Maltese Prehistory Early life on the islands

ANTHONY BONANNO longer. There were definitely no domestic among most animals, and the first specimens of goats, nities. sheep, cattle and swine had to be shipped hen the first settlers arrived on over the relatively long stretch of sea that The Megalitbic Phenomenon Wthe Maltese islands, around 7000 separated the new home from Sicily, to­ Things start to become more complex and years ago, most probably from gether with the first range of domesticseeds sophisticated in the second period of Mal­ nearby Sicily, they found a very different for cultivation. ta's prehistory, which is characterized by landscape from t he denuded, rocky and The foremost preoccupation ofthese ear­ those astounding buildings, shaped with arid one we see around us today. Although ly farmers after setting up home on the Gargantuan stones, that are known as we have reason to believe that the process islands was the reclamation of agricultural Megalithic temples. A new migration wave, of soil erosion had already started through land for farming. Presumably this could again originating from southeast Sicily, natural agents, namely wind and the alter­ only be done at the expense of the tree seems to have replaced or completely sub­ nation of increasingly differentiated dry cover. Slash-and-burn methods must have dued, at least culturally, the previous early and wet seasons, the natural environment accelerated the process of denudation Neolithic population. This new population of the islands was as yet untouched by man. which in time led to soil erosion and the loss brought some new ideas with it, a new No records have yet been taken from exca­ of precious water into the sea. cultural background. Its first recorded vations that could throw light on the ecosys­ However, these problems do not seem to manifestations are collective underground tem prevalent on the archipelago at the have become acute before the end of the tombs, examples of which were first discov­ time when man started interfering with it. following period of Maltese prehistory, ered at Zebbug and very recently at Xaghra, We therefore cannot tell what kind of trees some twenty-five centuries later. During Gozo. This type of collective tomb was to and plants thrived on the islands. It would this early Neolithic period there were no develop in time into huge underground be safe to say, however, that they were phenomenal rises in population. Nor were complexes like the eerie Hypogeum of Hal much more wooded than they have been there any astounding cultural achievements Saflieni. From the Zebbug tombs comes a since, although this assumption requires such as were experienced in the following mysterious piece of sculpture, a stylized , confirmation. Nor are we in a position to age. Malta's earliest inhabitants lived in highly abstracted human head with the tell exactly what kind of animals roamed natural caves, such as that of. Ghar Dalam , facial features suggested by incised lines that virgin landscape except, perhaps, that which abound in the Maltese limestone and holes. Wnat is stranger still is the fact they must have remained more or less the landscape, and in scattered small villages that it has nothing in common with the same as those obtaining just before the final only one of which, that of Skorba, has been characteristic anthropomorphic sculpture retreat of the glaciers and the consequent extensively explored. Their houses con­ definitive rise of the sea level at the end of sisted of small oval huts built of sun-dried Top: Frieze with domestic animals from the last Ice Age, some 10000 years ago, mud-brick and wattle-and-daub over low the·Hal Tarxien site (3rd millennium BC). which left the Maltese archipelago de­ stone foundations. The same type of con­ Right: Headless statue ofa "great god­ tached for good from the continent. Some struction technique was extended to reli­ dess" from Hagar Qim (2800 BC). species, such as the bear, seemto have gone gious architecture, the only example of extinct already by then, while others, like which was discovered in the same village at Oben: Fries mit Haustieren, aus Hal the wild boar and deer, survived for much Skorba. Inside the so-called "Skorba Tarxien (3. Jahrtausend v. ehr.). Rsch fs: shrine" fragments of the earliest represen­ Kopf/ose Statue einer «Grossen Goffin}) A nfhony Bonanno, tation of the human form were fo und ­ aus Hagar Qim (2800 v. ehr.) studied and graduated at the universities of Malta and Palermo and at the Institute of Archaeology, small, unmistakably female figurines which haut: frise decoree d'animaux London University. He has taught Archaeology and have been connected with a belief in a En Classics at the University of Malta since 1971. He is domestiques, de Hal Tarx ien (Ifle mille· now Professor of Archaeology and Head of Deport­ Mother Goddess, a goddess of fertility rep­ ment of Classics at the some University. He is the naire av. J.-c.). A droite: statue acephale author of various publications on Roman art and resenting the earth which is commonly be­ d'une ((Grande Deesse» de Mo/t(;iJ; prove­ Maltese archaeology. lieved to have been the object of worship nant du site de Hagar Kim (2800 av.J.-c.).

28 24~786 of the Temple culture which developed explanation of the Maltese phenomenon is The Temple Culture came to a myste­ gradually from this new population, from a reflection of the impact produced by this rious, probably sudden, end towards the the Zebbug people. surprisingly advanced prehistoric culture middle of the third millennium Be, al­ on the modern mind. though some see signs of cultural decline Isolation, but 8 Stone-moving Belief An even more bizarre explanation of the before the final collapse . Many explana­ What is obvious about this cultural de­ Maltese Megalithic monuments was pro­ tions have been proposed for this collapse. velopment is that while contacts with the posed in the nineteenth century by another Some suggestions are more plausible than outside world. namely Sicily, Lipari and writer on Maltese antiquities, G. Grognet others, but all remain based on varying Pantelleria, as well as Italy and perhaps de Vasse , whose much more lasting and even beyond. were maintained , these were valid merit is that of having designed the limited to the continued importation of raw architecture of the splendid Mosta church. materials for tools and even some ritual Grognet believed that Malta, with its queer objects (like the green stone axe pendants). Megalithic remains, must be the last surviv­ In brief, traffic in either direction was re­ ing remnant of the lost Atlantis. His writ­ stricted to the material culture. For the rest, ings on this subject are found in a published starting from the third phase of this period, volume entitled Compendia della Isola the Ggantija phase, this people of farmers Atlantide della quale Ie !sale di Malta, Gozo initiated a cultural development of great e Comino sono certissimi resti (1854) and in consequence, but in total isolation, without a beautiful manuscript preserved in the Na­ inspiration from outside and without any tional Library of Malta (Bib!. Ms. 614). The apparent influence directed towards the manuscript incorporates a large number of outside. This cultural development, made colour drawings , including a map of Atlan­ possible by an efficient, surplus-producing tis , plans and elevations of the Ggantija, agricultural economy, an equally efficient, Hagar Qirn and Mnajdra temples, and a even if primitive, social organization and a self-portrait. Grognet went so far with his deeply-rooted, literally stone-moving be­ theory as to "invent" a script - incidentally lief in a great religious idea, brought about very similar to that of the Phoenicians ­ the conceptualization and the realization of which he claimed must have been in use such feats of architectural ingenuity as the among the inhabitants of Atlantis and, Ggantija temples and those of Tarxien, therefore, the builders of the temples. Hagar Qim and Mnajdra. In their efforts to understand the pro­ An Extraordinary People cesses of the cultural evolution of mankind Whatever our conclusions on the origins of some students of antiquity - be they histo­ the ideas inspiring the building of the Mal­ rians or prehistorians, archaeologists, so­ tese prehistoric temples and the social and cial anthropologists or historians of religion religious forces that made them possible , - find it difficult to accept that such a grand we cannot entertain any doubts that be­ culture could have possibly developed inde­ tween 5500 and 4500 years ago the Maltese pendently of the great cultural currents that islands were inhabited by an extraordinary were brought to bear on virtually all the people, extraordinary not because they lands bordering the Mediterranean at that were giants or were supported by some time. It is within this mental framework visitors from outer space - two other wild that we must consider diffusionist theories ideas suggested in the past, the first one in prevalent in the first half of our century, the seventeenth century, the second only a from Worsaae and Montelius to Gordon couple of decades ago - but because they Childe's view of "the irradiation of Euro­ were intelligent and resourceful people , as I pean barbarism by Oriental civilization". believe the Maltese people still are. They The widespread theory of the diffusion of must have been both te~hnologically as well ideas , of civilization, from east to west did as artistically endowed. Evidence of the not exclude the formulation of at least one first quality lies in the sheer size of the stone HENRI STIERUN theory that the cradle of Mediterranean blocks used, and in many cases, such as degrees of conjecture. What is certain is civilization was not to be sought in the east Hagar Qirn, Tarxien and Mnajdra, the per­ that the Temple people were at some stage but at the centre of that sea, in Malta. fect interlocking between them to produce replaced by a succession of three migratory L.M. Ugolini , writing in the 1930s (Malta , a solid structure according to a precon­ waves originating from different sources on Origini della Civilta Mediterranea), fa­ ceived architectural design. It will suffice to the European littoral of the Mediterra­ voured the view of an irradiation of civiliza­ observe the finesse of the sculpture that nean, either from the north or from the tion from the centre (ex media lux) rather used to adorn the temples , both the statu­ northeast. than from the east. Of course this idea has ary and the carvings in relief, as well as the All three successive cultures show clear never taken root in the scholarly world, but perfection of design of the hand-moulded signs of the insecurity of the times (in the very fact that it occurred to a serious ceramic production, to convince oneself of contrast with the peaceful tranquillity that archaeologist such as Ugolini as a possible the artistic genius of this people. predominated in the previous period): cop­

30 per weapons, naturally defensible settle­ characters of the Minoan script, and a by the gods from reaching their homelands ments on flat hilltops, at times even for­ fragment of a Mycenaean cup. after the siege and destruction of Troy. tified villages. So far scholarly research has The Tarxien Cemetery people cremated Callimachus identifies Gozo, the second mostly focused its attention on the most their dead and deposited their charred re­ largest island of the Maltese archipelago, spectacular feats of the previous period, but mains in urns inside the ruins of the Tarxien with the Homeric Ogygia, the island of it may well be that the Bronze Age reserves temples. As yet we have not discovered any Calypso, on which Odysseus was ship­ for us some unexpected surprises as to the of their settlements as we have for their wrecked and spent seven years of his nos­ denouement of the Maltese scenario on the successors, the Borg in-Nadurpeople, who tos. Ovid connects the legendary reign of a

eve of history, when Crete was already the lived on flat-topped hills and ridges which Bird's-eye view ofthe temple of seat of the earliest European civilization ­ were sometimes fortified by "Cyclopean" Mna;dra, with three groups ofcircular the splendid civilization named after the walls on the more vulnerable sides. Finally sanduaries. The 4500-year-ald architec­ mythical king Minos, followed immediately we find allusions in later classical literature , ture is unique in the Mediterranean. and absorbed by the Mycenaean one which such as Lycophron. Callimachus and Ovid, dominated the whole of the Aegean area. which can be interpreted as distant remi­ Der Tempel von Mna;dra aus der There are sure signs of close contacts be­ niscences of these contacts between the Vogelperspektive. Diese 4500 Jahre alte Architektur ist im Miffelmeer einzigarlig. tween the Bronze Age inhabitants of the Aegean world and the contemporary in­ Maltese islands and these two civilizations, habitants of these pelagic islands. Vue aerienne du temple de Mna;dra. such as the dark green stone bead with Lycophron makes a group of Greek refu­ Ceffe architedure monumentale, vieille symbols in gold inlay identical with some gees settle in Malta, as they were prevented de 4500 ans, est unique en Mediterranee.

31 king of Malta, Battus, with Anna, sister of ta in order to promote archaeological exca­ only funerary enclosure of the Temple Dido who, accordingto one legend,gave hos­ vations on two already identified prehis­ Period of its type met with so far on the pitality to another classical hero, Aeneas. toric sites on the island of Gozo. The first islands. The other burial sites of the same Maltese prehistory is brought to a close, excavation season took place in June 1987, period, e.g. at Zebbug and Xernxija, are however, by another people, this time of and a preliminary report on one of the sites purely underground features without exter­ Oriental origin, the Phoenicians, who seem (modest, albeit important, remnants of a nal structures, although the Hypogeum at to have used the islands initially (around domestic settlement of the Temple Period) Hal Saflieni did have a monumental en­ the beginning of the seventh century) as a has been published in Antiquity. The sec- trance, reminiscent of the temple struc-

Left: The Mnajdra Temple by the sea with its megalithic "tabernacle". Right: The "pronaos" of the prehistoric temple of Hagar Qim, with aval rock doors giving access to further sanduaries.

Links: Der am Meer gelegene Tempel von Mnajdra mit seinem megalithischen «Tabernakel». Rechts: Der «pronaos» des prohistorischen Tempels von Hagar Qim mit ovalen, in den Stein gehauenen Toren. A gauche: en bardure de mer, Ie temple de Mnajdra, avec son «tabernacle» megalithique. A droite: Ie «pronaos» du temple prehistorique de Hagar Kim. De chaque cote, de grandes dalles percees d'une porte ovalisee permettent d'acce­ dera des sanduaires secondaires. HENRI STlERUN port of call in their long voyages from ond excavation was completed last Sep­ tures, leading down to the underground Phoenicia to their settlements and outposts tember , with results of extreme interest. cemetery itself. Besides underground in the western Mediterranean, and later Profe~sor Anati and Professor Francesco tombs of the Xernxija and Zebbug type , established a more permanent and consis­ Fedele have already expressed their belief, consisting of a vertical shaft and several tent base , a "colony". admittedly as yet on the theoretical level, of lobe-shaped side-chambers, all cut in the a human presence on Malta before the Neo­ living rock, the Circle has produced what New Discoveries lithic. Recent developments in prehistoric might be called "cist graves" , that is , buri­ We are probably on the threshold of impor­ studies in other parts of the Mediterranean als in small, circular depressions in the tant archaeological discoveries with far­ have revealed that man had started to brave ground, a type which had been unknown in reaching consequences for the prehistory of the seas as early as the Mesolithic, and not, the Maltese prehistoric context. Malta. With the holding of an international as used to be believed, in the Neolithic. What to me seems to be of even greater archaeology conference at the University of Therefore he could have reached these is­ importance than the structures are the Malta in September 1985 , new interest was lands equally well in that period. Photo­ "small finds" made in connection with the revived in Maltese archaeology, in particu­ graphic documentation in the hands of the different burials, finds that are bound to lar in the islands' prehistory, among inter­ Anati consorts, taken during their expedi­ throw much light on the religious beliefs as national institutions and researchers. The tions on Malta, has been advanced as evi­ well as the social and economic characteris­ Centro Camuno per gli Studi Preistorici of dence for the arrival of man on this farthest tics of the culture that built the temples of Valcamonica, Italy, under the directorship and southernmost tip of the landbridge that Ggantija close by, and of the rest of the of Professor Emmanuel Anati, has been extended from continental Italy and Sicily island. In this respect a confirmation of the conducting several itinerant seminars in in the last Ice Age , when sea levels fell more homogeneity of culture between the com­ Malta, and the results of the first three than 100 metres lower than they are today. munities of the two islands comes from the seminars have appeared in a handful of The other Gozitan site on which excava­ discovery in one of the tombs of another publications culminating in the volume tion is being conducted by the Cambridge­ "statue-menhir" almost identical with that Missione a Malta, edited by Emmanuel Malta research group is what is known as discovered in the Zebbug tombs in the Anati and his wife Ariele. Soon after the the Brochtorff Circle , conventionally 1950s. Though of smaller dimensions , the 1985 conference the writer of this article named after Charles de Brochtorff, the Xaghra statuette conserves a little more of started negotiations with Professor Colin artist who in the 1820s, duringthe "excava­ the body, but the few lines and holes that Renfrew, Disney Professor of Archaeology tions" of the Ggantija temples by the suggest the anthropomorphic face are at the University of Cambridge, who had Lieutenant-Governor for Gozo, painted a identical. also given one of the plenary papers in that couple of watercolours showing clearly the conference , on a joint research project circle of megaliths now being investigated. Conclusion between his university , the Maltese Anti­ The Brochtorff Circle has revealed itself to There is no doubt that the two periods in quities authority and the University of Mal­ be of extraordinary interest because it is the the history of the Maltese islands which

32 have left behind them the most remarkable from nearby lands. But for building pur­ ments in the minds and hearts of the Mal­ architectural and artistic legacy are the poses the first inhabitants of Malta found an tese when they examine their past. period of the Knights of St.John and that of inexhaustible source of excellent, easily Although no one doubts that the Knights the prehistoric Temple builders. Both cul­ worked stone. What is surprising is the fact contributed enormously towards the tures were attracted to the islands, and their that they took a couple of millennia to strengthening and confirming of the Euro­ development was made possible by a num­ realize its potential, and when they did they pean and Christian identity of the Maltese ­ ber of common factors: the islands' geo­ limited its use almost exclusively to the one can well imagine how easily the African graphic - in the case of the Knights, even awe-inspiring religious buildings we are all and the Muslim element could have taken

The first archaeological excavations in the temples of Gganti;a on the island of Gozo in 7827, as recorded in a coloured engraving by Brocktorff. The investi­ gotors are here measuring the mega­ lithic blocks and have uncovered a rock altar.

Die ersten archaologischen Ausgra­ bungen in den Tempeln von Gganti;a auf der Insel Gozo im Jahr 7827, hier fest­ gehalten auf einem kolorierfen Stich von Brocktorff. Die Forscher messen eben die megalithischen Blocke, unter ihnen ein freigelegter Altar.

Les premieres fouilles archeologiques conduites dans les temples de Gganti;a, sur l'iIe de Gozo, en 7827, selon une gravure aquarellee de Brocktorff. Les chercheurs sont en train de mesurer les blocs megalithiquesi ils ont mis au ;our un autel. NAnONAl UBRARY. LA vALL.ETTAI PHOTO HENRISTIERUN strategic - position; excellent harbours and familiar with. I need not explain how the over without their presence and with the numerous smaller landing-places; and very Knights exploited both kinds of building presence of that other formidable power in limited natural resources , namely, agricul­ stone to engineering and artistic perfection the Mediterranean, that of the Turks - the turalland and building stone. in their palaces, churches, and fortifica­ Knights in Malta were the masters, the Of course, these factors determined the tions. This is done in another article in this ruling class, while the Maltese were a sub­ formation of the two cultures in very differ­ issue. As to the agricultural potential of the ject popUlation with at least two distinct ent ways. The insularity of the archipelago island, although we cannot tell for certain social categories. The well-off upper-mid­ was decisive in making possible the "soli­ how and to what extent the available arable dle class lived in palaces and spacious coun­ tary splendour" of the prehistoric Temple land was exploited in prehistoric times, try houses with orderly gardens and orange society. The self-contained geographical there is no doubt that the economy of the groves, while the lower class lived in sub­ boundaries of the islands, placed as they Temple people was almost exclusively ag­ standard housing in towns (mostly servicing were at the crossroads of maritime traffic in ricultural; and the cultural, architectural the needs of their masters) and in the more the Mediterranean, must have been the and artistic achievement of the people vernacular architecture in the rural areas. most important asset which convinced the would never have been possible had it not In prehistory, on the other hand, espe­ Knights of St.John to accept the islands as been founded on a good and efficient econ­ cially in the Temple Period, the inhabitants their new base in 1530. Their organization omy. There is a widespread belief, indeed, of these islands were their own masters, made possible the convergence on a very that the Temple Culture collapsed out of forging their own destiny, even though one limited geographical space of members of sheer over-exploitation of the same agricul­ cannot explain the architectural achieve­ the noblest and wealthiest European tural resources, possibly compounded by ment of the impressive Megalithic temples families, along with their rich cultural heri­ other natural and anthropogenic forces . On without the existence of an internal social tage and a sizable portion of their wealth. the exploitation of agricultural land by the stratification. There is no evidence in Mal­ Even for a prehistoric community the Knights we are, of course, much better tese prehistory of a foreign domination natural resources available in Malta were informed through the excellent manuscript before a Phoenician commercial outpost insufficient for the most rudimentary ag­ documentation which is conserved in the planted in the islands turned itself into a ricultural economy. In the absence of metal National Library of Malta and elsewhere. full-fledged colony between the seventh technology, which was a later develop­ There is also one other difference, of and sixth century Be. It is then that Malta ment, the essential material for tools (and fundamental importance, between these entered the sphere of international politics weapons) was hard stone, such as flint and two periods of Malta's history, a difference as a result of its strategic position right at obsidian, which was not available on the of a political and social nature that is bound the point of contact and division between islands and had, therefore, to be imported to generate different reactions and senti­ east and west, between north and south. 0

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