Ptolemy, who gave very accurate oar. ―Videtur Cosyra a Melita distare per results for nearby Sicily,112 and whose unum quadrantem horae, a Melita occidente geography enjoyed renown for well into the versus. Ergo ut spatium unius quadrantis fifteenth century.113 By the end of the est milliar. ita non est alia nisi quam hodie nineteenth century, Ptolemy‘s geographical vocatur Chemmona, quae est nonnisi a details were still being confirmed. Melita 3 milliar. circiter. Ideo Ovidius ait Melitam nimium vicinam Cosyrae.‖106 In the Maltese context, the Gozitan Together with other ancient geographers, historian, Agius De Soldanis, commented on Ptolemy listed the Maltese islands with the Ptolemy‘s location for Gozo ―nel grado African pelagos islands.107 trigesimo settimo, un terzo di un quarto di piu in longitudine, in latitudine nel Ptolemy‘s trustworthiness in geographical trigesimo quarto e due terzi.‖ De Soldanis matters has been shown through his map of compared this with the figures then the Nile sources in Central Africa. At considered to have been made by the ―most approximately 150 AD, Ptolemy published a accurate geographer, Regio Guglielmo‖, in map of the Nile together with its sources in order to point out the insignificance of the three lakes at the base of the ‗Mountains of differences in readings.114 the Moon‘ in Central Africa.108 The sources of the Nile were still being sought by Ptolemy‘s co-ordinates for the Maltese European explorers in the nineteenth islands have been calibrated by Ventura, century, and for a time it was believed that and in his first calibration, that for these had been sorted out by the discoveries longitude,115 all the readings fall on the of John Speke, James Grant and Samuel islands or to the south of them. In order to Baker in the 1860‘s. Ptolemy‘s map with the transfer the points falling in the sea on to Nile sources at the base of the ‗Mountains of land, Ventura then re-calibrated for the Moon‘ was scoffed at by geographers of rotation and for latitude. However, Ventura the nineteenth century, but it was arbitrarily selected one of the more recent eventually confirmed as correct in 1888 by version of Ptolemy‘s work, that by Müller the greatest African explorer of all time, the (1883), rather than the four earlier versions Welshman Henry Morton Stanley.109 The (1490, 1520, 1540 and 1574),116 which source of Ptolemy‘s information is not followed closely on the return of the ancient known with certainty, although the Syrian texts to Europe. All these earlier versions
20 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Claudius Ptolemy (fl. 121-151 AD), renowned astronomer, mathematician and geographer of Alexandria, with unlimited access to the ancient texts in the Alexandrine library.
Ptolemy’s sources produced this map of the ultimate Nile sources in the Lunae Montes (Mountains of the Moon) in Central Africa, ‘discovered’ more than sixteen centuries later.
Henry Morton Stanley traced and Original photograph of the ice-capped found the lost Dr Livingstone in Ruwenzori mountain range in Central Africa, but his main feat was the Africa, ‘discovered’ by Stanley in 1888, and elucidation of the Nile sources, and his identified with Ptolemy’s ‘Mountains of the discovery of Ptolemy’s Lunae Montes Moon’ and the sources of the White Nile. in 1888.
Figure 13. Ptolemy’s maps confirmed 21 Echoes of Plato’s Island
An early world map by Ptolemy (Ulm 1482 in Hapgood 1966 – above) shows a large unidentified island in the Central Mediterranean (arrowed). Ptolemy (1540) also depicted graphically the zone of battle between the Romans and Punics (left) and the zone of shipwrecks (below), the latter presumably associated with the shoals described by Plato. The pelagos nomenclature to the Maltese and Pelagian islands is also seen, and the town of Achola, a colony of the Maltese Islands, also appears on the North African coast (arrowed — below, left).
Ptolemy was an armchair geographer who obtained his data from the ancient library of Alexandria. These data were then
Tabula Europae VII adapted to the maps in his Geographike Hyphegesis. The apparent discrepancy between the fine details in the various Tabulae (Mundi, Aphricae and Europae) — some of the Maltese promontories are represented as islands — are attributable to the various editors of his work who modified it regularly from time to time.
Tabula Aphricae II
Figure 14. The Central Mediterranean in Ptolemy’s maps 22 Echoes of Plato’s island
Reproduced through the kind permission of Frank Ventura
Ventura has calibrated the co-ordinates which Ptolemy gave for the Maltese Islands. The diagram above (1988: 262, figure 4) represents Ventura’s results after correction for longitude, and it can be seen that all the readings fall on the islands, or to the south of them. No reading falls to the North of the archipelago.
Readings G and H fall to the south respectively of Gozo and Malta. Furthermore, point H reaches ten minutes further to the south according to at least four more ancient versions of Ptolemy than the one used by Ventura. (See text pp. 20 et seq.). Thus Ptolemy’s co-ordinates, derived from the ancient authors of Alexandria, confirm a larger expanse of the Maltese islands towards the South.
Figure 15. A wider latitude for the Maltese islands 23 Malta: had in fact given a latitude for the temple of the Maltese islands had once been Hercules117 ten minutes further to the South. significantly larger in size during the Ptolemy‘s map for the Maltese islands, as presence of man in Malta.127 shown in his Tabula Europae VII, confirms the lower latitude of Hercules‘ temple.118 Under the sub-title Indications of a greater Using the figure for latitude given by the modern extension of the Islands, Leith four earlier versions, there is no way that Adams thus commented on the cart-ruts at the temple can be placed on land, even after Marfa and Fomm ir-Rih Bay. ―They run to Ventura‘s second calibration for rotation the edge of a sea-cliff some 80 to 100 feet and latitude. high, under which detached masses are lying about, thus also showing an extensive The crucial point remains that Ptolemy disappearance of the coast since the cart- gave co-ordinates for Malta which extended ruts were formed‖.128 In the meantime, over twenty minutes of latitude (between during an earthquake in February 1861, 34º 45‘ and 34º 25‘). He was therefore ―several old fissures had been widened, and attributing a maximum latitude width for tottering cliffs on the south coast tumbled Malta alone of at least 30.82 kilometres.119 down‖.129 To this day, slices of Maltese This measurement today is approximately landscape await collapse into the sea, and 21.5 kilometres, so that it is evident that in the temple at Xrobb il-Ghagin has been lost the ancient sources researched by Ptolemy, in this manner. the Maltese islands still extended southward significantly more than today.120 Castagna‘s description of cart-ruts on Comino is interesting, because they were Ventura‘s calibrated positions for longitude not described later on by Zammit at the also demonstrate the three sites which can turn of the century. Cart-ruts are still be confirmed,121 namely the site of Calypso‘s disappearing to this day, particularly under abode in the peninsula of Mellieha newly developed areas, such as at Mistra, (Chersonesos),122 Quintinus‘s temple in Manikata, Xemxija and Mtarfa. That cart Grand harbour,123 and the temple of ruts also occurred on Comino and Filfla had Proserpine at Mtarfa.124 been registered by Emanuel Magri,130 the first excavator of the Hal Saflieni Cart ruts Hypogeum.131 Bradley quoted Magri‘s Before their gradual disappearance over the report and concluded, in 1912, that a past few decades, the cart-ruts had been landlink between the Hagar Qim-Mnajdra repeatedly, and validly, associated with an terrain and Filfla had been present during extension of Malta‘s landmass. ‖In several the presence of man.132 He also records maritime sites around the Island of Malta, their presence at the Hagar Qim area, one could see deep cart ruts in the rock, where ―the ruts run over the precipitous which extended for long distances into the edge of the cliff towards Filfola.‖ Bradley sea.‖125 ―Some serious disruptions and further confirmed that some ruts ran out subsidings have taken place on the island … into the sea, such as at St. George‘s Bay as near the coast … an extraordinary well as in Gozo.133 subsidence … must have occurred on the coast not far from the pleasure grounds of The presence of cart-ruts on Filfla confirms Boschetto … on the southern side of which its link with the mainland before the vestiges of wheels have cut into the rock, and intervening terrain submerged. These ruts may be traced to the sea … and the ruts may have since been definitely wiped out be perceived under the water at a great through relentless bombardment over the distance, and to a great depth; indeed, as far past two centuries.134 The Malta Times of as the eye can possibly distinguish any thing October 7th 1898 reported that ―this lonely through the waves. This circumstance gives and isolated rock has presented quite an every reason to suppose that the ground animated appearance during the week on must have sunk very considerably in this the occasion of the erection of a target for spot.‖126 canon-tube practice by the ships of the Fleet. The work has been most successfully carried Dr. Davy observed cart-ruts between Marfa out by HMS Scylla, Captain P.M. Scott, and Wied il-Qammieh in northwest Malta, whose ―Robinson Crusoe‖ parties have done and from their interrupted nature at the wonders in the somewhat novel character of edge of the cliffs, inevitably concluded that architects and builders.‖
24 Echoes of Plato’s Island
The network of cart ruts south of Verdala Palace, from Zammit’s Malta 1952 (3rd ed.) Most of these features have now disappeared.
Aerial photograph published by Zammit in 1928 showing the network of cart-ruts as “the canals spreading straight and lengthwise across the plain” and the “transverse passages from one canal into another.” (Plato Critias 11D, E).
Figure 16. The extensive networks of cart-ruts. 25 Malta: Cart-ruts, in much smaller concentrations, opposite North African coast.140 Callitris have been reported elsewhere, to the north and Hypericum are not eaten by birds, and of Malta in the Mediterranean at their seeds are not disseminated by the air- Marseilles, near Aosta in Italy, at borne route.141 Agrigento, Syracuse and Trogilos Bay in Sicily; they have also been reported on the The fossil herpetofauna of the Maltese southern shores of the Mediterranean.135 islands have also been the subject of research vis-à-vis land-bridge connections of Biogeographic Index the Maltese islands to the mainland.142 This index measures the likelihood of an Pasa had already suggested in 1953 that island being colonised, in relation to its size the Maltese islands were linked to Sicily, and distance from the mainland. North Africa and the Eastern Notwithstanding their very low Mediterranean during the Pleistocene.143 biogeographic index, a category C, and The frog Discoglossus pictus has a western despite their being the most remote islands Mediterranean distribution including in the Mediterranean, both Pantelleria and Northwest Africa, Malta and Sicily. The Lampedusa were occupied by humans by locally extinct toads, Bufo bufo and Bufo the 6th millennium BC, and were exploited viridis, were discovered in Maltese well in advance of several category A Pleistocene horizons, and their distribution islands.136 Pantelleria provided the obsidian includes North and Northwest Africa and for the earliest Neolithic Maltese, and Europe. The locally extinct tortoise, Testudo Stentinello pottery was found at graeca, has a similar distribution.144 Lampedusa. This colonisation of Lampedusa and Pantelleria occurred at a According to Kotsakis, the ctenodactylid time when maritime technology and Pellegrina panormensis may be taken as a navigational knowledge were still too significant indication of an ancient link primitive to have permitted it.137 with Africa during the Pleistocene. Both Pellegrinia and Maltamys have been The Maltese islands, Pantelleria and the interpreted as of African origin.145 Pelagian islands possess the lowest biogeographic indices in the Mediterranean, An extremely rare land snail which is 0.03 to 0.1, and their early colonisation can endemic to Filfla is the Lampedusa only make sense if they were much larger in gattoi.146 There are also several more size; ideally if they were one land mass. As Maltese endemic life forms with close if to confirm this theme, Patton includes relatives on the Pelagian islands, especially both Lampedusa and Pantelleria with the insects,147 but a particularly useful marker Maltese Islands.138 is the wall lizard.
Podarcis 2. Floral, faunal and anthropological links with the The wall lizard Podarcis is a very Pelagian islands and North Africa satisfactory biogeographical marker during during the prehistoric period the Holocene (~10,000 years ago) because of On the Maltese islands, a large variety of its pattern of evolution over this period of life forms, whether these are plant, animal time. After the isolation of the central or human, manifest significant similarities Mediterranean islands at the start of the with life forms on other areas on the Holocene, the Siculo-Maltese lizard (Lacerta Pelagian block — Pantelleria, the Pelagian siculomelitensis) ‗differentiated‘ into a islands and the North African coast. different genus with several species. Podarcis filfolensis is found only in the The present floral assemblage of the Maltese and Pelagian islands (Linosa and Maltese islands is similar to that of Lampione; there are no Podarcis on Lampedusa.139 Jasonia glutinosa, Lampedusa). Conversely, Podarcis Sicula is Hypericum aegypticum, Crucianella found in Sicily and Pantelleria, but not in rupestris and Filago gussonei are plants Malta and the Pelagian islands. Podarcis peculiar to Lampedusa, Pantelleria and tiliguerta is found only in Sardinia and Malta. Callitris quadrivalvis, Corsica. The distribution trend of these Enarthrocarpus pterocarpus, and Melitella different species of wall lizard manifests an pusilla are peculiar to Malta and the individual species limitation to
26 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Podarcis filfolensis is limited in distribution to the area within the dotted line
Viridis Tiliguerta Filfolensis Sicula Wagleriana Italy Italy Sicily Sicily Sicily Pantelleria Sardinia Sardinia Corsica Corsica Maltese Is. Pelagic Is. Table 1. Podarcis distribution profile
Photograph by C. Savona Ventura
The wall lizard Podarcis is a very satisfactory biogeographical marker during the Holocene (~10,000 years ago) because of its pattern of evolution over this period of time. After the isolation of the central Mediterranean islands at the start of the Holocene, the Siculo-Maltese lizard (Lacerta siculomelitensis) ‘differentiated’ into a different genus with several species. Podarcis filfolensis is found only in the Maltese and Pelagian islands. Conversely, Podarcis Sicula is found in Sicily and Pantelleria, but not in Malta and the Pelagian islands. Podarcis tiliguerta is found only in Sardinia and Corsica. The wall lizard is not a regular item of diet, and not one to be transported across the sea for breeding purposes. Neither has involuntary transfer across the sea seem to have had any part to play, for, although Maltese trade with Sicily, Lipari, Pantelleria and Lampedusa was extensively carried out during the Neolithic, this has not resulted in the introduction of P. filfolensis in any of these last-mentioned islands; nor have any of the Sicilian, Pantellerian and Aeolian species been introduced to Malta during these same trading activities.
The Maltese and Pelagian Islands are clearly too separated from each other at the present time to reconcile the exclusive presence of filfolensis on their territory alone. The biogeographical profile of the wall lizard Podarcis indicates that the territory presently occupied by filfolensis was one landmass during the Holocene, and separate from Pantelleria through its rift valley, already existent during the late Miocene. With the gradual extension of the rift into the two parallel limbs pointing Southeast, the filfolensis territory fragmented into the various insular masses which have persisted to this day, and in which several insular sub-species have evolved.
Figure 17. The Maltese wall lizard, Podarcis filfolensis. 27 Malta: neighbouring islands; the Maltese and In 1839 a negroid skull was excavated, Pelagian Islands are clearly too separated together with some bones of a quaduped, from each other at the present time. The from the debris of chamber 12 of Hagar wall lizard is not a regular item of diet, and Qim.149 The nineteenth century not one to be transported across the sea for anthropologist Charles Pickering assumed breeding purposes. Neither has involuntary it had belonged to a Negro slave. The skull transfer across the sea seem to have had was that of a male of approximately 30 to any part to play, for, although Maltese 40 years of age; its curious feature was the trade with Sicily, Lipari, Pantelleria and particularly acute angle of the face, which Lampedusa was extensively carried out measured 61º.150 Hagar Qim lies on the during the Neolithic, this has not resulted south coast of Malta, on the Maghlaq Fault, in the introduction of P. filfolensis in any of along the fracture ridge separating Malta these last-mentioned islands; nor have any from Filfla and North Africa. of the Sicilian, Pantellerian and Aeolian species been introduced to Malta during Cultural links with the countries dominated these same trading activities. by Plato‘s island
Figure 17 shows the distribution of the Situated right in the centre of the various species and insular sub-species of Mediterranean, Plato‘s island would have Podarcis, an indication of its evolution in been in the ideal position to exert its sphere relation to the gradual isolation of the of influence and control over Libia and individual islands during the Holocene. The Egypt in the south, and the Tyrrhenian distribution of the insular sub-species of P. regions in the north; the Maltese and filfolensis is independent of latitude, insular Pelagian islands are at the focal point of size and distance from nearest landmass, these three last-mentioned regions. and the territorial limits of individual landmasses seem to be the sole determinant In antiquity, the North African coast was of the presence of the particular sub-species particularly desirable for strategic and of filfolensis; the islet of St. Paul and the political purposes. It was the home or major General‘s Rock are a mere few metres from colony of the major civilisations of the the mainland, respectively Malta and Gozo, time—from the fourth millennium BC with and yet they harbour a sub-species which is ancient Egypt, right up to the first and different from that on the mainland. beyond, with Greek Alexandria, Cretan Cyrene, Roman Leptis Magna and The biogeographical profile of the wall Sabratha, and Phoenician Carthage. If the lizard Podarcis thus indicates that the central Mediterranean islands formed part territory presently occupied by filfolensis of Plato‘s Island, the nucleus of the earliest was one landmass during the Holocene, and civilisation of all, a strong link with the separate from Pantelleria through its rift North African coastline to its south was a valley, already existent during the late sine qua non. In fact, the forces of Plato‘s Miocene. With the gradual extension of the Island had dominated the North African rift into the two parallel limbs pointing coast of Libia and Egypt. The circumstance Southeast, the filfolensis territory that Plato‘s Island was cut off from Libia fragmented into the various insular masses can be elicited from Plato‘s declaration that which have persisted to this day, and in the Atlantean forces had landed on its which several insular sub-species have northern coast in an act of aggression on evolved. Libia itself, Egypt and other forces from the East. Anthropological links Links with ancient Tyrrhenia Man came ―out of Africa,‖ and so did ―mitochondrial Eve.‖ Links of the Maltese The major cultural link with the prehistoric folk with the southern continent Tyrrhenian during the Neolithic lies in the have been made by at least two anatomists diffuse trade in obsidian with the island of who researched Maltese anthropology, Lipari during the late Neolithic.151 namely Arthur Keith and J. Leslie Pace.148 Links with ancient Egypt152 Like the ancient Egyptians, Malta‘s Neolithic population bore dolichocephalic, The multiplicity of prehistoric artefacts in or long-headed, skulls. Malta from the Egyptian world is severely diminished in significance owing to the
28 Echoes of Plato’s Island
The four Egyptian stelae of the prehistoric period were discovered in 1829 during the excavations at Villa Bichi. Created out of Maltese limestone, the stelae confirm the Egyptian link well before the advent of Phoenicians in the Maltese islands.
Standing priest with the figures of Horus and Meat, the goddess of Truth, one on each side of the moon disc. Standing 1 foot 2 inches in height, this group was carved in local Maltese stone, and was discovered in Gozo in 1713.
An inscription in clear hieroglyphics is engraved on the front and sides of the pedestal. When examined by a Dr. Lepsius in 1842, it was pronounced as a sepulchral monument — although hieroglyphics had already been deciphered by Champollion in 1822, Lepsius was unable to interpret the hieroglyphic inscription on the triad. Subsequent decipherment has declared it to be an invocation to Amen-Ra-Seqer and Meat of Thebes, and a prayer to Ra-Hamarkis and Meat, the lady of the Skies. It is dated to the second millennium BC, and is documented in Caruana (1882: 32-33) and in Zammit’s Guide to the Valletta Museum (1931, plate facing p. 32).
Figure 19. Links with ancient Egypt 29 Malta: frequent loss of context. However, described the four stelae and dated three of Zammit153 and Ward-Perkins154 have them to the 12th dynasty (1991-1786 BC) provided significant evidence in this regard. and the fourth (BM 287) to the 18th dynasty By way of small artefacts, a faience bead (1567-1320BC). Testa validly remarks that from Bronze Age Tarxien has originated the inclusion of females among the from Egypt.155 Of a more substantial tombstone names confirm that the cemetery nature, Caruana156 and Zammit157 recorded was no mere makeshift arrangement, but the Gozo find in the 18th century of an represented a true colony of Egyptians from Egyptian triad in local Maltese stone; this is the Middle Kingdom.164 In 1928, the dated to the second millennium BC. It renowned Oriental archaeologist, Margaret represents a standing priest with the Murray, confirmed that there had been a figures of Horus and Meat on either side of considerable amount of foreign intercourse the moon disc. An inscription in between Malta and Egypt during the hieroglyphics invokes Amen-Ra-Seqer and Middle Kingdom, and that the presence of Meat of Thebes with a prayer to Ra- Egyptian civilisation in Malta preceded that Hamarkis and Meat the Lady of the Skies. of Crete. ―In the Mediterranean area little or no research has been made as to trade with Yet another notable piece of evidence is the Egypt outside Crete and the Aegean. Yet group of Egyptian burial stones discovered there are traces of the connexions in the at Bighi, and these clearly indicate an XIIth dynasty with Malta and even further Egyptian presence in Bronze Age Malta, at west‖.165 Even before Murray, the German the time that the Tarxien cemetery phase in scholar Albert Mayr had already observed Malta was drawing to a close.158 the effects of Egyptian culture prevailing both in Malta and in Pantelleria before that ―On the point opposite the Knights‘ Hospital of the Phoenicians,166 whereas Zammit had in Valletta, in the very place where shown an oriental link also existing with Napoleon boastfully said he would build his Chaldea in Babylon.167 palace when Europe, Asia and Africa were all subjugated to his Empire, is the very Megalithic structures similar to the Maltese spacious and beautiful Naval Hospital temples have recently (2nd April 1998) been erected in 1830,159 in digging the discovered at Nabta in Egypt, and these too foundations of which, Captain [afterward antedate the European structures, as well Sir Harry] Smith R.G. discovered the as the Egyptian pyramids themselves. Egyptian inscriptions now in the British They have been dated to 4,800 BP Museum.‖160 They were presented to the (calibrated ~ 3,700 BC), which is analogous British Museum in 1836 by J. B. Collings, to the earliest Maltese temples. At Nabta, the Clerk of Works in charge of works at the this ―ceremonial complex … has alignments Bighi Hospital.161 The stelae were created to cardinal and solstitial directions‖ and out of Maltese limestone,162 the same represented ―a very early expression of material used for the Egyptian triad found ideology and astronomy.‖168 The Maltese in Gozo. temples also bear an orientation towards the celestial bodies, and Mnajdra temple in The Egyptianizing movement in the ancient particular has been shown to be aligned to world is considered by Günther Hölbl as the summer solstice. The latter temple had starting in the Iron Age through the been dated by radiocarbon to 3600-3150 BC, Phoenicians. The Egyptian stelae and by Micallef, using de Sitter‘s formula, discovered at Bighi disprove this to 3710BC, which dates are close enough to hypothesis, and understandably Hölbl has the Nabta complex.169 Other megalithic discarded these stelae as recent monuments have been described nearer to introductions to Malta, but he has not the Mediterranean, in North Africa and in supported this hypothesis with any Algeria.170 evidence or valid argument.163 Links with ancient Libia
The four stelae are of Maltese sandstone, Albert Mayr was the first scholar to point and were found in December 1829, when out that the Maltese temples were sinking for the foundations of Bighi Naval prehistoric rather than Phoenician. Mayr Hospital. They are still to be found in the strongly believed that the prehistoric Egyptian Gallery of the British Museum, monuments in the western Mediterranean BM 233, 299, 287 and 218. Murray (1928) islands, with the exception of Corsica and
30 Echoes of Plato’s Island
The North African coast was the home or colony of the major civilizations in antiquity — Memphis, Alexandria, Leptis Magna, Cyrene, and Sabratha (above).
Negroid skull discovered in one of the rooms Xewkija temple sherd — at Hagar Qim temple, Qrendi. impressed ware was found all along the Mediterranean, and probably derived from North Africa. Figure 19. Links with ancient North Africa 31 Malta: Sicily, were introduced there from Libia. The two British directors of the Malta The absence of such monuments in Sicily Archaeological Survey (1951) associated the indicated that the Maltese prehistoric Maltese Neolithic civilisation with the population had derived from North Africa North African. The impressed ware is and that of Sicily from the north.171 ―associated with early communities of stone- using agriculturalists, from many places in Megalithic structures and true dolmens are the Mediterranean area: it was found at absent in Sicily but present in North Stentinello in Sicily, and reaches as far west Africa.172 Moreover, the absence of a copper as the south of France, the Spanish Levant, age in Malta contrasts with the situation in and the north African coast in Tangier. The mainland Sicily, and further diminishes the style might in fact be African in origin.‖181 links therewith during the megalithic culture period. 3. Tectono-seismic profile Sixty-seven million years ago Africa started Ward Perkins visited the archaeological on its collision course with Europe. The sites in North Africa in the 1940s. ―The impact occurred at three main sites. most striking remains of the Maltese Utilising the nomenclature of today, Neolithic culture are, without question, the Morocco hit Gibraltar on the west, and megalithic temples … Archaeologists have Arabia hit Turkey on the east. The third, not ceased to scour the Mediterranean from and central, point of impact occurred the Levant to Spain in search of the culture between the Pelagian block and Italy. from which Malta drew its inspiration … their choice has fallen upon the The Pelagian block represents the northern neighbouring shores of northern Africa, and central portion of the African plate, and about whose contemporary culture it included the Tunisio-Sicilian landbridge, practically nothing is known.‖173 the Maltese and Pelagian islands, and the southeastern block of Sicily, the Hyblean Horatio Vella quotes Herodotus (IV) for the plateau. ―first literary evidence of the fertility notions among the Libians in ancient North Africa.‖ This central collision front between Africa In prehistoric times, Malta shared with and Europe created major changes in North Africa, and the rest of the geological structure. A circle of mountain Mediterranean, ―in the veneration of a ranges absorbed some of the stress forces as fertility goddess … a main female deity and it was raised throughout North Africa and her subordinate consort.‖174 southern Europe. The significant alterations in the earth‘s crust occurred in In ancient prehistoric times, Malta‘s ruler the central Mediterranean region. The was known as Battus,175 which is the Pelagian block underwent fragmentation of ancient Libian, and also Theran, its crust at several sites, as an effect of the nomenclature for the title of a king in shearing forces acting along Africa‘s Libia;176 the Therans in Libia had their own continuing movement into Europe. Faults, king Battus.177 Malta‘s Battus greeted grabens and rifts3 made their appearance Queen Dido en route to establish Carthage. throughout the region, and these have Even before the arrival of the first occasioned ―extensive tectonic and volcanic Phoenicians there, Malta was large enough activity‖ throughout the central to have its own colonies, such as at Acholla, Mediterranean region up to the present on the North African coast of Tunisia.178 It time. This rift faulting in the Pelagian block was Acholla that Emanuel Magri visited is one of the ―most spectacular phenomena with a view to excavation in March of 1907, in the world‖.182 when he suddenly passed away with the loss of all his archaeological notes.179 The central area for studying the
The Stentinello ceramic ware has been discovered all over the Mediterranean, 3 A fault is a fracture in the earth‘s crust, along which including North Africa. Emanuel Magri the bordering land segments move in relation to one identified this incised pottery with that another. When a land segment collapses between its attributed to the ancient Libians.180 neighbours, it becomes a graben, whilst the higher land segments are known as horsts. A rift is crudely a massive graben.
32 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Tectonic framework of the Pelagian shelf — grabens of late Miocene to recent activity, collision fronts, plate movements and escarpments.
The mountain chains which have formed in the Mediterranean region as a result of the plate movements between Africa and Eurasia.
(Diagram adapted from Ventura and Galea, reproduced with permission)
Areas of recent volcanic activity close to the Maltese Islands, in black. The maritime zones are arrowed in white. The black arrows denotes the site of Graham’s Island (1), Pantelleria and Linosa.
(Diagram adapted from Ventura and Galea, reproduced with permission)
Figure 20. Tectono-seismic profiles of the Central Mediterranean 33 Malta: development of faults and foreland Pantelleria rift.190 reactions on the Pelagian block is Malta. Along the Afro-Eurasian plate boundary, The Maltese islands and Lampedusa bear ―convergent and lateral motions have very close similarities from the generated different and superimposed stress sedimentological and tectonic parameters. regimes in the sedimentary cover, which They both lie on the carbonate platform of governed the fracture pattern and fault the Pelagian shelf, and their geological processes.‖183 horizons have been built up in the same manner.191 ―Associated mantle updoming and crustal thinning lead to graben development and The tectonic episodes of the Maltese Islands widespread volcanism,‖ whilst fault are closely paralleled with the patterns are constantly being reactivated.184 contemporaneous tectonic events on Lampedusa. ―The physiographic orientation of the long axes of the Linosa and Malta Tilting basins reflect the orientation of the The Mediterranean is the world‘s second controlling master faults. Significantly, the most active region for earthquake and orientation of these is virtually concurrent volcanic activity. Malta is 200 kilometres with the orientation of the N 120º trending southwest of the collision front between the normal faults on the eastern side of the African and Eurasian continental plates. In Hyblean Plateau (SE Sicily), with the N Malta two dominant fault trends are 120º trending normal faults of the Maghlaq developed. The first generation NE-SW fault system (south Malta) and with the N trend is no longer active. The second 120º trending fracture set of Lampedusa.‖ generation fault system is represented by 192 the Pantelleria rift system, which is causing a tilt in the Maltese islands and Field data from the graben shoulders of the Lampedusa; it is still active at the present Pantelleria rift, namely Malta to the time, and is represented on its outermost Northeast, and Lampedusa on the boundary by the Maghlaq fault185 system in Southwest, have delineated the direction of Malta, ―the outermost master fault of the maximal horizontal compressive forces Pantelleria Rift system.‖186 The wedge-like acting on the rift, (from the Southeast), and tilt of the Maltese islands is considered to the sense of spreading of the rift, (in two be caused by earthquake and other volcanic opposite directions, Northeast and activity in the area. Malta is considered as Southwest).193 Deep sea dredging of the a Zone One in terms of earthquake risk.187 Pantelleria rift bottom has confirmed the start of rifting during the late Miocene, and The upwarped shoulders of the Pantelleria the direction of the maximal compressive rift bear the Pelagian islands of Lampedusa forces, from the Southeast, indicates the and Lampione on the western shoulder and initiation of crust breakdown at the the Maltese islands on the eastern one. The Pantelleria end of the rift, on the Afro- still active shoulder upwarping on both Eurasian boundary, which is also here the sides of the Pantelleria rift causes the site of maximal tension. Continuing tilting. As the island of Lampedusa tectonic activity since the late Miocene has continues to tilt southerly, the Maltese been responsible for opening out the rift, as Islands tilt in a complementary manner shown by the sense of spreading arrows in towards the Northeast.188 figure 21. Finetti and Morelli have confirmed, through digital seismic profiling This process of tilting has proceeded beyond techniques, the ―considerably extensional 8000 BC towards the present time.189 That character‖ of the Pantelleria rift.194 these tectonic forces have persisted up to the present time can also be confirmed These tectonic movements in the central through the pattern of volcanic activity on Mediterranean are still responsible for the Linosa. This quaternary volcanic island continuing separation of the two shoulders exhibits features which are paralleled by of the rift, respectively bearing the Maltese the Lampedusa trend. The island of Linosa islands on the Northeast, and the Pelagian is a rift-type emergent volcano lying on the group on the Southwest shoulder. It is far southwestern margin of the Linosa basin, from inconceivable that the landmass joined and, like Pantelleria, is associated with the to the Southwest coast of Malta, at the
34 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Design — Tabitha Mifsud
COMPRESSION FORCES, PLATE TECTONICS AND RIFTING IN THE PELAGIAN BLOCK.
As the African plate moves into Eurasia, the direction of maximal horizontal compression is represented by arrow (A). (B1) and (B2) indicate the sense of spreading away from the maximal compression zone (C). The point of maximal tension occurs at (T) near Pantelleria, causing volcanism on Pantelleria and rifting since the late Miocene. Pantelleria and Linosa are rift-related composite volcanoes, and (V) represent the various zones of recent volcanic activity in the area. The rifting process which started at Pantelleria has fractured the sea bed along R1 to R2 to E2, and R1 to R3 to E3, and it is still active at the present time. It has reached points (F) on the Maltese islands, at the Maghlaq region in Malta (since 8000BC), and at Wied il-Bassasa in Gozo (since 5000BC). A cataclysmic event on the Maltese islands since 5000BC is confirmed by the geological processes involved. (From Illies 1981: 156, 157, fig. 4; Bruno 1982: 53, fig. 6; Reuther 1984: 1, 13, fig. 11; Grasso et al. 1985: 15, fig. 8; Ventura & Galea 1993: 20, fig. 5). The stippled region represents the exclusive distribution of the wall lizard, Podarcis filfolensis.
Submersion Submersion
Pelagian Islands Maltese Islands
Loss of central terrain
The two limbs of the Design — Tabitha Mifsud Pantelleria Rift
Figure 21. The Pantelleria Rift and Tilting 35 Malta: Maghlaq site, would have collapsed and of the third millennium BC. A similar submerged at a point in time when its hiatus in the archaeological record is also underlying structures gave way to the observable in the Maltese context. rifting process. Such a collapse would have occasioned the displacement of massive Torrential flooding events volumes of sea water on the southwestern coastline, with a rapidly following torrential Major flooding events have occurred in the flooding event along a SW to NE direction. Maltese islands, both in prehistoric and in ancient historic times. The former are 4. Catastrophic events on Malta characterised by alluvial (water-borne) deposits of extinct animals, such as The Flood in ancient cultures hippopotamus, elephant and red deer, The biblical archaeologists date the whereas the latter are represented by catastrophic Diluvium to around 2500BC,195 isolated victims in the minor episodes, and corresponding to the end of the Tarxien with alluvial events of a more significant period. In fact the ten-foot deep flood nature in the major ones. horizon at Ur in Mesopotamia conveniently Torrential flooding events are characteristic separates the Neolithic from the Bronze of the Maltese islands. They have been Age periods. The sacred texts of Jews, responsible in early antiquity for the Christians and Muslims recount the same deposits of extinct animals in the lower episode of the catastrophic Flood worldwide; layers of Ghar Dalam, in the Southeast of the ancient Greeks suffered such a major Malta. This is one of the major areas along flood which destroyed all their records.196 the Maltese coastline where the massive The ancient cuneiform tablets of Nineveh volumes of water would have ended their recount the epic of Gilgamesh, which is journey towards the sea. Such torrential identical to the story of Noah and the Flood. flows, which also produced the deep gorges Variations of the event are to be found in and valleys throughout the Maltese islands, practically all ancient cultures, and the would have required a much larger surface story has been handed down to several of area of the Maltese islands towards the today‘s nations—the Americas, Australia, south. India, Tibet, Kashmir, Polynesia and Lithuania. The earliest recorded flooding episode in Malta has been dated to approximately Climatic conditions worldwide were 120,000 years before the present time — significantly perturbed owing to the mini this has produced the Hippopotamus layer Ice Age prevailing during this same period in Ghar Dalam. Massive numbers of dwarf of time, and the third millennium BC saw a elephant and hippopotamus were carried general decline in the growth and away by the flood waters and the small efflorescence of societies in the Aegean, percentage which did not end up in the sea Egypt, the Indus valley and western Asia. were deposited in sites such as Ghar In Egypt, the Old Kingdom, during which Dalam. Several other episodes followed the pyramids were built, gave way to the during the later periods of the same ‗Ice turmoil of the First Intermediate Period. In Age‘, and were responsible for carrying Palestine, Early Bronze Age towns were away the carnivores of the period, such as abandoned. In Mesopotamia, the Akkadian wolf and fox, and the red deer. Two human Empire collapsed around 2,200 BC. Cretan taurodont molar teeth were included with and Greek civilisations collapsed in 2,200 the remains of red deer. Once again these BC, whereas the great cities in the Indus remains of extinct Maltese mammals were Valley collapsed between 2,200 and eventually deposited in successive layers at 2,100BC. The collapse of these societies Ghar Dalam.198 Moreover the flooding often left an archaeological hiatus of about episode during the carnivore episode was three centuries. 197 associated with significant evidence of Although the Maltese radiocarbon burning — ash was a significant feature of chronology has not pinpointed the exact pollen analysis of this layer.199 Fire and date of passage from the Tarxien to the water were responsible for this cataclysm, Early Bronze Age, the dates do indicate and the evidence thus points to volcanic that this transition occurred approximately activity on the Maltese islands at this at the same time, certainly in the later half period of time. Ash can be dated, and would
36 Echoes of Plato’s Island
The story of the universal flood is widespread in the ancient history of several cultures. Cuneiform text was deciphered 150 years ago, and the clay tablet above records the epic of Gilgamesh, which includes the equivalent of Noah’s flood as documented in Babylon. It confirms the story of the flood in Genesis, basically one of the ancient texts in terms of recorded history.
The photograph of the pair of articulated skeletons (left) discovered at the Brochtorff Circle can be seen at the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. A similar photograph has been published by Stoddart in Mifsud & Savona Ventura (1999: 185).
It has been included here because it manifests the rare phenomenon of ‘cadaveric spasm’, an instantaneous form of rigor mortis which develops at the time of death, but which does not progress to post-mortem flaccidity. It is confined to those deaths which “occur in the midst of intense physical and/or emotional activity” such as drowning. This phenomenon usually affects only one group of muscles, such as the flexors of an arm, as in this case, rather than the whole body (Knight 1991: 57).
The two skeletons, one above the other, do lie in an unusual burial position, and they lie in a calcareous matrix which has infiltrated their interiors, a reflection of the wet conditions in which they must have lain, temporarily at least. A significant amount of the recent excavations at Brochtorff were in fact in a matrix of what they termed a ‘bone soup’.
Figure 22. Flooding events in the Maltese Islands 37 Malta: provide the precise date between the middle Saflieni Hypogeum was constituted and late Palaeolithic when the event essentially of red earth from the occurred. Volcanic activity has also been surrounding fields. In this red earth recorded in the Maltese islands in more deposit, which averaged a metre in height, recent times.200 a homogenous motley of human remains and Neolithic pottery were to be found. In Human victims of flooding events in the certain parts recent material covered the Late Neolithic201 red earth deposit, and this was mainly the At least two sites on the Maltese islands work of the builders who were developing have retained the evidence of major alluvial the area. events during the Neolithic period. They were cut into the living rock by the Zammit differentiated clearly between the Neolithic Maltese. Their relatively high material and deposit horizons. ―In the upper altitude above sea level in comparison with stories, modern material was found, mostly Ghar Dalam reflects the intensity of the thrown in quite recent times; some of the flooding events which caused the deposits material, however, was undoubtedly over a inside them. The two sites are the hypogea century old as not far from the original at Hal Saflieni and at Santa Lucia, both of entrance a coin of Grand Master Pinto was which overlie the Tal-Horr valley, found very near the surface. The modern unfortunately now covered over by the material was easily recognized and of no Addolorata Cemetery. interest whatever.
First hand evidence on the Hypogeum at ―Under this, a dark compact deposit was Hal Saflieni is available from the found which showed nowhere signs of excavation reports by Caruana, Zammit and having been disturbed. In this old deposit Bradley. It is evident from the contents of no stratification was observed and in caves these reports that the human remains in which were cleared inch by inch, the deposit the underground labyrinth were was always of the same type and contained transported there by water action; their objects of the same quality. The deposit of matrix of red earth derived from the fields the large caves, about a metre in depth, was surrounding the monument. In the same made of red earth one finds in our fields and manner that the deposits of extinct fauna in this, bones and potsherds were intimately were laid down in the lower layers of Ghar mixed. This deposit was wanting in the Dalam, the human remains deposited in the series of caves which were elaborately cut Hypogeum had been carried down into the and finished, and in the small caves in the monument from the surface, particularly lower storey.‖ The bones and skulls lay from the ―intramural sepulchres‖ (rock-cut mixed up together in the deposit, with no tombs) described by Caruana. anatomical disposition, and ―the human bones [were] found disjointed and Before the formal excavations by Emanuel confusedly massed‖. There was only one Magri were initiated in 1903, the local possibly ritual burial, without the furniture British authorities asked Dr. A. A. Caruana to be expected in such a grandiose building. to visit the Hypogeum and report thereon. Caruana inspected the lower two stories of ―The contents of the deposit point rather to a the labyrinth on the 29th of December 1902, burial place in which the bodies were laid or and he submitted his report a week later. heaped mostly as skeletons. Very few bodies There were hardly any human remains in were found lying in a natural position and the second storey, whereas in the third ―a no special arrangements such as trenches, great quantity of human skulls and bones sepulchres, stone enclosures etc. were met were found heaped over each other and at with, anywhere, intended to receive a body.‖ random, like the heaps of dead bodies in the In Cave C 28: ―not a single one [skeleton] lower deposits of the former intramural was found lying with bones in position.‖ ―At sepulchres.‖202 This haphazard distribution least 120 skeletons were buried in a space of of the human remains is confirmed by the 3.17 by 1.2 by 1m. This is enough to show reports of Zammit and Bradley. that a regular interment was out of the question as not more than 12 bodies could be In 1910, Dr T. Zammit submitted his report laid in such a limited space‖.203 on the Hypogeum excavations since 1907. The deposit outside and inside the Hal
38 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Design – Tabitha Mifsud
Schematic diagram of the intramural sepulchres (rock cut tombs) and the distribution of the ancient red earth deposit throughout the Hypogea at Hal Saflieni and Sta. Lucia “as if the mass had been dumped inside the monument from the surface” — from the first-hand descriptions of A. A. Caruana, Temi Zammit and W. A. Griffiths (see text on pages 38 et seq.).
One of the chambers of the Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni with the accumulated remains practically filling up the cavern unit. A number of sieves are visible on top of the remains, and a human skull lies in the foreground towards the left. Of all the human remains in the entire labyrinth, there was only one possibly ritual burial. Compare this pattern with that which prevailed at Burmeghez, where all the bodies were aligned along the main axis of the cavern, and were all protected by a dolmenic arrangement above their upper extremities.
Figure 23. Alluvial nature of human remains in the Hypogea. 39 Malta: Assisting Zammit in the excavation was a operating in both monuments in the young B. A. graduate, R. N. Bradley. His creation of the deposit in question.206 conclusions were similar to Zammit‘s, namely that the human remains at Hal Recent radiocarbon dates by Mifsud207 have Saflieni were not primary burials. ―Under shown that during the ‗Hypogeum period‘ of the guidance of Professor Zammit I the Tarxien phase, ritual burials were still excavated at Hal Saflieni, between the 17th being carried out in caverns like Burmeghez of September 1910 and the 23rd February in Malta and the Brochtorff pit in Gozo. 1911, working at room C29 and its entrance Whereas the human remains at the Hal towards C28. No complete skeletons came to Saflieni Hypogeum clearly reflect an light, and the bones lay in confusion alluvial event in their deposition, at through the soil as in the rest of the Burmeghez a dolmenic arrangement had Hypogeum, except that occasionally an arm been set up to protect each of the 39 with fingers, and complete foot, and several complete skeletons interred inside the vertebrae would be found lying with the cavern, and aligned along its main axis. parts in situ. From the upright position of an isolated radius it might be judged that Flooding events in Malta have also been a the filling up of the cave was of a wholesale feature during historic times. A human nature, rather than that individual burials body was discovered at Fleur de Lys in took place in it … unrelated bones and also 1968, whilst excavation works on a well at implements were found in the interior of St. Monica School were under way. The skulls. The finding of six vertebrae in body had been relatively well preserved in a position, five of them without spinous bed of clay, and lay at a depth of 20 feet processes, suggests a case of re-burial, and it below the surface. The hair was still is an open question how far most of the preserved, and during the salvage operation interments may not have been of this carried out by George Zammit Maempel, character. Animals bones were found the entire human remains were removed mingled with human.‖204 and retained by the proprietors of the school.208 They were displayed in the school Another excavator under Zammit was W. R. hall for several years as hippopotamus Griffiths, and he confirms that ―most of the bones. Radiocarbon dating by Mifsud and rooms were found to be half-filled with Mifsud (1996) established an uncalibrated earth, human bones and broken pottery… date of 2590 ± 100, calibrated to 675BC.209 Practically all [the bodies] were found in the The body had obviously been engulfed in a greatest disorder, and there had evidently bed of clay from the effects of torrential been no regular burial of a complete water flow over the site. body‖.205 Another episode occurred during the Further evidence for the alluvial nature of Byzantine period. A Dr. Anderson deposit inside the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum discovered a human skeleton in the 1830‘s. derives from a similar deposit reported in The surviving skull lay buried in the red 1974 half a mile away in the Hypogeum at earth in one of the caves near Mnajdra, at a Santa Lucia. This monument represents a depth of 18 feet below the surface, and over smaller version of that at Hal Saflieni, with the centuries it had incorporated a a megalithic entrance and an internal ferrugineous pigmentation over its architecture similar to the temples above surface.210 The possibility of a ritual burial ground. The deposit inside this hypogeum is excluded through the depth it lay inside consisted of human remains admixed with the cave soil, and the matrix it lay in Neolithic pottery and amulets, in a matrix confirms it as being an alluvial deposit. The of red earth soil; the context is similar to cliff face of the Mnajdra region is studded that at Hal Saflieni. In the words of the with such caverns, at altitudes of Director of Museums at the time, the approximately 300 feet above sea level. The deposit inside the Santa Lucia Hypogeum human skull is labelled as E42A-521.211 The was ―as if the mass had been dumped inside radiocarbon date of this specimen (OxA- the monument from the surface.‖ F. S. 8166) is 1325 ± 50, calibrated to 705 AD212 Mallia could not have been more precise, and the close proximity of the two hypogea Land submergence and subsidence enhances even further a similar mechanism The loss of Plato‘s Island resulted in a sinking of the land and structures in the
40 Echoes of Plato’s Island
The earliest Maltese human remains are represented by the two taurodont molars found in association with red deer at Ghar Dalam. They are shown above flanking a modern one. Scientific testing with fluorine and uranium oxide at the Museum of Natural History in London has established that they are contemporaneous with Maltese The six skulls shown above derived from the Hal Saflieni red deer of the ‘Ice Age’. The taurodonts Hypogeum. They were not buried ritually in the were carried to Ghar Dalam by water action monument, but were carried there by water action. See together with the remains of red deer during text for the reports of the original excavators in the first a torrential flooding event. Date < 10,000BP. decade of the twentieth century. Other Hal Saflieni human remains radiocarbon dated to 2735 BC.
These human remains were excavated at Fleur de Lys by George Zammit Maempel in 1968. During excavation works for a well at the St Monica school there, a well preserved and anatomically intact skeleton was discovered in a bed of clay twenty feet below ground level. The nuns at the convent participated in the excavation on their own initiative and they retained all the finds. The human remains were radiocarbon dated to 675 BC.
Dr. Anderson discovered this skull (left) at Mnajdra, buried in red earth at a depth of eighteen feet below the surface. This depth and its matrix excludes it from having been a ritual burial, but rather points to another alluvial event. Radiocarbon dated to 705 AD.
Figure 24. Maltese human remains in alluvial events 41 Malta: centre on the island, and a submergence of inlet to continue on the other,‖ a clear the regions at the peripheries because of indication of submergence of this part of their downward tilt. The recovery of the Malta on its north-eastern aspect during remains which lay in the centre of Plato‘s the time of a human presence. Hyde Island is an impossible task except for the adduces further evidence in this regard most technologically advanced scientific from the submerged stalagmites in Valletta organisations. The submerged remains of harbour.216 man-made structures at the peripheries are more accessible — principally cart ruts, ‗silo The Maltese historian, P. P. Castagna, pits‘ and megalithic structures insofar as hypothesised for a submerged landbridge the prehistoric period is concerned. between Malta, Comino and Gozo, on the basis of cart-ruts which he described as The cart-ruts provide ideal surface land running towards each other at the features for an assessment of recent land respective shorelines.217 upheavals; disturbances in these man-made Submerged temples canals reflect activities which have occurred after the advent of man in the Maltese David Trump has recently indicated that islands. Their submergence cannot be crucial archaeological evidence for the accounted for solely by the simple rise of sea Maltese prehistoric period is likely to be level over the centuries, but an actual submerged to the north of the Maltese sinking of the land must also have been a coastline.218 significant contributing factor. The inclination of the geological layers clearly Partially submerged in Grand harbour were indicates that the process of land the foundations of the temple first described submergence also involved a tilt downward by Quintinus, covering ―a large part of the along the north-eastern coastline. harbour, even far out into the sea.‖219 Prior to the twentieth century, the Maltese In order to confirm a displacement of the temples were considered as belonging to the surface of the Maltese islands, with a classical period, and arbitrarily assigned to subsidence of land along the north-eastern the gods of that period. However the coastline, and a corresponding land megalithic nature of this structure in Grand elevation and land loss along the Harbour is attested by several scholars; Southwest, one would expect these cart-ruts Megiser (1606) describes the temple as to be submerged on the Northeast of Malta, constructed of ―rectangular blocks of and abruptly cut off along the south- unbelievable sizes‖,220 and in the early western coastline. Other landmarks of nineteenth century one could still see the human activity, such as silo pits and even ―stones five to six feet long, and laid without megalithic structures would also be mortar‖.221 expected to behave in the same way. In the summer of 1993, a Maltese Submerged cart ruts in Malta have been underwater archaeologist of some repute222 described at least since 1776.213 In 1970 described an underwater ―prehistoric Leith Adams described the deeply indented temple‖ lying off Sliema in 25 feet of water. and submerged cart-ruts in close proximity He described as well a rock-cut tomb to the rock-pits (70-80 in number) at St similar to the Bingemma group also lying George‘s Creek, the ruts reappearing at a off the Sliema coast at approximately the distance of 200 feet on the other side of the same depth. Although Commander S. A. bay.214 The rock-pits were evidently used Scicluna reported his find to the director of for storage and measured four to five feet in Museums, no action was forthcoming. 223 depth. ―Whether the rock-cuts running across them were formed before or Three kilometres off the northeastern subsequent to the excavations (i.e. the rock- coastline at Sliema - St Julians, the pits) is not certain; at all events, as they end German Hubert Zeitlmar commissioned two abruptly on each side of the little creek of St. professional underwater photographers, Georgio, it is clear that the latter has been Shaun and Kurt Arrigo, to undertake the formed since this old coast road was in underwater photography of an area which use.‖215 Hyde also indicated the submerged looked promising on a 1935 aerial cart-ruts at St. Paul‘s Bay, where ―they photograph.224 Zeitlmar reported the cease abruptly at one side of a sea-filled existence of a platform, measuring 900 by
42 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Ten metre long canal, covered with vegetation, on the sea bottom at 7 metres depth, on the western coast of Malta. The SCUBA diver on the right serves as a scale. Plato mentioned a wide variety of canals cut into the rocky surfaces of the Island he described in his Timaeus and Critias, in the fourth century before Christ.
Photograph by Buddies Dive Cove, Ramla.
Larger canals, approximately 2.5 metres wide, extending radially out of the northeastern coastline for several tens of metres, continuing, over short distances, as tunnel passages (top, left) with straight walls (top, right) and bearing tool-marks (bottom, left). Depth 19.5 metres.
Photographs by Chris Agius Sultana.
Figure 25. Submerged man-made structures
43 Malta: 500 metres, and lying between 25 and 8 Volcanic activity on Malta metres beneath the sea level. Upon this The three basins of the Pantelleria rift are platform stand two circular structures, 1— the Pantelleria basin, associated with measuring between 4 and 6 metres in volcanic Pantelleria island, 2— the Linosa diameter, and resembling the megalithic basin, associated with the volcanic Linosa Maltese structures on land; there are, island, and 3 — the Malta basin, with a besides, rectangular chambers orientated missing volcano,232 but with its ash fall-out towards the east, collapsed megalithic still present on Malta. structures and even cart-ruts.225
In 1888, the historian Castagna suggested Other professional divers have reported that a massive volcanic eruption had caused sightings of unusual underwater features, the destruction of the southern regions of and the most recent which has been the Maltese Islands.233 brought to our attention by Leslie Farrugia and Audrey Mifsud is a ten-metre long In 1896, Cooke reported an unidentified canal, approximately one metre in depth layer, 45 cm thick, during pipeline and slightly less in width, at a depth of 7 excavation trenching at St. Joseph Street, metres on the west coast of Malta. Another in Hamrun.234 feature which is being investigated is a small flight of stairs at a depth of 20 metres During trenching operations in 1965, at a and lying approximately fifty metres site in Mriehel,235 1.5km distant from distant from the canal. 226 Cooke‘s (1896) site, Zammit Maempel Land movements on Malta during the identified a layer which was similar, in Holocene227 texture, coloration, thickness and height above sea level, to that described earlier by Geological displacements during recent Cooke. Zammit Maempel carried out times are evident in several sites in the extensive investigations, both locally and Maltese islands. In Malta, recently active abroad, as to its true nature and possible fault systems have also been identified on source of origin. Mineralogical and the Southwest coast, at 52553E, 63965N. microscopical examination of the deposit Westward, along the Maghlaq fault, recent identified it as volcanic ash from an tectonic movements have been cited by unknown source.236 Trechmann (1938) and Illies (1981). At the site of Ras il-Bajjada, slicing and The ―numerous air spaces and loosely bound slickensiding of faults with Pleistocene nature‖ of the deposit confirmed that the deposits are a clear indication of tectonic ash fall had been air-borne, and not water- activity in recent times.228 borne. The thickness of the deposit was
sufficient for Zammit Maempel to attribute In central Gozo a Holocene fault scarp has it to ―volcanic activity of considerable also been recorded by Illies; in eastern intensity,‖ and to suggest ―metamorphic and Gozo, recent activity is indicated by the volcanic rocks in nearby landmasses once slickensided brown-reddish infillings of connected with Malta but now fissures in the Lower Coralline submerged‖.237 Limestone.229
Moreover, the distribution of this ash fall Moreover, in Gozo, the fault systems west of over such a large surface, and a similar Mgarr ix-Xini (south-western coastline) layer can still be seen today in excavation have been active since 5000BC,230 whilst works along the Mriehel bypass, makes it more recent activity, within historical all the more substantial. The dating is even times, is indicated by the sinistral bending more significant, for the underlying Cervus of the ancient cart ruts as they cross faults layer confirms the volcanic ash fall as over a length of about 200m. Brockman occurring in the prehistoric period, since further noted that some tracks had been 8000BC.238 Maltese fishermen who dredge ―softened by great heat and then to have the sea bottom with their nets still come up cooled and set in the new curves. This, in with blocks of lava in their catches.239 itself, seems evidence that they are older than some vast but unrecorded volcanic Figure 26 shows the distribution of volcanic disturbance‖.231 activity around the Maltese
44 Echoes of Plato’s island
(Left) The site in Gozo which shows the most recent evidence of land displacement (arrowed). The Underwater Association Report for 1966-67 has shown that the fault systems west of Mgarr ix-Xini have been recently active, since 5000BC.
Location 6 showed a ‘25 feet stillstand’ displacement, and that a single episode must have occurred on a pre- existing fault (See Lythgoe and Woods in text).
(Right) Ras il Bajjada, the site of the fracture area which is still visible along the Maghlaq fault, and which still shows the Pleistocene deposits on both sides of the fracture (arrowed).
(Left) Aerial photograph showing the Maghlaq fault, the site of a recent land loss in the terrain between the Mnajdra temple area in Qrendi and Filfla island.
Figure 26. Land displacements in recent times Malta: islands. Between Malta and Lampedusa lies them, and they used it for decorative volcanic Linosa, 140km to the west of purposes.247 Malta. It has undergone a ―cataclysmic ‗blowout‘ at one stage,‖ and its scogli to the The first three metals to attract human north still ―look as fresh as though they were attention in the ancient world were copper, formed ‗only yesterday‘‖.240 gold and silver. Copper and gold were first recorded in 4000 BC, whereas silver was One characteristic product of volcanic discovered later. The working of gold had activity is obsidian — volcanic glass, both already achieved a high standard of quality as worked implements and unworked during the fourth dynasty in Egypt (2575 – blocks, has been found in Malta in several 2465 BC), as the furniture of Queen prehistoric sites.241 Hetepheres shows. Copper was utilised in a distinct phase probably only in Egypt, and 5. The chronology its main source of supply in antiquity was the island of Cyprus. Its softness however Absolute dating tended to limit its practical application in Both Mavor and James admit the the ancient world to household usage, to chronological inaccuracy of Plato‘s account, decoration and coinage. With the discovery and attribute it either to errors during of copper alloying, particularly with tin, translations from Linear B (transforming bronze became the most important material hundreds into thousands of years), or to the of the early civilisations, significantly in adoption of a lunar calendar at the time. weaponry. Its use spread from Egypt to With a lunar chronology, the Atlantis Crete in c. 3000 BC, to Sicily in c. 2500 BC, catastrophe occurred in 1310 BC, in the to Central Europe in c. 2000 BC, and to Late Mycenean Bronze Age.242 Another Britain and Scandinavia around 1800 attractive alternative could have involved BC.248 an error in translating nineteen centuries to ninety centuries, thus accounting for the The inhabitants of Atlantika were grouped early date given by Plato of 9000 BC. under leaders, and, towards the army, these Identical mis-translations occur to this day were obliged to contribute war-chariots, with renowned publishers, when horses and riders, shields, heavily-armed translating from the French to English.243 men, archers, slingers, stone-shooters and Such an error with Plato‘s date would in javelin throwers.249 None of these weapons fact yield a date of 2500BC (1900+600), was necessarily made of metal. In fact, matching the end of the Tarxien Neolithic Pliny states that the war between the period. people of Atlantika and those of Ancient Greece was fought with wooden sticks Relative dating hardened with fire, because of a lack of the Dating of the catastrophe on Plato‘s Island knowledge of iron.250 Metal weapons were poses the greatest problem. The catastrophe not available before 2500 BC, and gold was followed closely upon the victory of the not available before 4000 BC. Rather than Athenians upon the Atlanteans. If the 10,000 years ago, this data limits the end of number of years quoted by Plato are correct, Plato‘s Island to between 4000 to 2000 BC. then the incidents occurred during the late Palaeolithic or early Mesolithic periods, But the most significant criterion for the approximately around 10,000 BC. This date identification of Malta with Plato‘s island is cannot be reconciled with what Plato also the relative dating of its civilisation with said about the Atlanteans‘ possession of that of Egypt. Malta‘s precedes the precious metals. Egyptian by a millennium, which conforms precisely to Plato‘s account in Timaeus. 251 Plato‘s account of Atlantika included the Moreover, there are no other civilisations gold and silver statuary which was to be which qualify for this crucial parameter of found particularly in the temples, and also Plato‘s chronology. the lavish use of orichalcum in decorating Radiocarbon dating the walls, roofs and pillars. 244 Eumalos of Cyrene confirms this abundance of gold in The present series of radiocarbon dates for the statues representing the gods.245 The the Maltese islands,252 shows that the public dwellings were, however, devoid of Burmeghez date (OxA-8165) is gold and silver.246 Tin was also available to contemporaneous, at 4305 ± 65,253 with the
46 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Two recent radiocarbon dates (1999) have shown that, during the early and middle phases of the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, ritual burial in the Maltese Islands was still being carried out in caverns like Burmeghez and the Brochtorff complex. The primary role of the Hypogeum as a burial place is therefore seriously cast into doubt, particularly when the context of the human remains found there are re-examined from the primary sources.
Tarxien radiocarbon dates
3050
Skorba 3000 3000
2975 Burmeghez 2950
2900 2892 Brochtorff
2850 2848 Brochtorff 2827 Brochtorff 2817 Brochtorff
Calibrated B.C. years 2800
2750 2750 Brochtorff 2735 Hal Saflieni 2700
2677 Brochtorff 2650 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Tarxien date sites
The Hal Saflieni remains are dated towards the end of the Tarxien phase — there is only one more date after this (a mere 58 years away). The first radiocarbon date for Burmeghez inserts itself at the beginning of the available repertoire of Maltese radiocarbon dates for the Tarxien phase (3100 – 2500 BC). The Burmeghez date precedes the first Brochtorff date, whilst the Hal Saflieni date precedes the last Brochtorff date.
Until further radiocarbon dates for the Tarxien period are available, the dates show that the Burmeghez burial ritual was still being performed in the early phases of the Tarxien phase. This was substituted by the Brochtorff ritual in the middle Tarxien phase, and eventually, in the final phase of the Tarxien phase, the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum was involved in a secondary burial process. The archaeological evidence of the original excavators has shown that this process of secondary burial involved an alluvial deposition from the intramural sepulchres on the ground level of the Hal Saflieni site.
(Trump 1995-96: 173-7; Mifsud 1999: 422-3; Mifsud & Mifsud 1999: 163)
Figure 27. Maltese Radiocarbon Dates of the Tarxien phase
47 Malta: first Tarxien date available (BM-143), Egyptians.263 Herodotus equated the whilst the Hypogeum date (OxA-8197) is Erythraean Sea with the Atlantic ocean.264 contemporaneous, at 4130 ± 45,254 with the And Virgil clearly identifies the North last one (OxA-3571).255 These dates confirm African sea as an ocean.265 Diodorus further that ritual burial was still being carried out states that, ― in caves until the very end of the Tarxien , phase, and clearly indicate that the human remains at the Hypogeum were not buried , ritually, but were flooded into its chambers .‖266 [―This island is a colony in a matrix of red earth. The Hypogeum planted by the Phoenicians, who, as they date at the end of the Tarxien phase extended their trade to the western ocean, provides compelling evidence to found in it a place of safe retreat, since it substantiate an alluvial event which was well supplied with harbours and laid accounted for the end of the temple- out in the open sea.‖ 267] Malta was builders. Further radiocarbon dates for Hal therefore still considered to lie in the Saflieni and Burmeghez4 are scheduled for western ocean at the time of Diodorus the coming months.256 Siculus. The western Mediterranean is still referred to as an ocean today.268
6. Features on Malta compatible with The Straits of Heracles Plato’s description Apollonius Rhodius was the chief librarian at Alexandria in the first century BC. His Geography account in Argonautica confirms the site of Plato‘s description in his Timaeus and the straits of Heracles in the Lesser Critias of what remained of Atlantika is Syrtis.269 Other ancient authors who clear enough. ―In comparison of what then confirm this site include the renowned was, there are remaining in small islands Roman scholar and historian, M. Annaeus only the bones of the wasted body … the Lucanus (39-65 AD).270 mere skeleton of the country being left.‖ 257 The Maltese and Pelagian Islands are small The Greek historian Herodotus (b. 484 BC) islands in the right place. And Pliny cites mentions the shoals or shallows of Lake some remaining ‗isles of Atlantis‘ which Tritonis which Jason encountered on his were still to be found situated on the North voyage.271 Lake Tritonis lay close to the African coast, opposite the small Atlas Lesser Syrtis of today in North Africa.272 mountain.258Plato placed Atlantika in the These shoals had then represented a barrier western ocean opposite the straits of to navigation caused by the submergence of Heracles. Plato‘s Island.273
The ancient Greek explorer Skylax of The western ocean Caryanda flourished in the 6th century BC. The ancient authors equated the ocean with In his Periplus274 account of the the sea. Homer himself used the word ocean Mediterranean, he gives a clear indication for the sea, and also uses the same term for of the situation of the Pillars of Hercules at the Tyrrhenian sea.259 Seneca refers to the the time. Had they been the same pillars as Mediterranean sea as the Atlantic Ocean.260 today‘s, the islands to the east of them Cicero too refers to the Mediterranean sea would be the Balearic ones. Yet Skylax as the Atlantic Ocean — ―circumfusa ille identifies the Maltese Islands and mari, quod Atlanticum, quod Magnum, Pantelleria as these islands lying to the quod oceanum, appellatis in terris‖.261 And east of the pillars.275 In antiquity, moreover, in his De Natura Deorum, he identifies the the pillars were described as comprising western and central Mediterranean as the three elements,276 and not one pair of ocean, ―quid oceani fervore illis in locis, columns. According to Palefatus, the Europam Libyamque rapax ubi dividit ancient Greek author from Paros, these unda?‖262 Diodorus Siculus assures us that three columns of Hercules lay close to the the term ocean was used by the ancients to isle of Kerkenna of today, on the North denote the element of water, and that it was African shoreline, at the western end of the also used for the Nile, the Ocean of the Lesser Syrtis.277
4 A Neolithic burial site in the limits of Mqabba.
48 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Map of the Mediterranean basin, dated 1450AD, drawn at Klosterneuburg (Austria), showing significant land-mass (arrowed) between Sicily and North Africa. The original labels appear upside down.
Map of Plato’s Island as envisaged by Giorgio Grongnet in 1854, filling in the Syrtis in North Africa.
The two maps above confirm Ptolemy’s map of the Mediterranean (see Figure 14 on page 22) as published at Ulm in 1482 (ten years before Columbus ‘discovered’ America), where a large unidentified island is shown in the Central Mediterranean.
Figure 28. Landmasses in the Central Mediterranean 49 Malta:
Late in the sixteenth century, the editors of Ptolemy’s maps were not conscientious about compatibility in the details of the individual maps. This can be seen from the three different outlines attributed to the Maltese islands in three maps of the same publication, that of Venice 1598.
The top photograph is taken from the Tabula Aphricae II, and the archipelago is represented more or less as in the previous editions, where the promontories for the temples of Juno and Hercules are still depicted as separate islands. The Maltese and Pelagian island grouos are still being referred to as the Pelagian islands.
The middle photograph is taken from the Tabula Europae VII, and Malta is now represented as one island.
The bottom photograph is taken from the Sardinia et Sicilia map, and the Grand Harbour area dominates the configuration of Malta, with Filfla appearing as Piper, and Lampedusa with Linosa transposed to the west. The presence of Malta had become firmly established after the siege of 1565, and the details here reflect the geographical data which were then being submitted to the editors.
“In comparison of what then was, there are remaining in small islands only the bones of the wasted body … the mere skeleton of the country being left.” Plato, Critias 111 B.
Figure 29. Small islands 50 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Sicily
Maltese Islands Pelagian Islands
Straits of Heracles
Mount Atlas
The Central Mediterranean sea-bed (above) — the serrated outline represents the advancing limbs of the Pantelleria Rift fracturing the terrain between the Maltese and Pelagian Islands, with volcanic Linosa on the ridge persisting between the limbs of the Rift. A hypothetical outline of Plato’s Island is represented by the black circular line. The Straits of Heracles join the eastern with the western Mediterranean, the land-bound sea of Plato, the pontos (See also below).
The land-bound western ocean of Plato The straits of Heracles
“Atlantika was the way to other islands (Pantelleria, Levanzo, Formica, Marittimo, Favignana, Sardinia, Corsica), and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounds the true ocean; for this sea which is within the straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent.” Plato, Timaeus 25 A.
Figure 30. The straits of Heracles and the western sea 51 Malta: ―All those peoples who were to be found were not situated at the straits of Gibraltar, within the straits of Heracles were under the but on the North African coast, in the sea of control of the city of Athens, so that the the pelagos.287 latter city terminated that war through a complete victory over its enemies, the people Plato‘s relative geography situated beyond the straits of Hercules, under the command of the kings of the Figure 29 confirms the geographical details Atlantic Island …‖278 outlined by Plato in his Timaeus. ―Atlantika was the way to other islands, and from these The statement that Plato did not identify you might pass to the whole of the opposite the locality of the straits of Heracles is a continent which surrounded the true ocean; fallacy. For when comparing the sea within for this sea which is within the Straits of the straits to the other sea which is outside Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow them, Plato refers to the first as the entrance, but that other is a real sea, and pelagos, and to the second as the pontos.279 the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent.‖ 288 After the destruction of Atlantis, the shoals of impassable mud are also referred to by Cultural and physical features Plato as lying in the pelagos.280 The pelagos islands on the Pelagian block are known to The inhabitants of Plato‘s Island had built be the Maltese (Malta, Gozo, Comino, Filfla) impressive temples to their gods, and had and the Pelagian group (Lampedusa, Linosa also developed an intricate network of and Lampione). Two celebrated geographers channels over the rocky terrain in order to of antiquity associate the Maltese islands transport their water and goods across the with the sea of pelagos — Ptolemy listed the country. Their rituals included the sacrifice Maltese islands with the African pelagos of bulls in the temple. islands.281 Diodorus Siculus uses the Cultural features pelagos nomenclature for the sea bathing the Maltese islands. 282 Bull sacrifice was a feature of the cult on Plato‘s island. The animal was slaughtered The pontos designation referred to a large and burnt. Figure 31 shows the horns of sea which was land-bound. The eastern bull which lay beneath the temple floor at Mediterranean contained both Egypt and Tarxien, together with the flint knife kept Greece, allies against the armies of at the same temple, and ostensibly used in Atlantika in the Central Mediterranean, so the ritual sacrifice; bovid representations that the pontos referred to the western are also shown. Archaeological evidence for Mediterranean, totally land-bound by the the immolation of animal sacrifices at southern coast of Europe and the Northern Tarxien is not wanting. ―Perhaps the most African coast. The pontos lay beyond the interesting piece of pottery found [at the straits of Heracles which were situated in Hypogeum] was a black polished plate, on the pelagos. 283 which was drawn with flint the figures of several horned bulls of mottled colour, all The present separation of the Maltese from instinct with life. The species of animal was the Pelagian284 archipelago is purely a identical with that carved in high relief in political one. They all lie on the Pelagian the ―bull sanctuary‖ of the latest and most block of the African plate, a fact which was wonderful discovery of all, the Stone Age already known in antiquity by scholars such Temple of Tarxien … two large bull‘s horns as Augustine285 and Ptolemy.286 were found carefully hidden under the entrance to this sanctuary. It appears, The Maltese and Pelagian archipelagos therefore, that the worship of the sacred thus constituted the islands in bull, so widely spread and still existing, was antiquity, and they were situated in the sea carried on in Malta just as the Minotaur of , in the Central Mediterranean. was worshipped in Crete.289 According to Plato, this was the site of the Physical features – cart ruts straits of Heracles, Plato‘s island, and the shoals of impassable mud after its Since the building boom of the late 1960s, destruction. the built-up surface area of the Maltese islands has increased from 15% to 35%, a Thus the straits of Heracles in antiquity far cry from the estimated 72% forestation
52 Echoes of Plato’s Island
J. D. Evans displays the sacrificial flint knife and its storage area in the temple of Tarxien. (Museum of Archaeology Archives).
Bull horns buried beneath floor in Room M, Tarxien temple
The subterranean sanctuary at Hal Saflieni. Bull in Reliefs of bulls and a cow at Tarxien temples black paint antedating the red ochre decoration.
Figure 31. Cult of the Bull 51 Malta: status during early Neolithic times. This framework or setting for a set of prescribed factor, together with the extensive ritual acts, and is planned and devised for quarrying operations, has contributed this purpose. The religion and its ritual towards the elimination of several comes first; the setting for the ceremonies archaeological features and loss of comes as a consequence.‖ … ‖On Malta and landscape around archaeological sites. The Gozo were some remarkable stone-built fraction which remains is significant temples of prehistoric date‖ of ―extreme nonetheless. architectural sophistication and complexity, but unlike anything else in the Besides the high concentration of Mediterranean world,‖ … ―the most magic megalithic structures on the Maltese and potent island-sanctuaries of the central islands, the distribution of the cart-ruts is Mediterranean world.‖ During this no less diffuse. In form and function the ―brilliant phase‖ of Malta‘s prehistory, ―the Maltese cart-ruts tally with the rock-canals development of a religious architecture [was] described by Plato.290 In his Critias he carried to a pitch unknown elsewhere describes the intricate and intersecting westward of the Aegean.‖299 networks of rock-cut291 ―canals spreading straight and lengthwise across the plain and The Hypogeum itself was a ―unique, back into the ditch292, toward the sea293‖. underground temple-tomb‖ … ―obviously These networks of canals were ―a hundred modelled in part on the temples above feet in width, and lay at intervals of a ground.‖300 A ―terrifyingly impressive hundred stadia between each other; by them monument, the underground temple and they brought down the wood from the ossuary at Hal Saflieni … sometimes mountains to the city, and conveyed the reproduces the solid architectural features fruits of the earth in ships, cutting proper to buildings made of separate blocks transverse passages from one canal into above ground.‖301 another, and to the city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth - in In prehistoric Malta lay ―the brilliant winter having the benefit of the rains, and civilisation of the temple-builders‖ … ―an in summer introducing the water of the individuality and uniqueness among its canals‖.294 Independently of Plato, the most contemporaries‖.302 And the British plausible hypothesis, which has been megalith man himself, Glyn Daniel, reached to account for the function of the eventually accepted the Maltese megalithic Maltese cart-ruts, is that of transport of the structures as ―apsidial temples‖ in a class of products outlined by Plato.295 Zammit had their own.303 suggested the transfer of soil up the hillsides to terraced fields,296 and other ―The temple-builders of Malta in the third hypotheses at present include the carriage millennium BC produced small models in of megaliths to temple sites, and the limestone of the structures which they had carriage of water, which latter function is built or were to build … [in the latter case] also mentioned by Plato. a good example of both planning and design‖.304 Physical features - temples
The inhabitants of Plato‘s island employed Architecturally, ―these anthropomorphic themselves in constructing their temples structures indicate the islands in pre-history and palaces. There were many temples built as probably the Holy Shrine of the Middle and dedicated to many gods.297 Sea. With their deft spatial organization, these time-resisting giant stone buildings, It was readily apparent to the British man‘s earliest evocations to an Earth members of the Maltese Archaeological Deity…‖305 By architects overseas, Malta is Survey of the 1950s that the megalithic described as ―an island of prehistoric sacred structures on Malta and Gozo were temples places viewed as site significant spatial or sanctuaries erected by the ―consummate systems‖.306 master-masons‖ of a precocious civilisation, and suggesting concepts of ―drowned cities The Neolithic population of Malta was very and lost continents‖ caused by an ―ancient healthy and ate soft food. Several suffered and long-forgotten cataclysm‖.298 from a peculiar affliction of arthritis of the proximal joint of the thumb. This has been ―A temple is essentially the architectural associated with occupational disease
54
Ceschi 1938
On Plato’s Island, the people dedicated themselves to the construction of many temples to their gods.
(Clockwise from above, left hand corner) Hagar Qim before its excavation, by Grongnet; the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, modelled on the temples above the ground; Ceschi’s projection of the Tarxien temple; Houel’s plan of two megalithic buildings on Gozo; Stierlin’s reconstruction of the roofing structures for the megalithic temples; and two models of a Maltese temple. “The temple-builders of Malta in the third millennium BC produced small models in limestone of the structures which they had built or were to build — a good example of both planning and design.” (Renfrew 1994: 6).
Stierlin 1977
Figure 32. They built many temples to their gods 55 Malta: associated with stressful forces at these Mediterranean archaeology. At the joints, caused by constant levering of heavy beginning of the century it was for the loads, such as megaliths.307 source of Mediterranean civilisation; figure 33 shows Arthur Evans hugging the Maltese spirals which the Cretans 7. Other ancient texts confirming emulated. At the turn of the century, and of the site of Plato’s Island. the second millennium, Malta and the Ogygia308 Aegean island of Thera contend for the title of Plato‘s island. Homer‘s Odysseus recounts the travels of Ulysses and his long sojourn with the Ironically for Thera, it is the testimony of nymph Calypso on the island of Ogygia, an ancient Cretan from Thera who provided some time after the Trojan War of 1184BC. the supplementary ancient text. Ogygia is identified with Malta by several ancient authors, and Plato‘s Island is In 631 BC a colony of ancient Greeks from identified with Ogygia by others. Thera left their homeland to settle on the North African shoreline. They were led by The Greek poet and scholar, Callimachus one Aristoteles, their Battus, and they (305-240BC), was a native of Cyrene in founded the colony of Cyrene, known today North Africa. As chief librarian in the great as Cyrenaeica, on the western boundaries of library of Alexandria between 260 and 240 Libia. The city of Cyrene dominated a huge BC, he had direct access to thousands of area of North Africa between the 6th ancient texts for several years. Here he century BC and the 4th century AD. compiled the Pinakes, a monumental catalogue of the ancient authors, with One of these Therans, the historian biographical and bibliographic details. Eumalos of Cyrene315 wrote the History of Callimachus identified Ogygia with the Libia in several volumes, which have not, Maltese islands.309 unfortunately, survived the vicissitudes of time. It has however fortunately survived Amongst several other ancient authors, in the writings of later scholars. In 1830 an Herodotus, Hesiod and Diodorus Siculus Italian scholar from Siena, Giuseppe also identified the Maltese Islands with Perricciuoli Borzesi, translated a fragment Ogygia; Homer310 and Catullus (b. 87 BC) of the text into Italian. It was included in identified Ogygia with Calypso in Malta.311 the Appendix to The Historical Guide to the Island of Malta and its Dependencies, and In the first century before Christ, the was dedicated to the Maltese Governor at Roman scholar Albius Tibullus associated the time, Sir Henry Ponsonby. After giving Calypso with Atlantis,312 and a manuscript an account of ancient Libia, its kings and its of 1525 confirms this further. ―The cause of religious beliefs, the account runs thus. the loss of Atlantis was the deluge of Ogyge … this island is much discussed among ―… Ninus, King of Babylon, nephew of the authors, but I maintain that this island is famous Ogyge. The latter was the king of Malta, precisely that which Homer calls Atlantis, the island which once existed Ogygia.‖313 between Libia and Sicily,316 and which was submerged. This large island was known as The main proponent for the association of Decapolis, Atlantika, by our forefathers of Ogygia with the Maltese Islands was Cyrene, as well as by the ancient Greeks. Philipp Clüverius.314 Clüverius was a Ogyge was the king who governed the German geographer of the seventeenth famous island at the time of the horrible century, a key figure in the revival of inundation … the summit of Mount Atlas, geographic learning in Europe and the which was situated in the middle of the founder of historical geography. His island Atlantika was not submerged. This authority stems from his approach to summit of Mount Atlas has preserved the geography — this was strictly through name of Ogyge from that of its last king, and history and the ancient authors. it is in fact this circumstance why we still know as Ogygia that island which once Malta or Crete exists between Libia and Sicily; it is nothing Once again, Malta and the Aegean vie with more than the summit of the Mount of each other for another title in Atlantika.‖317
56
(Above) Thera has enjoyed the greatest popularity of being the remnant of Plato’s Island. But the evidence of geology and dating of its volcanic ash makes the hypothesis untenable.
(Left) Initially thought by Evans that the Maltese borrowed their spirals from Crete, the reverse has since been proved. The Maltese civilization predates the Cretan one by one and a half millennia.
(Below) The recovery of the ancient text of Eumalos of Cyrene has shown that the Maltese archipelago is the main remnant of Plato’s Island. The geological features of the Pantelleria Rift points to an episode during the Holocene period when substantial loss of terrain reduced the archipelago to ots present size. The distribution of the wall lizard Podarcis filfolensis provides compelling evidence for a Maltese land link with the Pelagian Islands.
Figure 33. Malta or Thera
57 Malta: According to Eusebius, Ninus king of Center for Archaeological Studies (CAS) Babylon reigned in the time of Abraham, and Pipeline Archaeology for the Recovery who was born around 1996 BC. However it of Knowledge (PARK), for the discovery of is well known that Eusebius‘s priority was the sunken city of Phasis in the Black the synchronisation of historical events Sea.323 with the Biblical ones. In fact, Clinton and Layard have since arrived at an earlier date Very recently Graham Hancock has also for the period of Ninus‘s reign, that is, at been searching for these underwater around 2200 BC. 318 structures in preparation for Underworld, an ITV Channel Four television Chaldean links documentary series. Maltese artefacts have testified to links with Babylon as well. Before World War II, Summary the Director and Librarian of the National Malta is presently too small in size to have Museum of Archaeology in Valletta had sustained the earliest architectural supplied Gertrude Levy with fine civilisation; its civilisation territory is photographs depicting Maltese Neolithic missing. On the other hand, the search for artefacts which manifest ―very close Plato‘s island has now moved to the affinities with early Dynastic Sumerian Mediterranean. On the basis of its sculpture‖, probably Mesopotamian. Levy chronology relative to Egypt, Malta is the acknowledged Temi Zammit‘s earlier only option for Plato‘s island. observation of the Maltese link with Babylon, which she also confirmed Although the larger portion of Plato‘s island herself.319 has been lost by submersion, sufficient features remain on the Maltese islands Conclusion which tally with those described by Plato. The greater part of Plato‘s island lies on the This is particularly borne out in the sea floor, but evidence from underwater concentrated ensemble of temples, the archaeology for the Maltese prehistoric intersecting networks of cart-ruts (known period is presently very scanty.320 Whereas as Clapham Junction at one site), and the the northeastern shoreline has already cult of bull sacrifice. The geography of the yielded evidence of submerged structures Central Mediterranean and the pelagos fits created by humans of the prehistoric period, that delineated by Plato like a glove. it is in the southwestern waters of Malta that the evidence for a fragmented and The feasibility of a sudden cataclysm submerged Maltese landmass is to be accounting for the sudden termination of sought. The main difficulty in tracing such the Tarxien people is corroborated by the remains lies in the thick crust which would neotectonic profile of the Maghlaq portion of have accumulated over the past four and a the Pantelleria rift, which has been active half millennia. Members of the American- in the late Holocene, and is still active to based Institute of Nautical Archaeology this day. Close analogies of Malta with the (INA), who have been responsible for the Pelagian islands, in terms of sedimentology, salvage of the oldest shipwreck in the upwarping of rift shoulders, and population world, have recently identified areas of silt of life forms, substantiate the hypothesis reaching up to 17 metres in depth on the even further. Maltese coastline. Furthermore preliminary scanning has indicated the likelihood of Plato‘s version of the loss of Atlantika is significant archaeological remains in the confirmed by evidence of cataclysmic events seabed around the Maltese islands.321 This during the Maltese Holocene. Flooding has followed the report last August of the events at the end of the Tarxien period are discovery of underwater megalithic manifest in the Hypogeum, where the first structures by Hubert Zeitlmar.322 radiocarbon dating of human remains times the episode to the end of the Tarxien period. Whilst a report upon these underwater In the absence of a volcano close to the structures from the Museum of Archaeology Malta basin, one corresponding to the rift- is awaited, it appears that the INA is related volcanic islands of Pantelleria and expected to start operations in the area in Linosa, the presence of unattributable the coming months. In the meantime the Holocene volcanic ash on Malta is a strong INA has been responsible, jointly with the indicator of a recent, volcanic event of a
58 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Although the two carved artefacts (left and centre) were excavated from the Maltese Neolithic temples, they are no longer accessible. They were still extant in 1948, when Gertrude Levy examined them at the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta (Levy 1948, Plate 18). They bear strong affinities with early Dynastic Mesopotamia, such as can be seen when the figure in the centre is compared with the representation of King Ninus (right), with identical skirt pattern and hand posture. The skirt pattern (arrowed) is the Sumerian flounced ‘kaunakes,’ in imitation 6000 of a sheep’s fleece. See Figure 27 5000 for dating of King Ninus’ reign.
4000 This early prehistoric Maltese 3000 link with Babylon enhances the text of Eumalos of Cyrene, who 2000 stated that King Ninus of 1000 Babylon was the nephew of King Ogyge of Atlantika at the time of 0 its cataclysmic destruction. 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27
2200BC – This is the date given by the ancient Roman historian, Aemilius Sura, for the reign of King Ninus of Babylon. It is also the date given by the Oera Linda manuscript for the cataclysm of Plato’s Island. This date is situated precisely in the archaeological hiatus (white arrow) between the Maltese Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age. This is also the date of the cluster of collapses of the ancient world civilizations, in the Aegean, Egypt, Palestine, Iran and the Indus valley (see text, page 36). This date also marks the start of the mini Ice Age, which would have contributed to the destruction of Plato’s Island as it would have affected volcanism through changes in gravitational loading by both sea water and ice. Deformations of the Earth’s crust is caused by changes in surface loading as ice sheets wax and wane, and also have an effect on island and coastal volcanoes.
The significant global temperature drop also affected the means of livelihood across the Mediterranean. A century of drought and famine is recorded in Babylon on an ancient clay tablet,
“The large fields and acres produced no grain The flooded fields produced no fish The watered gardens produced no honey and vine The heavy clouds did not rain.” (dated to approximately 2100BC, after a century of drought and famine).
The seasonal rains were replaced by withering storms, and the wheat fields were blanketed into dust by the winds. Layers of sterile dust accumulated during this process of desertification, and this has been identified archaeologically at sites such as Tell Leilan by Marie Agnès Courtry, in the Gulf of Oman by Peter B. de Menocal (Weiss 1996: 33, 36), and in Malta by Temi Zammit, precisely at the interphase between the late Neolithic and the Tarxien cemetery phase at Tarxien.
Figure 34. Links with Babylon and King Ninus
59 Malta: cataclysmic nature, somewhere between the south-western coastline of the Maltese 13 Daniel 1978: 81. islands and the southeastern extremity of 14 Renfrew 1978: 161, 1979: 48, 255. the Malta basin. Previous to this episode at 15 Bahn 1996: 80-1. See also Renfrew 1978: 161. 16 Trump 1983: 65. Mriehel, volcanic activity in Malta has been 17 Mahoney 1996: 1. shown by pollen analysis to have occurred 18 Josephus, Contra Apionem, i. also during the Ice Age. Volcanic activity 19 Eusebius Chronicles; Sextus Julianus Africanus, very close to the Maltese islands has been Chronicles and Epitome. 20 Waddell 1971: vi-xxviii. registered as recently as 1831 in Graham‘s 21 David 1986: 21-2; Waddell 1971: xvi-xx. Using island. Manetho‘s text, Syncellus (George the monk) in 800 AD calculated that Adam flourished around 5500 BC. The text of Plato, the ancient author, is 22 For a good overview of the Piri Reis map and its implications, see Hancock 1996: 3-13. confirmed by another ancient Greek author. 23 Brown 1997: 49. The Theran, Eumalos of Cyrene, was Plato‘s 24Cyril's army of monks were canonized by Cyril for contemporary, but he lived nearer to murdering Orestes; Cyril himself was beatified for Atlantika, and could therefore furnish more eliminating Hypatia. 25 See Healy 1999: 384. details about the true site of Plato‘s island 26 Berlitz 1977: 12-13. — Eumalos placed it in the pelagos, in the 27 See Haskins 1887: 349 & Housman 1926: 282, and Central Mediterranean, the sea bathing the compare with Brown & Martindale 1998: 264. Maltese and Pelagian islands. 28 Octo Libri Ptolemei 1490; C. Ptolomaeus, Auctus Restitutus Emaculatus 1520; Geographia Universalis, vetus et nova, complectens Claudii Ptolemoaei Alexandrini Enerrationis Libros VIII, 1540; La We are indebted for much assistance to Abigail, Jael, Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo 1574. Tabitha, Seana, Marika, Tonio, Pierre, James and 29 Pliny the Elder produced his Natural History in AD Simon; to Anthony Frendo, Charles Galea Bonavia and 77. In 1141 Crichdale produced an abridged version of Norman Formosa. Horatio Vella was most hospitable Pliny‘s work; material considered irrelevant was and generous to Anton Mifsud, who presented him omitted. Petrarch amended the text once again in with several passages for translation from the ancient 1350, and the first edition was published in Venice in Greek texts. George Borg at the Gozo Reference 1469. Barbarus produced a version with corrections in Library was indispensable. Unsworth Booksellers in 1492-3, and a similar exercise was carried out by London have also been most kind in giving Anton Rhenanus in 1525. At the turn of the sixteenth century Mifsud access to their rare books for sale. Graham Pliny‘s work was well known and admired by all Hancock has been the final spur to publish. scholars. In 1601 Philemon Holland published another translated version of Pliny‘s Natural History (See 324 Healy 1999: viii, 380-391). Since the sixteenth century at least, translations have been seriously modified in parts — e.g. in the index of the 1566 edition there is a reference (p. 256, line 34) to ‗Atlantis‘, but the relevant Endnotes text at the end of the chapter has been omitted. Several references to ‗Atlantis‘, the ‗islands of Atlantis‘ and the ‗Atlantic Sea‘ are omitted in the later versions. 1 Renfrew 1971, 1972, 1973: 161, 1977: 616-7, 1978, 30 Baviera Albanese 1963. 1979, 1983: 6. 31 Harding 1945 vi: 300; Brydone 1848: 258. Malta was 2 Renfrew 1978: 161. colonized by the British between 1815 and 1964. 3 See Renfrew 1979: 161. 32 Lib. iv. Cap. 3. 4 Zammit 1916: 135; Griffiths 1920: 469. Trump (1977: 33 Bigelow 1831: 474. 606) points out that Zammit‘s description of this 34 Augustine, De Civitatis Dei: 16, Cap. 17. The terms deposit ―does not tally with other known natural ‗Pelagian‘ and ‗Pelagic‘ are variously used by different deposits from Malta.‖ Evans‘ suggestion that this disciplines to denote the same meaning. ‗Pelagian‘ has deposit was artificially laid down is based on its been used for this text on Patrick J. Schrembi‘s absence in an area beyond the temple (Evans 1971: suggestion. 149). However this area, which was excavated by 35 Colonial Office 158-536/89009; Vella 1974: 14. Baldacchino in 1950, had been cleared in Roman times 36 Blouet 1965: 9; Ellul 1988, 1997; Mayrhofer 1996; for use as arable land (MAR 1950: I), thus invalidating Mifsud & Mifsud 1997; Sant Cassia 1993; Given 1998. Evans‘ argument. 37 Unfortunately Nostradamus has since been 5 Zammit 1917b: E4; Evans 1959: 168, 1971: 224; interpreted as an astrologer. Trump 1977; Bonanno 1986: 40-1, 1994: 90; Savona- 38 E.g. Bradford 1964. Ventura & Mifsud 1999: 72-3. See also England 1999: 39 Empereur1999: 36; Schuster 1999: 44. 147. 40 Grimston 1999. 6 Zammit 1926: 22; Ugolini 1934; Randall McIver 1935. 41 Archaeology 52 (6): 19. 7 Renfrew 1972, 1977. 42 De Iside et Osiride. 8 ―De l'Orient viendra de coeur Punique, Fâcher 43 Burn 1987: 119-20. Hadrie, & les hoires Romulides, Accompagnè de la 44 Donnelly (1882) 1950: 17. classe Libique, Temples Melites et proche isles vuides‖. 45 Diodorus v, 57: 2-5; see also Augustine, De Civitatis 9 Vide infra. Dei xviii: 10-11. 10 Mayr 1920. 46 Timaeus 22 B-C. 11 Gordon Childe 1925: 101; 1958: 119. 47 Timaeus 23 A - B. 12 Ward Perkins 1942: 21. 48 Timaeus 25 B-D.
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Echoes of Plato‘s Island
49 Critias 111 B. 88 Borg 1911: 39-49. 50 Timaeus 23 D, 24 D. 89 Brockman 1975: 69, 72. 51 Timaeus 24 E. 90 Critias 111 B. 52 Timaeus 25 A. 91 For example, at Valletta, Marsaxlokk and 53 Critias 115 C-E. Marsalforn. 54 Critias 117 D. 92 Dolomieu 1791: Appendix. 55 Critias 118 D-E. 93 Saint-Priest 1791: 74. 56 Critias 120 A. 94 Houel 1787: 486. 57 Timaeus 25 B; Critias 114 C. The sphere of influence 95 Bigelow 1831: 216. of Plato‘s Island extended to the Mediterranean 96 Bigelow 1831: 215, 464. peoples in Egypt on the one hand and to the 97 Leith Adams 1870: 147-148; Spratt, 23: 283, 293. Tyrrhenian Sea on the other. The region in between 98 Hsü 1983: 2, 4. these two zones is the Central Mediterranean, where 99 Spratt 1867, xxiii: 292, 296. the Maltese and Pelagian islands are to be found. 100 Leith Adams 1866: 6-7. 58 Timaeus 24 E. Libya and Asia were considered to be 101 Leith Adams 1870: 148, fn 1, 149. much smaller in Plato‘s time. The Romans had not 102 Sinclair 1924, 261-275. The African landbridge is no extended their victories beyond the mountains of longer considered a tenable hypothesis by most Europe and the seas of Asia, and their geography scholars. reached just Asia Minor, Phoenicia, and a small part of 103 Friggieri & Freller 1998: 154, fn. 1. The sources of North Africa. The Greeks at the time of Plato did not these maps would probably have derived from the know all of Asia, except up to the Euphrates. Alexandrine library, since the islands were certainly Alexander had extended his dominions up to the river separate in Claudius Ptolemy‘s time. Indus, as the confines of this part of the world. 104 Eratosthenes had assigned 700 stadia (Ventura Furthermore, Andrews has suggested that Plato 1988: 257). One stadium was approximately 185 mistook meson for mezon in Solon‘s manuscript metres, but varied between 154 and 215 metres. Atlantikos, and thus caused the subsequent translation 105 Smyth 1854: 321; Ventura 1988. of ‗between‘ to read ‗larger than‘. Thus Plato‘s Island 106 Ptolemy,. Tabula II. Aphricae, 1.8; 3.20. lay, according to Andrews, ‗between Libia and Asia‘ 107 Ptolemy Lib. iii, tab. 2, Cap. 3; Lib. iv, Cap. 3. (See Luce 1969: 45). 108 Ptolemy‘s Geographia, Lib.iv.. 59 Critias 113 B. 109 Stanley 1878; 1890. 60 Proclus 76: 1-10; Donnelly 1882; 1950: 17; Berlitz 110 See Moorehead 1971: 15-16. 1977: 36-7. Hieroglyphs of 2000 BC show that 111 Today‘s Pangani in Tanganyika. Egyptian children were then already being taught that 112 Syracuse 37º > 37.04º; Catania 37º 40‘ > 37º 31‘; the world was round (See Steiger 1977: 50-1). Taormina 37º 45‘ > 37º 51‘; Messina 38º 10‘ > 38º 12‘ 61 Proclus 76: 1-10. (Ventura 1988: 261, fn. 15). 62 Timaeus 20 E, 26 E. 113 Friggieri & Freller 1998: 155 fn. 4. 63 Timaeus 23. A-4. 114 Agius de Soldanis 1746: fol. 79. 64 Strabo 2.3.6-7. 115 Ventura 1988: 262, fig. 4. 65 Marcellinus xv., 3, 6; xvii., 7, 13. See also Friedrich 116 Octo Libri Ptolemei 1490; C. Ptolomaeus, Auctus 2000: 149. Restitutus Emaculatus 1520; Geographia Universalis, 66 The frieze is 40 inches (101 cm) high and 525 feet vetus et nova, complectens Claudii Ptolemoaei (160 m) long. Alexandrini Enerrationis Libros VIII, 1540; La 67 Pinnegar 1998. Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo 1574. 68 Timaeus 23D, 24C. 117 Prior to the twentieth century, the Maltese temples 69 Timaeus 26E. were considered to belong to the classical period, and 70 Strabo (Lib. i, Cap. 2), Pomponius Mela (Lib.i, Cap. arbitrarily assigned to Hercules, Juno &c. However the 4, 8; Lib. ii, Cap. 6; Lib. iii, Cap. 1, 10), Pliny (Lib. ii, megalithic nature of this structure at Valletta is Cap. 90), Tertullian (Adversus Gentes, Lib. i) and attested by several scholars; Megiser (1606) describes Keckerm (Problema IV). See Berlitz 1977: 37-44. the temple as constructed of ―rectangular blocks of 71 Berlitz 1977: 66-7. unbelievable sizes‖ (Friggieri & Freller 1998: 139), and 72 Galanopoulos & Bacon1969: 60-1; Berlitz 1977: 66. in the early nineteenth century one could still see the 73 Smyth 1854: 111-2. ―stones five to six feet long, and laid without mortar‖ 74 De fast: Rom: ad Eutrop: Histor: Lib xi. (De Boisgelin 1804 I: 58-9). See also Quintinus 1536 75 Sanzio 1776: 114. (Vella 1980: 23) and Pajoli 1694 (Zammit Ciantar 1998: 76 Vide supra. 54). 77 Berlitz 1977: 156; James 1995: 84. 118 Although seemingly referring to separate islands for 78 See Westwood 1997: 15. the temples of Juno and Hercules, these are considered 79 Galanopoulos & Bacon 1969. to refer to promontories. 80 Mavor 1973: 177-8; 263-4. 119 500 stadia per degree multiplied by 185 metres per 81 Mifsud & Mifsud 1999: 149-168. stadium, divided by 60 minutes = 1541 metres per minute. 82 Friedrich 2000: 2, 154-7. 120 Filfla is 5 kilometres to the south of Malta, and the 83 Westwood 1997: 29. cleavage of the Pleistocene slickensliding at the 84 Lib. vii, Cap. 56 (Omitted since the sixteenth century). The Maltese Stone Age ended around Maghlaq fault must of necessity have occurred after 2600/500BC. the Ice Age. The fragmentation of the land separating Filfla from the Maghlaq fault must therefore have 85 1995: 85-6. occurred in stages during the Holocene, i. e. the last 86 Bibischok 1525. Lib. v, Cap. 15: 47. 10,000 years. 87 Grongnet‘s name routinely appears also without the 121 first ‗n‘. Ventura 1988: 262, fig. 4. 122 Houel 1787 (4): 262; plate CCLXIV; De Boisgelin
61 Malta:
1804: 2; plate VI; De Non 1789: 283-6. 172 Camps 1962. See Joussaume 1985: 226-8, 230 et seq. 123 Ptolemy Tab. II Aphricae; Fazello Lib. i, Cap. 1; 173 Ward Perkins 1942: 21-2. Megiser 1606, Cap. 2; Barbaro 1768: 43; De Non 1789: 174 Vella 1993: 3 (2): 220. 280-1; Bres 1816: 60-1; Vella 1980: 22; Vella 1982: 275- 175 Ovid iii: 567-578. 6; Friggieri & Freller 1998: 34, 139; Zammit Ciantar 176 Herodotus iv: 150, 153, 155. 1998: 54, 56. 177 Vide infra. 124 Borg Grech 1940: 131. 178 Stephen of Byzantium 1958: 152; Magri 1901: 16- 125 Sanzio 1776: 114. 22. 126 De Boisgelin 1804, 1: 49; Bigelow 1831: 217-8. 179 Mallia 1978: 130, fn. 9. 127 Davy 1842, i: 108. 180 Magri 1906: 7. 128 Leith Adams 1870: 250-1 181 Piggott 1954: 206. 129 Leith Adams, 1870: 151, fn 3. 182 Grasso et al. 1985: 2; Illies 1981: 151. 130 Bradley 1912: 262. 183 Reuther 1984: 1. 131 According to Ellul (1988: 65), old fishermen recall 184 Grasso et al. 1985: 13; Reuther 1984: 14. the ruts on Filfla. 185 The Maghlaq Fault extends in a WNW-SSE for a 132 The evidence of Wrangel island has confirmed that distance of five miles south of Siggiewi and Qrendi. It evolutionary phases may require only a few millennia has caused a downthrow of 600 feet on the southern to take effect (Vartanyan et al. 1993: 337-340), well aspect of Malta at this site, leaving Filfla with its nigh sufficient for the lizard subspecies filfolensis to surface layers of Upper Coralline Limestone intact.185 have evolved on Filfla island during this interval of This WNW-SSE fault trend is paralleled in isolation. Lampedusa. 133 Bradley 1912: 261-2. 186 Pedley et al. 1976; Illies 1981: 151, 152, 156, 165 fig. 134 See also Brockman 1975: 72-3. 10; Reuther 1984: 13 fig. 11; Grasso et al. 1985: 12 fig 135 Brockman 1975: 77; Parker and Rubenstein 1988: 6. 56. 187 Galea 1999, in Aloisio 1999. 136 Patton 1996: 45, 53, 57, 59. 188 Reuther 1984: 14; Illies 1980: 151-168. 137 Patton 1996: 47. 189 Vossmerbäumer 1972. See Reuther 1984: 14. This 138 Patton 1996: 47. tilting process has also contributed to the significant 139 Zerafa 1838: ix a. difference in altitude above sea level between the 140 Caruana Gatto 1915: 240. Pleistocene caverns at Mnajdra (300ft), on the 141 Borg 1911: 39-49. southwestern coast, and Ghar Dalam (50ft), on the 142 Savona-Ventura 1984: 93-106. eastern tip of Malta. Major land upheavals have also 143 Pasa 1953: 175-286. caused a difference in altitude above sea level between 144 Savona-Ventura 1984: 99, 100, 102. the upper Coralline at Mnajdra and that at Filfla 145 Kotsakis 1978 (99): 263-276; Azzaroli 1990: 83-90; across a three-mile stretch of sea. Leighton1996 (5): 21-29. 190 Segre 1960: 115-162. 146 Farrugia Randon & Farrugia Randon 1995: 39. 191 Grasso et al. 1985: 16. 147 Pers. comm. Patrick J. Schembri to Anton Mifsud, 192 Grasso et al. 1985: 16-17. 26th June 2000. 193 Illies 1981: 157, fig. 4; Grasso et al. 1985: 15, fig. 8. 148 Keith 1924: 251-60, 257-8; 1925: 345, 348-50; Pace 194 1973: 263-344. 1972: 1-2. 195 Edens 1996: 144. Wood from the mount of Ararat, 149 Malta Penny Magazine 1840 (34): 138; Leith Adams the alleged site of Noah‘s Ark, has been dated to 1870: 243. 2534BC (Keller 1980: 40). 150 Pickering 1850: 191; Vassallo 1871: 9-10. 196 Diodorus v. 57: 2-5. 151 Trump 1990: 44. 197 Weiss 1996: 30-6. 152 Vella (2000: 44 et seq.) has submitted evidence for 198 Mifsud & Mifsud 1997: 34-36; 38 et seq. the Maltese islands as the ancestral home of the 199 Pollen Analysis report by Katryna Fenech for Anton ancient Egyptians, and also for the survivors of Mifsud, 16/2/1999. Ash comprised 60% of the deposit. Atlantis. 200 Vide infra for the mriehel volcanic ash layer, and 153 Zammit 1916: plate XVII, fig. 1; 1930: plate xv, 2; supra for Graham‘s island. Evans 1971: 163, 235. 201 Major sites of alluvial deposits in the Maltese 154 M.A.R. 1938-9: xii. islands have been destroyed through human 155 Stone, in Evans 1971: 235-6. intervention. Glaring examples include the the present 156 Caruana 1882: 32-33. Maghtab mound and the Addolorata Cemetery at Tal- 157 Zammit 1931b: 42, and plate facing p. 32) Horr, where ancient human remains routinely turned 158 Bedford 1894: 75. up during its excavation works (See Chief Secretary to 159 Presently converted into a Centre for Conservation. Government, Malta, to A. A. Caruana 4th December 160 Bedford 1894: 75. 1899, No. 4678 in Archives at Santo Spirito, Mdina). 161 Testa n.d.: 1474-5. 202 National Archives of Malta (Santo Spirito): Lt. 162 Testa n.d..: 1474. Governor to Caruana 27th December 1902, and 163 Hölbl 1989: 168. See also Bonanno 1998: 223, fn 16. Caruana to Lt. Governor 5th January 1903. 164 Testa n.d. 1473-1477. 203 Zammit 1910: 34-37, 42. 165 Murray 1928: 45-48; 1962: 257-8. 204 Zammit, Peet & Bradley 1912: 21. 166 Mayr 1894: 38; Stöger 1999: 11. See Bonanno 1998: 205 Griffiths 1920: 466. 217 for the Egyptianizing movements he proposes. 206 Museum of Archaeology Reports 1973-74. 167 Zammit 1927: 26-28. 207 Mifsud 1999: 422-3. 168 Malville et al. 1998: 488. 208 Pers. comm. G. Zammit Maempel to Anton Mifsud, 169 Grima 1980; Agius & Ventura 1981; Ellul 1988: 25; October 1996; pers. comm. Sr. Terezina Saliba et al. to Micallef, 1989; Ventura & Tanti 1990; Stoddart et al. Anton Mifsud, October 1996. 1993: 16; England 1999: 141. 209 Mifsud & Mifsud 1997: 91; BM-3015. 170 Sergi 1901: 65. 210 Williamson MS 1840: 153; Knowles MS 1910: 9. 171 Mayr 1908: 114-5. 211 The skull was discovered at the Museum of Natural
62
Echoes of Plato‘s Island
History in London by Anton Mifsud in 1997. October 1999. 212 Mifsud 1999: 422-3. 240 Zammit Maempel 1981: 258. 213 Vide supra. 241 Although attributable to Pantelleria and Lipari, the 214 Leith Adams 1870: 250-1. See also Trump 1990: 86. obsidian expert Robert Tykot was unable to confirm Underwater cart-ruts have also been reported at the this in November of 1998. On two successive occasions Salini (pers. comm. Anthony Bonanno to Anton Mifsud Tykot was not granted access to examine the obsidian 1999) and 3 kilometres northeast of St Julians Tower in the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. (Zeitlmar 1999). 242 Folliot 1984: 49. 215 Leith Adams 1870: fig. 4 of sketch facing 244, 249- 243 Verne 1862: 108; Verne 1958: 42; Verne 1959: 86. 50; Griffiths 1920: 449; 455-6. 244 Critias 114 E. 216 Hyde 1955: 59, 103, 104, 107. 245 Perriccuoli Borzesi 1830: 13, quoting Eumalos of 217 Castagna 1888 I: 8. Cyrene. 218 Trump 1999: 33. 246 Critias 112 B-C. 219 Vella 1980: 22-3; Mahoney 1996: 73. The remains of 247 Critias 116 B-C. the temple have since been obliterated through the 248 Encyclopaedia Britannica CD-ROM 1997. restorations on the fortification and the construction of 249 Critias 119 A-B. the present ditch. 250 Pliny vii: 56. 220 Friggieri & Freller 1998: 139. 251 Timaeus 23 D, 24 D. 221 De Boisgelin 1804 i: 58-9. See also Quintinus 1536 252 Trump 1995-6, 6: 173-7. (Vella 1980: 23) and Pajoli 1694 (Zammit Ciantar 1998: 253 Mifsud 1999: 422-3. 54). 254 Mifsud 1999: 422-3. 222 Scicluna is known world wide for his underwater 255 Both the Burmeghez and Hypogeum dates are in archaeological activities and research, and has himself uncalibrated radiocarbon years. led several underwater expeditions in the Central 256 Mifsud & Mifsud 1999: 164-5. Mediterranean. In 1960, he was responsible for the 257 Critias 111 B. recovery of several priceless artefacts from the Roman 258 Pliny 1566: 246 (Lib. vi, Cap 31). wreck at Xlendi Bay. Commander Scicluna also 259 Odysseus x: 508. recovered the first four-pronged galley anchor of the 260 Quaestiones Naturales. Order of St. John, besides several musket balls of the 261 Somnium Scipionis. Siege of Malta and swivel cannon of the 18th century. 262 Cicero Lib. iii. Scicluna‘s expertise in underwater research earned 263 Biblioteca Storica, i. him at least two major commissions, one from the 264 Bunbury i: 288. British Navy and the other from the British 265 Aeneid iv: 481. Committee of Nautical Archaeology (See Schiavone & 266 Diodorus v.12.1-3. Scerri 1997: 514). 267 Oldfather 1952: 129. 223 Scicluna 1994: 16. Graham Hancock pointed this 268 Ventura & Galea 1993: 6. reference out to Anton Mifsud. 269 Argonautica v. 1230. 224 The photograph is in the possession of Joseph S. 270 Lucanus Lib. ix, v. 652. Ellul. The photography session was carried out on the 271 Herodotus, iv: 179. 13th July 1999. 272 Bunbury 1879, i: 286; Rieu 1975: 214-5. 225 Zeitlmar 1999, in Borg 1999a, 1999b. Aaccording to 273 Timaeus 25 D. one report, the Department of Museums were not able 274 A mariner‘s coastal guide. to reach the site for confirmation of the finds. 275 Periplus — Canaan, col. 498. 226 The sightings have been made by members of the 276 Strabo iii: 170. Buddies Dive Cove at Ramla Bay, Marfa 277 Palefatus, Cap. 32. (www.buddies.com.mt). Chris Agius Sultana has 278 Critias E 108-9 reported several larger canals radiating out of the 279 Timaeus 24 E5, 25 A2, 25 A 4. northeastern coastline. 280 Critias 109 A. 227 This period follows the Pleistocene, and extends 281 Ptolemy Lib. iii, tab. 2, Cap. 3; Lib. iv, Cap. 3. from 8000BC to the present day. 282 Diodorus v.12.1-3. 228 Illies 1981: 163-4; Martineau 1967: 23; Reuther 283 Folliot (1984: 59) confirmed these two designations 1984: 5-6. for the seas described by Plato. It was well known in 229 Illies 1981: 158; Hyde 1955: 59; Reuther 1984: 10. antiquity that the Maltese islands lay on the Pelagian 230 Martineau 1967: 19, fig. 1. block at the head of the African plate — on this basis, 231 Griffiths 1920: 449; Reuther 1984: 10; Brockman St. Augustine included the Maltese islands with Africa. 1975: 77. 284 The Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary (1956: 232 The central island of the Maltese archipelago is 798) defines ‗pelagic‘ as ‗deposited under deep water Comino. The Greeks called it ‗Haephestia‘, meaning conditions‘, such as the Maltese and Pelagian islands volcanic (See Agius de Soldanis 1794 [1999: 193]; have been. Farrugia Randon & Farrugia Randon 1995: 1). 285 Augustine, De Civitatis Dei: xvi, Cap. 17. Furthermore, Haephestus and Athena championed the 286 Ptolemy Lib. iii, tab. 2, Cap. 3; Lib. iv, Cap. 3. cause of the Athenians against the Atlanteans (See 287 See Liddell & Scott 1890: 1170, 1254 respectively text). for usage of pelagos and pontos in ancient Greek 233 Castagna 1888, i: 8-10. authors. 234 Zammit Maempel 1981: 256, 257. 288 Timaeus 25A. 235 Presently the St. Theresa Girls‘ School. 289 Griffiths 1920: 468-9; 477. 236 Zammit Maempel 1981: 243-260. 290 These rock-canals are distinct from the canal dug 237 Zammit Maempel 1981: 251, 258. from the seaside, and which measured 300 ft in width, 238 Zammit Maempel 1981: 259. 100 ft in depth and 50 stadia in length. 239 Pers. comm. Keith Buhagiar to Anton Mifsud 291 Plato used the verb , signifying ―to plough‖ or
63 Malta:
―to cut lengthwise‖. temples in Malta. Archaeoastronomy, the Bulletin of 292 Translation by Horatio Vella (23.12.99). Quarries the Center for Archaeoastronomy iv (1): 10-21. USA: are frequently associated with ruts in Malta; a quarry University of Maryland. can also be interpreted as a ditch. Trump accepts the possibly secondary nature of these cart-ruts as water Agius de Soldanis, G.F. 1754. Gozo, Sacro, Profano, catchment areas (Trump 1990: 33). Antico, Moderno. English translation 1999. Malta: 293 Plato refers to the sea as , which several Media Centre Publications. ancient authors like Herodotus and Homer identify Aloisio, F. 1999. Probability of earthquake risks in with the Mediterranean, and not with the Aegean Sea Malta being studied. The Malta Independent on (Liddell and Scott 1999: 357). Sunday 19th September: 48. 294 Critias 118D, E. 295 Trump 1990: 32; 1998: 35. Ammianus Marcellinus. 1874. Rerum gestarum libri 296 Gracie (1954) and Evans (1971) criticize Zammit qui supersunt. Leipzig: Gardthausen. (1931) for the absence of a map, so that the ruts ―run predominently [sic] from the valleys up to the heights‖ Anca, F. 1859-60. Note sur deux nouvelles ossiferes (Evans 1971: 203). However Zammit included an decouvertes en Sicile en 1859. Bulletin de la Societe excellent set of five aerial photographs among his Geologique de France (2) 17: 684-695. plates, and these transmit their message even better than a map. Apollonius of Rhodes. 1975. Argonautica. Translation 297 Critias 116 C et seq. by E. V. Rieu. Penguin. 298 Ward Perkins 1954: 962. 299 Piggott 1954: 205-7. Apollonius Rhodius. 1905. Argonautica. Leipzig: 300 Ward Perkins 1954: 962. Merkel. 301 Piggott 1954: 205-7. 302 Evans 1954: 131. Arambourg, C. and Arnould, M. 1950. Note sur les 303 Daniel 1972: 7. fouilles paleontologiques executees en 1947-48 et 1949 304 Renfrew 1994: 6. dans le gisement Villafranchian de la Garaet Ichkeul. 305 England 1998: 10. Bullettin de la Societe de la Science Naturelle de 306 Foster 1991: 1. Tunisie II (3-4): 149-57. 307 Savona-Ventura & Mifsud 1999: 56. 308 Today Ogygia is traditionally associated with the Ashby, T., Zammit, T. and Despott, G. 1916. sister island of Gozo. Excavations in Malta in 1914. Man 1916, i: 14. London: 309 Strabo Lib. i, 7. The Royal Anthropological Institute. 310 Odysseus Lib. i, 8. 311 Catullus Lib. iv, Eleg. 1. Attard, J. 1989. The Atlantis Inheritance. Malta: PEG 312 Tibullus Lib. iv, Eleg. 1. Ltd. 313 Bibischok 1525. Lib v, Cap. 15: 47. 314 Geography of Ancient Sicily, Lib. 2, Cap. 16; De Augustine of Hippo, De Civitatis Dei. erroribus Ulyssis, fol. 474. 315 ‗Eumalos‘ is the archaic Doric equivalent of Azzaroli, A. 1990. Palaeogeography of terrestrial ‗Eumelus‘, and is translated literally as ‗rich in sheep‘. vertebrates in the Perityrrhenian area. See Liddell & Scott 1890: 606, 607. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 77: 316 Ancient ‗Sicania‘ is modern Sicily (Diodorus Siculus 83-90. v. 6.1-5). 317 Eumalos vi, cited in Perricciuoli Borzesi 1830: 5-6; Bahn, P. (ed.) 1996. The Story of Archaeology. London: See also Grongnet 1854: 619 & Godwin 1880: 11. Phoenix Illustrated. 318 Eusebius 1529, i: 41, 2: 65; Clinton 1834, 1: 263; Layard 1849, 2: 217. See Bishop 1965: 5, fn. §, 6 fn. ‡. Baldacchino, J. G. and Evans, J. D. 1954. Prehistoric 319 Levy 1948: xv, 138, plates XVIII c to f; Zammit Tombs near Zebbug. Papers of the British School at 1927: 26-28. Rome 22: 1-21. 320 Pers. comm. Reuben Grima to Anton Mifsud, September 1998. Barbaro, D. 1794. Degli Avanzi a alcuni edifizj scoperti 321 Times of Malta 16th October 1999: 11. in Malta l‘anno 1768. Malta. 322 Vide supra. 323 Archaeology 52 (6): 19. Bauval, R. 1999. Secret Chamber: the Quest for the 323 The recent ‗discovery‘ of a secret chamber beneath Hall of Records. Century. the Egyptian Sphinx is expected by Robert Bauval to lead to the retrieval of ancient Egyptian texts relating, Baviera Albanese, A. 1963. Il problema dell‘Arabica amongst other things, to Plato‘s Island (Bauval 1999). impostura dell‘Abate Vella. Nuovi Quaderni del Meridione, Anno I: 397-8, cited in Vella 1974: 360, 367, fn 49. References Unless stated otherwise, the references to the ancient Bedford, W.K. 1894. Malta and the Knight texts derive from the Loeb Classics Series (1912-58), Hospitallers. Harvard University Press. Berlitz, C. 1977. The Mystery of Atlantis. Granada Abela, G.F. 1647. Della Descrittione di Malta Isola nel Publishing Ltd. Mare Siciliano, con le sue antichita. Malta: Paolo Bonacota. Bernabò Brea, L. 1950a. The Prehistoric Culture- Sequence in Sicily. Annual Report of the University of Agius, G. and Ventura, F. 1981. Investigation into the London Institute of Archaeology of London 13 (6). possible astronomical alignments of the Copper Age
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Bernabò Brea, L. 1950b. Il neolitico a ceramica Tripolitania, Cirenaica e Fezzan. Naples. impressa e la diffusione nel Mediterraneo. Rivista Internazionale di Studi Liguri 16: I. Borzesi G. P. 1830. The Historical Guide to the Island of Malta and its Dependencies, dedicated to Mr Henry Bibischok, 1525. Origine del Mondo — Che Malta sia Ponsonby. With an Appendix. Malta: Government un avanzo dell‘Atlantide. Cited in Grongnet MS614: Press. 135. Bradley, R.N. 1912. Malta and the Mediterranean Bigelow, A. 1831. Travels in Malta and Sicily. Boston: Race. London: T. Fisher Unwin. Carter, Hendee and Babcock. Bres, 0. 1816. Malta Antica Illustrata. Rome: Bishop, A. 1965 (4th ed.) The Two Babylons. London: Stamperia De Romanis. Sue Partridge & Co. Brockman, E. 1975 (2nd ed.) Last Bastion. Malta: Blouet, B. 1965. Gozo. Malta: Progress Press Co. Ltd. Progress Press Co. Ltd.
Bochard, S. 1712. Geographia Sacra. Cited in Brown, P. 1997. Authority and the Sacred. Cambridge Grongnet 1854: 603 University Press.
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6. Zammit, T. 1931b. Guide to the Valletta Museum. Westwood, J. 1997. Lost Atlantis. London: Weidenfeld Valletta: Empire Press. and Nicolson. Zammit, T. 1935. An Early Christian Rock Tomb on Williamson, G. 1837. Observations of the Human the Hal Resqun Bridle Road at Gudia. Bulletin of the Crania contained in the Museum of the Army Medical Museum 1 (5): 189-195. Valletta: The Director of the Department, Fort Pitt, Chatham. MS. in Palaeontology Museum. Department, Museum of Natural History, London. Zammit, T. 1966 (4th ed.). The Copper Age Temples, Xenagoras. De Insulis. MS in Vatican library. Cited by Tarxien, Malta. Ghajnsielem, Gozo: Orphans Press. Grongnet 1854: 627. Zammit, T. and Singer, C. 1924. Neolithic Zammit, T. 1910. The Hal Saflieni Prehistoric Representations of the Human Form from the Islands Hypogeum. Malta. of Malta and Gozo. Malta.
Zammit, T. 1915. Archaeology: Prehistoric Remains in Zammit, T., Peet, T. E. and Bradley, R. N. 1912. The Malta and Gozo. In MacMillan A. (ed.) Malta and Small Objects and the Human Skulls found in the Hal Gibraltar Illustrated, pp. 186 - 198. London: W.H. and Saflieni Prehistoric Hypogeum. Second Report. Malta. L. Collingridge. Zammit Ciantar, J. 1998. A Benedictine‘s Notes on Zammit, T. 1916. The Hal Tarxien Neolithic Temple, Seventeenth Century Malta. Valletta: J. Zammit Malta. Archaeologia 67: 127-144, plates XV to XXVI. Ciantar.
Zammit, T. 1917a. Archaeology Field Notes, Zammit Maempel, G. 1981. A Maltese Pleistocene Manuscript 18. The Library of the National Museum Sequence capped by volcanic Tufa. Atti della Societa of Archaeology, Valletta. Toscana di Scienze Naturali Ser. A. 88: 243-260.
Zammit, T. 1917b. Megalithic Sanctuary at Hal Zeitlmar, H. 1999. In Borg, D. 1999a and 1999b. Tarxien. Reports on the working of Government Departments during the financial year 1915-16. Malta: Zerafa. S. 1838. Sulla Storia fisica di Malta e sue Government Printing Office. adiacenze. Malta.
Zammit, T. 1925. Burmeghez Cave - Mkabba, in Reports on the Working of the Governments during the Financial Year 1922-23, Section O: 3. Malta: Government Printing Office. Zammit, T. 1926. Malta: the Islands and their History. The Malta Herald.
Zammit, T. 1927. The Neolithic Temples of Hajar Kim and Mnaidra. Valletta.
Zammit, T. 1928 (2nd ed.) The Neolithic Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni. Empire Press, Valletta.
Zammit, T. 1930. Prehistoric Malta: The Tarxien Temples. Oxford.
Zammit, T. 1931a. Prehistoric Cart tracks in Malta. Revised edition. (First published in Antiquity 1928 (2): 18).
71 Echoes of Plato’s Island
In this 1598 version of Ptolemy’s map, Aphricae II, the chartographer has included dolphins in the Central Mediterranean area. Dolphins are also traditionally associated with the survivors of Atlantis. (Marika was the first to point this out to us)
Ptolemy’s map also shows the location of the Tritonis marsh (arrowed), frequently alluded to as lying in close proximity to the straits of Heracles and Plato’s Island (see text).
This inscription on Mesa Vouno in Thera reads: “To Poseidon, god of the sea, Artemidoros has engraved in the everlasting rock a dolphin, considered friendly to humans, in honour of the gods.” Plato associated the god Poseidon (on right) with Atlantis.
Plate 1. Poseidon and the dolphin 73 Malta:
The extract at the top is a French translation (1566) of Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturale, and it preserves the mention of the island/s of Atlantis in the Central Mediterranean close to Carthage and the small Mount Atlas.
The extract in the centre is an Italian translation by Grongnet (1854) which preserves the mention of the battle between the Atlanteans and Athenians, which was fought with wooden sticks hardened with fire, because of a lack of iron.
The third extract is another Italian translation by Perricciuoli Borzesi of Siena (1831), which has preserved the account of Eumalos of Cyrene.
Plate 2. Secondary sources for the ancient texts 74 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Volcanic ash layer (E) of recent deposition. It was discovered by George Zammit Maempel in 1965 during excavation works on the Mriehel Primary School. The ash layer was 45 cm thick. The origin of the ash has not been identified outside the Maltese islands. (Photograph courtesy of George Zammit Maempel).
Sites similar to the Mriehel ash deposit are to be found all along the Mriehel by- pass road, which is rapidly building up with construction sites. This photograph shows the same soil deposit underlying a layer similar to the ash deposit, but which cannot be tested at this stage. (Photograph – Anton Mifsud).
Plate 3. Volcanic ash at Mriehel 75 Malta:
The valley through Mriehel to Birkirkara and Hamrun towards Marsa. The dark arrow points to the site where volcanic ash was discovered by George Zammit Maempel in 1965. Transparent arrows show other sites where similar deposits have been described — the arrow pointing left shows the site described by Cooke (see text.) The vertically hashed arrow points to the site of the St Monica school, where the Fleur de Lys man in the clay was salvaged by George Zammit Maempel.
Dr. George Zammit Maempel (on left) is the palaeontologist in charge of the Museum of Natural History at Ghar Dalam, Birzebbuga. The showcases in the background display a fraction of the vast numbers of animal fossil remains found in the cave. These represent the remains of dwarf elephant, hippopotamus, red deer and small carnivores. Zammit Maempel was responsible for the excavation of the man in the clay at Fleur de Lys and for the discovery of volcanic ash at Mriehel — the source of the ash could not be identified after detailed scientific analysis in corroboration with volcanic experts in the Mediterranean.
Plate 4. George Zammit Maempel and the distribution of volcanic ash areas 76 Echoes of Plato’s island
Il-Milghuba is a phenomenon which is well known to old local fishermen. A minor version was recorded at the Salini, Malta, on the 9th of July 1973. An initial lowering of sea level by a few feet was soon followed by a rise which covered a 400-foot stretch of normally dry land. Although no earthquake were reported at the time, volcanic activity on Mount Etna was reported to be very pronounced a few days before. The cause of the phenomenon was most probably attributable to submarine seismic activity. (Photograph courtesy of Times of Malta).
Msida on the 25th March 1983. Normally the site of flooding following intense rainy episodes, no cause was initially apparent on this occasion. However an earthquake registering 6.4 on the Richter scale had occurred a few hours previously near the Ionian island of Kefallinia, 217 miles west of Athens. (Photograph courtesy of Times of Malta).
Plate 5. Flooding events associated with Mediterranean seismic activity 77 Malta:
Aerial photograph (1935) of the Valletta harbours, showing the underwater valley (white arrow) running along the Grand Harbour, the site of the submerged temple (black arrow) with massive blocks, as initially described by Quintinus in the early sixteenth century, and also confirmed by later visitors - “The ruins lie scattered through many acres of land; the foundations of the temple cover a large part of the harbour, even far out into the sea.” (Vella 1980: 23) (Photograph - courtesy of Joseph Ellul)
Aerial photograph (1935) of the Sliema – St. Julians area showing submerged land areas on the bottom right and, in top right hand corner, the feature which led to the discovery of the underwater structures described by Zeitlmar in July 1999. (Photograph - courtesy of Joseph Ellul)
Plate 6. Aerial views of submerged structures 78 Echoes of Plato’s Island
“The rock is of a great height, and absolutely perpendicular from the sea for several miles. It is very singular, that on this side there are still the vestiges of several ancient roads, with the tracks of carriages worn deep in the rocks. These roads are now terminated by a precipice, with the sea beneath; and shew to a demonstration, that this island has in former ages been of a much larger size than it is at present; but the convulsion that occasioned its diminution is probably much beyond the reach of any history or tradition. It has often been observed, notwithstanding the very great distance of mount Etna, that this island has generally been more or less affected by its eruptions, and they think it probable, that on some of those occasions a part of it may have been shaken into the sea.” (Brydone 1775, i: 225).
Cart ruts along the south- western coastline at high altitudes above sea level, showing the outline of the well-preserved survivors (above). Some are interrupted at the cliff edge (top right photographs, with the Grupp Arkeologiku Malti), and others continue across deep chasms (right – from Bradley 1912, plate 53), thus showing that significant land movements have occurred on the Maltese Islands since the advent of the first humans to settle there.
Plate 7. Cart ruts on elevated areas – interrupted by land movement 79 Echoes of Plato’s Island
Fort S. Giorgio
Ruts
Silos
Extent of the cart ruts at St. George’s Creek in 1870 (above, top), as depicted by Leith Adams (Plate VII No. 4), Today they have been reduced to a few feet (above left and right). The ‘storage pits’ or ‘silos’ have also suffered. Leith Adams described them as ‘rock-pits’ (arrowed), seventy to eighty in number, and measuring four to five feet in depth. (See text p. 42). Cart ruts leading to the sea can still be seen at Salini and at Ghadira Bay (below, right and left). John Samut-Tagliaferro and Grupp Arkeologiku Malti pointed these out to us.
Plate 8. Cart ruts leading to the sea along the northeastern coastline 80 Echoes of Plato’s Island
The importance of the cart ruts was still not fully appreciated in the early decades of the twentieth century. The museum of Natural History at Ghar Dalam in Birzebbuga was built over their course.
These cart ruts at Ta’ Planka in Gozo The greatest enemy of these exposed features disappear into the fields behind the rubble has been erosion through climatic agencies. walls which have been put up in the Maltese These cart ruts leading to the sea at Qala in Islands since time immemorial. (Courtesy of Gozo are fast disappearing into non- existence. Grupp Arkeologiku Malti) (Courtesy of Grupp Arkeologiku Malti)
Plate 9. The disappearing cart ruts 81 Malta:
St. George’s Creek, Birzebbuga — David Trump points out the submerged ruts and ‘storage pits’ to members of the Archaeological Society of Malta (top left). A few feet of rut length presently remains (top right), and the remainder has been covered over by the developed coast road.
The ‘storage pits’ or ‘silos’ lie very close by (left). Several lie at the water’s edge, and several others are presently submerged.
These submerged features form part of a series of man-made structures which now lie below sea level along the northeastern coastline of the Maltese islands. Jean Quintinus recorded a submerged temple in Grand Harbour, and recently Commander Scicluna and Hubert Zeitlmar have reported similar structures at St. Julians. See text for reports of other cart ruts leading to the sea along the same coastline, and which were reported during the nineteenth century.
Plate 10. Submerged man-made structures at St. George’s Creek. 82 Echoes of Plato’s Island
The Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) was responsible for the first archaeological investigation underwater in the seas of Turkey during the 1960’s. The INA has been to Malta four times since last October, and will be undertaking major projects in underwater archaeology of the Maltese waters next year. Aysa Atauz is seen here together with Anthony de Bono, President of the Archaeological Society of Malta, and INA co-ordinator Timothy Gambin before her talk at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta in July this year. The deeper waters will also be investigated, and according to Ms. Atauz, “there is no limit to the depth which can be reached with the present technology available to the INA.”
The Maltese waters have also attracted the attention of Channel Four of International Television in the United Kingdom. Well-known author Graham Hancock (third from left) is investigating the Maltese sea bed together with geologist (extreme left) for inclusion in the projected television documentary series Underworld. He is seen here with two of the authors during discussions of the local material available for inclusion in the series.
Plate 11. The INA and ITV 83 INDEX
Acholla – 32. Dolomieu, Deodat de – 16, 61. Agius de Soldanis – 20, 61, 63. Donnelly, Ignatius – 14, 60, 61. Alexandria – 2, 8, 10, 12, 20, 28, 48. Egypt, Egyptians – 1, 2, 8, 10, 12, 14, 26, Ancient texts – 2, 4, 6, 14, 16, 20, 56. 28, 30, 36, 46, 48, 52, 58, 61, 62, 64. Architecture – 1, 40, 54. Eumalos of Cyrene – 46, 56, 60, 63, 64. Ash, volcanic – 12, 14, 36, 44, 58, 62. Eusebius – 2, 6, 58, 60, 64. Atlantika – 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 46, 48, 52, Evans, Arthur – 1, 6, 8, 56. 56, 58, 60. Filfla – 14, 24, 26, 28, 52. Atlantikos – 10, 12, 61. Flloding events – 8, 18, 36, 38, 40, 48, 58. Augustine – 52. Galanopoulos, A. G. – 14, 61. Babylon - 30, 56, 58. Galileo – 6. Battus – 32, 56. Goddio, Frank – 8. Berlitz, Charles – 60, 61. Gozo – 1, 12, 18, 20, 24, 28, 30, 40, 42, 44, Bighi – 30. 52, 54, 60. Biogeography – 26, 28. Graham’s Island – 12, 18, 60, 62. Borg, J. J. – 14, 61. Grongnet, Giorgio – 14, 61, 64. Borzesi, G. P. – 14, 56, 63, 64. Hagar Qim – 14, 24. Burials – 30, 38, 40, 48. Heracles, Straits of – 4, 10, 14, 48, 52. Burmeghez – 40, 46, 48, 63. Hypogeum, Hal Saflieni – 1, 24, 38, 40, Callimachus – 4, 56. 48, 54. Canals – 42, 44, 54, 63. James, Peter – 14, 46, 61. Cart ruts – 12, 24, 26, 42, 44, 52, 54, 58, Josephus – 2, 60. 62, 63, 64. Krantor – 10, 12. Caruana, A. A. – 38. Land movements – 44. Chaldea – 30, 58. Libia – 10, 28, 30, 32, 56, 61. Chronology – 2, 12, 16, 36, 46, 58. Library of Alexandria – 2, 4, 56. Cleopatra – 8, 12. Linosa – 26, 34, 44, 46, 52, 58. Cluverius, Philipp – 56. Magri, Emanuel – 24, 32, 38. Comino – 20, 24, 42, 52. Malta, Maltese – 1, 2, 6, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, Constantinople – 4, 6, 14. 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, Copernicus – 6. 46, 48, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64. Crete – 1, 6, 14, 28, 30, 36, 46, 52, 56. Manetho – 2, 60. Cult of the Bull – 10, 52, 58. Marcellinus, Ammianus – 10, 12, 61. Dating – 1, 4, 40, 44, 46, 58, 60. Marinatos, Spyridon – 8, 14. Diodorus Siculus – 12, 48, 52, 56, 64. Mavor, James – 8, 14, 46, 61. Mayr, Albert – 1, 30, 60, 62. Syrtis – 48. Mediterranean – 1, 2, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, Tantalis – 14. 18, 20, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 48, 52, 54, 56, Tectonics – 14, 16, 32, 34, 44, 58. 58, 60, 61, 63. Temples – 1, 2, 8, 10, 12, 16, 24, 30, 32, Megalithic structures – 1, 14, 30, 32, 40, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 58, 60, 61, 63. 42, 44, 54, 56, 58, 61. Tilting – 34, 62. Mnajdra – 14, 24, 30, 40, 62. Verne, Jules – 63. Mountains of the Moon – 8, 20. Volcano – 12, 14, 32, 34, 36, 38, 44, 46, 58, Nabta – 30. 60, 62, 63. Pantelleria – 12, 16, 26, 28, 30, 34, 44, 48, Wrangel Island – 62. 58, 63, 66. Zammit Maempel, George - 44, 63. Parthenon – 10, 12. Zammit, Themistocles - 24, 30, 38, 40, 54, Pelagian block, islands – 6, 16, 26, 28, 32, 58, 60, 62, 64. 34, 48, 52, 58, 60, 61, 63. Pelagos – 20, 52, 58, 60, 63. Piri Reis – 4, 8, 20, 60. Plato – 6, 8, 10, 14, 16, 18, 28, 40, 42, 46, 48, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60. Pliny the Elder – 4, 6, 12, 14, 46, 52, 60, 61, 63. Podarcis – 26, 28. Precious metals – 46. Psonchis – 8, 10, 12. Ptolemy I – 2. Ptolemy, Claudius – 4, 6, 8, 18, 20, 24, 52, 60, 61, 63. Quintinus, Jean - 1, 24, 42, 61, 63. Ruwenzori – 8. Sais – 8. San Dimitri – 12. Schliemann, Heinrich - 6. Skulls – 28, 38, 40, 62. Skylax – 48. Socrates – 10, 12. Solon – 8, 10, 12, 61. Stelae – 30. Strabo – 8, 10, 12, 61, 63, 64. Submerged structures – 8, 12, 14, 16, 18, 24, 36, 40, 42, 44, 48, 56, 58.
Anton Mifsud is a senior consultant in Paediatrics at St. Luke’s Hospital in Malta. His main interest outside of medicine is Maltese prehistory, and he is the co-author with Simon Mifsud of Dossier Malta – Evidence for the Magdalenian (1997), and with Charles Savona Ventura of Prehistoric Medicine in Malta (1999) and Ghar Hasan (2000). He is co-editor with Charles Savona Ventura of Facets of Maltese Prehistory (1999).
Simon Mifsud is a senior registrar in Paediatrics at the Gozo General Hospital. His main interest outside of medicine is Maltese prehistory, and he is co-author with Anton Mifsud of Dossier Malta – Evidence for the Magdalenian (1997).
Chris Agius Sultana is a professional artistic designer with an interest in underwater exploration. He is responsible for triggering off this investigation into Plato’s Island.
Charles Savona Ventura is a consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St. Luke’s Hospital in Malta. His main interest is Maltese Medical History and Natural History. He is the author of Outlines of Maltese Medical History (1997), and co-author with Anton Mifsud of Prehistoric Medicine in Malta (1999) and Ghar Hasan (2000), and co-editor with Anton Mifsud of Facets of Maltese Prehistory (1999).
The authors 86
"Filfla sits solitary in a silver sea, remnant of a great expanse of hill and valley which once stretched unbroken towards what was to be Carthage, the Atlas ... and lost Atlantis. " Eric Brockman
The search for Plato's Island has now moved into the Mediterranean, and Malta alone fits Plato's description. It is the only architectural civilizalionwhich predates that of Egypt by a thousand years. The ancient text of Plato is now supplemented by that of the Theran, Eumalos of Cy.rene, who identified the Central Mediterranean as the site of Plato's Island. But does the scientific evidence confirm this?
"Like Anton Mifsud's other work on Malta's mysterious past, this highly readable book is a piece of first class historical detective work. Thoroughly researched and filled from front to back with convincing evidence and reasoning, it makes a persuasive, thought-provoking and extremely original case." Graham Hancock, author of Fingerprints of the Gods, The Sign and the Seal, Heaven's Mirror.
The theme of the publication will be appearing in the ITV documentary series (Jnderworldon Channel Four, and on RAI Tre television. It has been included in the Cabinet's consular correspondence over the European Union question, and also in the brochures of the;Malta Tourism Authority for its publicity campaign world wide. It will also be featured together with Dossier Malta - Evidencefor the Magdalenian in Graham Hancock's forthcoming publication, Underworld.
MALTA: ECHOES OF PLATO,S ISLAND ISBN 99932-t5-02-3
The Prehistoric Society of Malta The Aton Penthouse Olive Street, Lower Gardens, St. Julians STJ 12 Printed by Proprint Company Limited Mosta