FACETS

OF

MALTESE PREHISTORY

1999

Themistocles Zammit

.. FACETS OF

MALTESE PREHISTORY

Edited by

ANTON MIFSUD

CHARLESSAVONAVENTURA

Published by the Prehistoric Society of Malta

1999

24lt 01 FACETS OF MALTESE PREHISTORY 1999

Editors: Anton Mifsud and Charles Savona Ventura.

ISBN No. 99932-15-00-7

First published by the Prehistoric Society of Malta 1999.

© Copyright: the Editors, on behalf of the authors.

Except when stated otherwise, line drawings by Tabitha Mifsud.

Cover design: Tabitha Mifsud; background photograph - Richard England.

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 without the prior permission of the authors.

Printed by: Proprint Co. Ltd., Shepherds Street, Mosta MST 08, Malta. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

List of Illustrations V

Introduction. 1

Archaeology, Epistemology, and the Earliest Phase of Maltese Prehistory. 25 Anthony J. Frendo.

The early stages of the Maltese Pleistocene Mammalian succession: Evidence from the Maghlaq Pleistocene Deposits. 33 Charles Galea Bonavia.

Quaternary Environments and the Biogeography of the Maltese Islands. 41 Christopher 0. Hunt and Patrick J. Schembri.

A Checklist to the Quaternary Avifauna of the Maltese Islands. 77 John J. Borg.

The Architecture of the Maltese Temples. 91 David H. Trump.

The Maltese Dolmens. 101 Daniel Sciberras.

Medical Mythology of Prehistoric Man in Malta. 107 Charles Savona Ventura.

The Social Context of Maltese Prehistoric Art. 117 Andrew Townsend.

Megalithic Mandalas of the Middle Sea - The Neolithic Temples of Malta and their Builders. 137 Richard England.

The Subterranean Sanctuary at Hal Saflieni. 149 Anton Mifsud and Simon Mifsud.

The Gozo Stone Circle re-discovered. 169 Joseph Attard Tabone.

Mortuary Customs in Prehistoric Malta. 183 Simon Stoddart.

Aggression and Defence in Prehistoric Malta. 191 Joseph Magro Conti.

Tarxien, Xaghra Circle and Tas-Silg. Occupation and Re-use of Temple-sites in the Early Bronze Age. 209 Anthony Bonanno.

Trunkless Legs of Stone: debating Ritual Continuity at Tas-Silg, Malta. 225 Nicholas Vella.

Index 242

iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Plates Page

N eolithic eclipse 1 (C. Agius Sultana)

Pioneers of Maltese prehistoric archaeology 7 (C. G. Zammit; W., H. and L. Collingridge; Times of Malta; A. Mifsud)

Spirals at Knossos and Tarxien. 8 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; A. Mifsud)

Members of the 1951 Maltese Survey of prehistoric remains 11 (C. G. Zammit; W., H. and L. Collingridge; Times of Malta; A. Mifsud)

The Skorba years- V. Depasquale, D. Trump and C.G. Zammit 12 (V. Depasquale; C. G. Zammit)

Kenneth Oakley at Ggantija 13 (B. Trump)

The Ghar Dalam taurodonts flanking the largest Maltese modern taurodont. 29 (A. Mifsud)

The figure which dictated the fate of the Ghar Dalam taurodonts. 30 (A. Mifsud)

Prehistoric bird bones. 80 (J. J. Borg)

The fagade ofthe lower temple, Mnajdra. 95 (D. Trump)

Decorated altar for sacrifices, Tarxien, South Temple. 95 (D. Trump)

Dolmens at Bugibba and Mosta 103 (A. Mifsud)

Dolmens at Ta' Gherwa and Safi. 104 (Sunday Times of Malta)

Pregnancy in the Mediterranean Neolithic. 111 (T. Zammit and C. Singer; M. Gimbutas)

Shamanism. 112 (Wellcome Historical Medical Museum; E. Anati; A. Mifsud)

The Jesuit father Emanuel Magri. 150 (M. Naudi S.J.)

Hypogeum chamber with ancient red earth deposit. 151 (P. Tonna di Stagna Navarra collection)

Skull repertoire of Hypogeum skulls. 154 (T. Zammit, T.E. Peet and R.N. Bradley; A. Mifsud)

iv The Hypogeum skulls. 154 (T. Zammit, T.E. Peet and R.N. Bradley; A. Mif'sud)

Contrasts in the Hypogeum. 158 (R. Ellis; A.J. Agius; Times of Malta; A. Mifsud)

Some of the non-sepulchral features at the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. 161 (R. Ellis; T. Zammit; J. Agius)

The first known representation of the Gozo Stone Circle, by Pelagio. 171 (J. Attard Tabone)

Houel's depiction of the destruction of a megalithic site, at Casal Caccia. 171 (J. Attard Tabone)

Houel's depictions ofthe Stone Circle on Gozo. 172 (National Library of Malta; Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)

Robert Hay - Egyptologist. 174 (S. Tillett)

Incised face on rubble wall stone at the Gozo Stone Circle. 178 (J. Attard Tabone)

Two articulated skeletons at the Brochtorff Circle. 185 (S. Stoddart)

Borg in-Nadur: aerial photograph. 206 (Mapping Unit- Planning Authority 1993)

Three sherds from Tas-Silg (1996-98) 221 (M. diDio)

Three objects with incised symbols, from the Tarxien excavations (1915-19). 222 (M. diDio)

Bossed bone plaque from the 1915-18 excavations of the Tarxien temples. 223 (M. diDio)

The mutilated statue at Tas-Silg - four views. 239 (F. Borg)

V Figures and Tables Page

The estimated dates for Tarxien. 14 (T. Mifsud)

Reconstructions of the Maltese temples. 15 (C. Ceschi; T. Zammit; T. Mifsud)

Stratification and correlations in the Maghlaq region. 35 (C. Galea Bonavia)

The Maghlaq region 37 (C. Galea Bonavia; T. Mifsud)

Divisions of geological time. 42 (C. Hunt and P. Schembri)

The Oxygen Isotope Curve 43 (C. Hunt and P. Schembri)

Oxygen Isotope stratigraphy. 45 (C. Hunt and P. Schembri)

Stratigraphic sequence at Ghar Dalam. 50 (C. Hunt and P. Schembri)

List of vertebrate species from Ghar Dalam Quaternary deposits. 52 (C. Hunt and P. Schembri)

The four currently recognised Sicilian Quaternary faunas. 57 (C. Hunt and P. Schembri)

Fossil non-marine mollusca. 64 (C. Hunt and P. Schembri)

Members of avian species from Maltese caves. 78 (J. J. Borg)

Genera and number of species in Maltese Quaternary deposits. 79 (J. J. Borg)

Prehistoric birds. 80 (J. J. Borg)

Development of the Temple Plans. 94 (D. Trump)

Categories of object-context analysis. 121 (A. Townsend)

Statue menhir discovered at the Brochtorff Circle. 131 (A. Townsend)

Ceramic anthropomorphic figurines. 132 (A. Townsend)

Limestone anthropomorphic statuette. 133 (A. Townsend)

Limestone figurines forming the 'Shaman's Bundle'. 134 (A. Townsend)

vi Reconstruction of anthropomorphic statue. 135 (A. Townsend)

Drawing of Ggantija. 146 (R. England)

Schematic diagram of the distribution of the ancient red earth. deposit throughout the Hypogeum. 152 (T. Mifsud)

Maltese radiocarbon dates of the Tarxien phase. 164 (T. Mifsud)

Comparison of Hal Saflieni and the Brochtorff Circle at Xaghra. 183 (S. Stoddart)

Plan ofBorg in-Nadur. 206 (T. Zammit 1930)

Prehistoric weapons. 207 (MAR 1964; Trump 1966; Murray 1934; National Museum ofArchaeology, Malta; A. Mifsud)

Prehistoric weapons. 208 (MAR 1964; Trump 1966; Murray 1934; National Museum ofArchaeology, Malta)

Plan of the Tarxien temples. 219 (Zammit 1930)

Scale drawings of three sherds from Tas-Silg. 220 (C. Gemmell and J. M. Briffa)

The Maltese islands. 233 (N. Vella)

Tas-Silg and Marsaxlokk Bay. 233 (N. Vella)

Frontal view of statue at Tas-Silg. 234 (N. Vella)

Side view of statue from tas-Silg. 235 (N. Vella)

Area 2 South, Tas-Silg. 236 (MM 1967: fig. 1)

Detail of Areas 21 and 22 in Area 2 South, Tas-Silg. 237 (MM 1967: fig. 1)

Reconstruction in plan of the megalithic temple 238 and altar 45 flanked by pillars, Tas-Silg. (A. Ciasca 1976-77)

vii

INTRODUCTION

One lunar cycle had elapsed in the also in the persistence of the feast of the autumn of 3756BC, and the Neolithic unconquered sun by practically all the farmers of the Ggantija phase had already world cultures of today. planted their grain in preparation for the rains. The sun had reached its midday There are no archaeological remains in position in the sky, when the unexpected such episodes, and no historical accounts started to happen. The sky began to record it; the earliest documentation ever darken gradually, and those who dared to of a solar eclipse is 2094BC1. The main look at the sun could eventually observe source of information for the 3756BC that its rim was being nibbled away. The event experienced by the Maltese daylight in the sky was being prehistoric inhabitants is science.2 The extinguished, and the warmth of the sun other side of the coin is antiquarianism, was disappearing. Just before total where the remains of the past are darkness, the remnant of the sun looked accounted for solely on the personal like a circle of beads, then a ring with a interpretation of the antiquarians, the glow at one end, and finally a radiant halo men of letters, the humanists oftoday.s surrounding a black disk; the Eclipses occur stars of the night roughly every six appeared in the months, but most black morning sky. are just partial. At one particular The impact of this spot, the chance sudden, unfamiliar of a total eclipse phenomenon on is approximately such an ancient once in 400 years. population totally In less than half unprepared for this time, such an event can however, between be gauged from the 3790 and 3599BC, recent world the Maltese were reaction to Eclipse exposed to no less 1999, at a time than twelve such when science completely explains the episodes involving more than 85% of the event, which was also precisely predicted sun's surface. A purely humanist in both time and place. It lasted longest in declaration would be one which declares Roumania, where the traditional peasant that the Neolithic Maltese of 3600BC explanation today is that of a wild animal started erecting their megalithic eating the sun away as a form of monuments in response to such a cluster punishment for sins committed by man. of eclipses, which they must have This belief in a celestial monster was also interpreted as omens of divine wrath. a feature of early man, whether it was Although an attractive hypothesis, Skoll the wolf, a dragon, a giant frog or a particularly in the absence of a vampire which was devouring the sun. satisfactory explanation for the Maltese Eclipses were portents of doom, and remedial action was felt necessary by 1 From astrological tablets at Ur, in ancient several cultures. The Chippewa Indians Babylon. shot flaming arrows in the sky in order to 2 Stephen Brincat, of the Astronomical Society of rekindle the sun; and the Chinese hoped Malta, researched this information for me. to drive the monster away by sound and 3 Professor F. Mayer of Bonn, for example, skyrockets. The Aztecs attempted to interpreted the first retrieved remains of Neanderthal man, discovered at Dtisseldorf in 1856, placate the sun's assistant, Xolotl, as those of a rickety Mongolian Cossack who had through the sacrifice of hunchbacks and fallen ill in 1814, en route from Germany to France, dwarfs. The importance attributed to the and had crept into the cave to die there (Mayer 1864: sun since time immemorial is manifest 1-26). Facets of Maltese Prehistory megalithic explosion, such a post hoc ergo During the 1930's the literary propter hoc argument is nevertheless intellectuals, or men of letters, assumed unsupported by evidence. the monopoly of intellectuality; they ignored the scientists at the same time "Ideas and theories in prehistory often that the literature gave no prominence to seem to have a life of their own, surviving scientific discovery. This school of and flourishing quite independently of the traditional intellectuals adopted a culture evidence upon which they might be which "dismisses science"; it "uses its own supposed to rest" (Renfrew 1979: 263). jargon and washes its own laundry. It is "One enters the discussion encumbered by chiefly characterized by comment on traditions of interpretation' that are no comments, the swelling spiral of longer entirely acceptable" (Renfrew 1979: commentary eventually reaching the point 44). where the real world gets lost" (Renfrew 1997). The humanists, the scientists and the third culture A rift between the humanist and the Several centuries back, the interpretation scientist grew with the growth of the of evidence, whether written or otherwise, latter's discipline, particularly when was the domain of a few intellectuals, the scientific dating methods became men of letters; theirs was the monopoly of available and challenged the previously history. Their only practical limitation established chronology. In 1959 Lord C.P. was the date of Adam's creation. In 1650, Snow identified two cultures, the literary the Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland intellectuals and the scientists; four years declared that Adam was created in later he predicted that a third culture 4004BC, and this from the account of would bridge the gap between the literary Genesis when interpreted literally. Five intellectual and the scientist (Renfrew years later a certain Isaac de Peyrere was 1997). burnt at the stake for declaring the presence of man before Adam. So there The third cultural group emerged; a fresh was this attitude against palaeolithic man approach to the problem of interpretation in general, and this persisted until the was soon evident among the ever­ nineteenth century. increasing groups of professionals who manifested a profound interest in The challenge to the traditional prehistory, and who were prepared to interpretation of the remains of the past, disclose their hypotheses in public. as defined exclusively by these humanists, Basically they comprised "those scientists was eventually forthcoming through the and other thinkers in the empirical world emerging scientists, particularly in the who, through their work and expository fields of geology, implementology and writing, are taking the place of the biology. If the days in Genesis were traditional intellectual in rendering visible twenty-four hour periods, there was the deeper meaning of our lives, redefining insufficient time for the various geological who and what we are" (Renfrew 1997). formations of the earth to have accumulated. People like John Frere, Scholars such as Mortimer Wheeler (1966) William Buckland and De Perthes were refused to accept the concept of this third identifying tools which had been culture as initially identified by Lord manufactured by people before the time of Snow in 1959; he was still very optimistic Adam. The geologists such as Lyell were that humanist and scientist would declaring that Ussher's time-scale was not eventually come together. Recently, sufficient to account for the formations of however, Colin Renfrew (1997) has the earth. With the discovery of . resuscitated the concept of the third Neanderthal man in 1856 and Darwin's culture, and has accepted this emergence theory of evolution in 1859, palaeolithic as a factual and significant one. man was finally accepted as a human entity preceding Adam. Towards the end "The emergence of the third culture of the nineteenth century, palaeolithic introduces new modes of intellectual man was also credited with the faculty of discourse throughout history, cave art. intellectual life has been marked by the

2 Introduction fact that only a small number of people archaeological record has evolved have done the serious thinking for significantly since the time of its pioneer, everybody else. What we are witnessing is the antiquarian Gian Frangisk Abela. In a passing of the torch from one group of 1644 the Danish anatomist Thomas thinkers, the traditional literary Bartholin visited Malta and saw G.F. intellectuals, to a new group, the Abela's home museum. He concluded that intellectuals of the emerging third culture" the large bones it housed had belonged to (Renfrew 1997). gigantic humans. G.F. Abela agreed with Bartholin; giants must have built the "Unlike previous intellectual pursuits, the large megalithic structures, and the large achievements of the third culture are not skulls with a single central eye opening the marginal disputes of a quarrelsome also indicated that they were Cyclops.l mandarin class: they will affect the lives of This was in 1647. everybody on the planet" (Renfrew 1997). Towards the end of the eighteenth The humanists can no longer claim a century, the French knight of the Order, prerogative to an exclusive interpretation Deodat de Dolomieu, identified Abela's of archaeological data; it was, after all, "Cyclops" as . dwarf elephant; he also science which transformed the described fossil hippopotamus in the antiquarian into the archaeologist in the Maltese Islands. His contribution to the early decades of the nineteenth century. geology of the Maltese Islands was significant in that he amply demonstrated Evolution of Malta's prehistory that their present extent did not provide a The prehistory of the Maltese Islands has sufficient surface area to account for the received the attention of scholars since extensive valley formations. British the very remote past. Ancient authors travellers to Malta in the early decades of have written about Malta's prehistory in the nineteenth century, such as Bigelow, very clear terms, and with the revival of remarked upon the cliff formations and these texts during the Renaissance, new suggested similar hypotheses; he also perspectives were generated. The entertained the possibility of the Maltese geography and culture of the prehistoric islands forming part of Plato's Atlantis. Maltese have featured significantly in the The Maltese architect, George Grongnet, ancient texts, and these focused whose idee fixe on the subject raised a few principally upon the links with the eyebrows amongst the local intelligentsia, continents to the north and south of the pursued this theme for four decades. Islands. Excavations in Malta Celebrated geographers such as Skylax of In the early decades of the nineteenth Caryanda have associated the Maltese century several of the Maltese megalithic Islands with North Mrica, the seat of the sites started to be explored, but without ancient civilizations of Rome, Greece and the employment of a proper excavation Egypt. Early fathers of the Church such technique. A great deal of information as St. Augustine have done the same has thus been lost, in sites such as the (XVIII: 10-11). Ptolemy, the renowned Gozo Stone Circle at Xaghra, otherwise ancient geographer of Alexandria, gave known as the Brochtorff Circle, after the 2 accurate readings of latitudes which artist who drew it, Charles de Brocktorff. demonstrate that the expanse of the Maltese Islands extended significantly Throughout the nineteenth century, the southward in ancient times (Lib. 3, tab. 2, giants gave way to the Phoenicians, who Cap. 3). Early Greek historians such as Eumelos of Cyrene have stated 1 The large bones actually belonged to elephant or categorically that the Maltese Islands hippo. George Zammit Maempel has observed that represented the remains of Plato's this misconception was due to Abela's interpretation Atlantis, which lay between Libya and of the skull of Dwarf elephant as that of a one-eyed Sicily. giant. 2 Although the Gozo Stone Circle (as labelled by J. Attard Tabone) was depicted by Brocktorff, it has The interpretation of Malta's assumed the alternative name of Brochtorff Circle by others, such as the recent excavators of the site.

3 Facets of Maltese Prehistory then assumed the role of the first century effected a significant re- colonizers of the Maltese islands. This orientation in the concept of change of policy had been dictated by the Mediterranean prehistory. Two great literary sources. The ancient authors had civilizations were discovered in the final linked Malta to North Mrica, and decades of the nineteenth century. Diodorus Siculus had stated in his Schliemann located Homer's city of Troy,3 writings (V: 12) that the Phoenicians were and Arthur Evans discovered a new the first colonizers of the Maltese islands. civilization at Knossos in Crete. Arthur The Maltese historian, A. A. Caruana, Evans designated it as the Minoan published his Phoenician Antiquities of civilization, after the legendary King the Maltese Islands in 1882 along these Minos, and identified it correctly as lines. representing a culture preceding Schliemann's Troy. Through his The Maltese medical doctor, Themistocles subsequent hypothesis, Arthur Evans Zammit, was the first to conduct the contended that it was the source of excavations on Malta in accordance with civilization in Europe and the the standard scientific techniques Mediterranean, through a slow diffusion prevailing at the time. In the initial of its cultural sweep westward. It was stages he was assisted and guided, in the also possible to give a date of excavations at Hal Saflieni, by Thomas approximately 1600BC, through cross­ Ashby, Director of the British School at references with the historical records of Rome, who later also assisted Giuseppe Egypt. The implications of Arthur Evans' Despott at Ghar Dalam. hypothesis were revolutionary. Apart from boosting Britain's prestige in the It was the German scholar, Albert Mayr, archaeological sphere, it was then in the very early years of this century, apparent that the civilizations in Europe who finally severed the link of the and the Mediterranean, right up to the Phoenicians with the Maltese megalithic Iberian peninsula, were later than monuments. He initially attributed them 1600BC. Further research in the field to the Bronze Age, and even accepted was founded on the basis of this Arthur Evans' hypothesis (1901: 200) of hypothesis, and the protagonists who their partially sepulchral utilization. With subscribed fully to this theory included Zammit's discovery of Tarxien Cemetery, V ere Gordon Childe and Glyn Daniel. Mayr eventually agreed with Zammit in attributing the temples to the N eolithic Gordon Childe was professor of prehistory period (Stager 1999: 35, 36, 44, 49). in Edinburgh until 1946, and Malta's early history no longer dated to a subsequently at the London Institute of millennium before the time of Christ; Archaeology until his retirement in 1956. using parallels with the European Childe was a major contributor to Neolithic, Zammit had already dated European prehistory, and he originated them correctly to 3000BC. Yet even before the concept of culture in archaeology. He the discovery of Tarxien, Mayr was able to also adopted Arthur Evans' slow diffusion discern the "long and gradual process of a 'cultural sweep' across Europe development" of construction in the and the Mediterranean. On the other Maltese megalithic monuments (Mayr hand, Glyn Daniel, from Cambridge, 1908: 91), with the simplest of forms concentrated his research on the evolution forming a semi-ellipse, which was then and development of the megalithic modified with time "through the addition structures of Europe, and he hypothesized of niches and lateral chambers." Mayr for a spread of these megalithic started his sequence of temple monuments from the East to the West. descriptions correctly with Ggantija, from Both Childe and Daniel maintained their the "simplicity of its ground-plan, hypotheses for several decades, in support arrangement and construction" (Mayr of Arthur Evans, in spite of the evidence 1908: 4). which turned up in Malta, and which

Mediterranean archaeology 3 He had actually identified an earlier city beneath Archaeological developments in the Homer's Troy, and had carried away its treasures to Mediterranean around the turn of the Europe.

4 Introduction pointed to the contrary. assembly of microlithic tools at Dingli, and these he correctly attributed to the Although the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, early Stone Age, then referred to as the with its unique art forms, was discovered Azilian-Tardenoisian, and today known as at the turn of the century, the sudden the late Palaeolithic. It was clear that, demise of its first excavator, Emanuel not only had the Maltese culture preceded Magri, was associated with the loss of all the Aegean one, but also that there was a his archaeological records. This was in pre-Neolithic human presence in the 1907, and the task of its subsequent Maltese islands. The latter hypothesis excavation was then assigned to was further enhanced by the discovery of Themistocles Zammit, considered then a pair of primitive human teeth in the Ice and now as the father of Maltese Age horizon of Ghar Dalam. These had prehistoric archaeology. Under his been unearthed by the Curator, Giuseppe administration the first proper museum of Despott, and his associate, the engineer Maltese archaeology appeared, in 1902, Carmelo Rizzo. They initially referred a and, in 1925, the Antiquities Protection photograph of the specimens, and Act which is still effective today. subsequently the specimens themselves, to the anatomist at the Royal College of The Hypogeum represents the Surgeons in Britain, Sir Arthur Keith. On underground equivalent of the megalithic the basis of their stratification in the structures above ground level, and the Cervus (Red Deer) layer, and on their presence of its various art forms was primitive forms, these fossilized taurodont sufficient to disprove Arthur Evans' molars were then attributed to hypothesis. However, it was in 1914, with Neanderthal Man.s the discovery of the decorated megalithic structure at Tarxien, that Evans' The British School at Rome accepted hypothesis was seriously crippled. The Despott's discovery. Its director, Thomas Tarxien monuments were clearly Ashby, who had previously excavated at N eo lithic, and Zammit dated them, Ghar Dalam together with Despott, through analogies to the European submitted the latter's article to the Royal Neolithic, to 3000BC.4 The latter date Anthropological Institute for publication was clearly earlier than the Aegean in its journal. Despott was awarded civilization, and yet its art forms were excavation grants by the British equally indicative of an advanced form of Association, and he was able to conduct cultural attainment. and publish his later excavations at Ghar Dalam in the same journal. Despott's In a bid to maintain his original discoveries were also covered in the hypothesis, Arthur Evans argued that the prestigious journal Nature (25th July 1918, Maltese culture in Tarxien represented a 15th March 1924), Whitaker's Almanack retarded form, where the Maltese Bronze 1919: 730), Art and Archaeology (1923 15 Age population was still at a Neolithic (2)) and in the Illustrated London News, stage of development. Just as today, the (19th November 1921, p. 686; 25th occasional lost tribe in the Amazon jungle February 1922, p. 262) the British is still functioning at a Stone Age level of newspaper at the time which dealt with cultural development, so Arthur Evans scientific discoveries. In the Italian was proposing a similar situation as peninsula, Il Tevere (3rd April 1925) prevailing in Malta during its Tarxien afforded coverage, among others. The phase. Royal Anthropological Institute of London, the British School at Rome and Barely three years later, in 1917, Zammit the Royal College of Surgeons of London effected another two significant finds. The first was a clear Bronze Age horizon s Eighty years later, the only amendment to this overlying the Tarxien megaliths, and this conclusion is a wider attribution to fossil man in find settled the issue in his favour. In the general, rather than Neanderthal Man in particular. same year, Zammit discovered an Modern taurodontic teeth are not fossilized, and their morphometries are different. Furthermore, the 1917 taurodonts have been confirmed as 4 The calibrated radiocarbon date for Tarxien in 1972 stratigraphically correct by the scientific tests was 3100BC. carried out in London between 1952 and 1968.

5 Facets of Maltese Prehistory corresponded regularly with Giuseppe culture had preceded the Aegean one, Despott on the taurodont molars he had U golini went further and showed that discovered and on their publication. Malta was the origin of Mediterranean civilization. Ugolini's contribution was In 1924 Keith published his Neanderthal acknowledged by the British as an Man in Malta, and in the following year, "admirable mise-au-point Malta he devoted a chapter to him in The exhibits the earliest civilization, after the Antiquity of Man. T. Zammit published Palaeolithic, known in the Mediterranean; his Malta in 1926, and for the first time and it is a civilization of a surprisingly the prehistory of the Maltese islands high order" (Randall Mclver 1935: 207, established a human presence during the 208). Trechmann (1938) confirmed the Ice Age. British authors, such as Peake conclusions reached by Zammit and and Fleure, also included the Maltese Ugolini.7 Neanderthal in their history series. In 1939, Malta had its first professor in British scientists, such as Dudley Buxton, archaeology in the person of J.B. Ward C.T. Trechmann and G. Caton Thompson, Perkins. After a period in war service visited Malta and conducted their own spent in North Africa, the latter reviewed research on the life forms in prehistoric the Maltese prehistoric situation (1942). Malta. Dudley Buxton studied the He pleaded for a champion to search out Hypogeum teeth, where a number of these the Maltese prehistoric sequence and showed the presence of fused roots. The dating. If the hypothesis of the British latter condition may outwardly resemble scholar Arthur Evans could be taurodontism, and in the absence, at the resuscitated, then Britain could once time, of a radiographic picture or a sliced again lay claim to the discovery of the section of the taurodonts, Dudley Buxton origins of European civilization. After the (1923) would not comment on their war, Ward Perkins was appointed identification.G C.T. Caton Thompson Director of the British School at Rome. provided a stratigraphic table for Despott's excavations, and she clearly The 1951 survey of the Maltese demonstrated thereby a palaeolithic prehistoric antiquities human presence at Ghar Dalam which The archaeological survey of Malta's was contemporaneous with the fauna of prehistory (1951) was the brainchild of the Ice Age (Caton Thompson 1925: 13). Ifor Evans, advisor to the Inter-University Council for Higher education in the The Italian scholars such as Luigi Ugolini colonies. Soon after World War II, Maltese (1934) and Carlo Ceschi (1939) intelligentsia clamoured for such a survey, concentrated their efforts on the and the project was set in motion in 1948. megalithic architecture of Neolithic In the same year, the earliest rock-cut Malta. Ceschi reconstructed the tombs in the Maltese islands were megalithic structures with stone roofs, in discovered by C. Zammit and J.G. accordance with the various prehistoric Baldacchino at Zebbug. models discovered at the temple sites. Ugolini's conclusions also supported the When Christopher Hawkes of Oxford presence of Palaeolithic man in Malta. declined the offer to head the survey, J.B. Whereas Zammit had proved that Maltese Ward-Perkins of the British School in Rome was approached, and he accepted the task. Stuart Piggott of Edinburgh a Subsequent radiography has confirmed the molars as taurodontic. Although it was obvious to a trained joined the consultative committee soon anatomist such as Arthur Keith, differentiation afterwards, and J.D. Evans was between taurodontism and fused roots may not have eventually engaged as a Technical been obvious to the anthropologist Dudley Buxton. Assistant in October 1952. The latter's comment would have been very valid for the presently designated Gh.D/3, which was identified as taurodontic without radiography by J.G. Baldacchino (1936). Recent examination of Gh.D/3 by the local professor of dentistry could not, 7 After World War II, J.D. Evans (1959, 1971) without radiography, differentiate between a suggested that Ugolini's and Ceschi's conclusions taurodont and a molar with fused roots. This tends had been politically motivated, a suggestion which to strengthen the suspicion that Gh.D/3 is a fake. has since been rejected by Mahoney (1996: 10).

6 Introduction

1911-1925

N. Tagliaferro G. Despott T. Zammit

A Keith G. Caton Thompson

PIONEERS OF MALTESE PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY

7 Facets of Maltese Prehistory

The filming of the World War II movie construction of the temple. The Malta Story, by J. Arthur Rank Organization, was started during this The work of the survey had started in time, in mid-October of 1952. The chief March 1951, and was mainly conducted by character, Flight Lieut. Peter Ross, was a four University of Malta students in British archaeologist who had been Engineering and Architecture, under the promised a Readership at Cambridge just supervision of Professor Robert V. Galea. before the war, "Cambridge being better Progress was well under way when J.D. than Oxford". Peter interrupted his Evans joined the team. Graduating with studies during the wartime years to carry an M.A. at Cambridge in 1950, Evans was out military service in aerial sent to Ankara and to Jerusalem to reconnaissance; he falls in love with a enhance his training. The Survey was Maltese girl and saves the islands from fortunate in soliciting the assistance of the invasions from Italy through his aerial the Sicilian archaeologist, Luigi Bernabo reconnaissance missions. The temples are Brea, who took Evans over for a week in visited and referred to as "very interesting Sicily and the Lipari Islands. The Sicilian megalithic remains," with "Mnajdra not prehistoric sequence was thus made to properly excavated." The flavour of the bear upon the Maltese one, and this was British archaeologists then involved in the further enhanced through Bernabo Brea's Maltese archaeological survey is visit to Malta in January of 1954. Evans unmistakable. took him round the sites, and Bernabo Brea imparted his valuable assistance In October 1952 the prehistoric towards the Survey. archaeological remains of Malta attracted the attention of a few royal personages. Before leaving Malta in September (1953), The archaeologist King Gustav and Queen Evans was interviewed by the Times of Louise of Sweden, together with Princess Malta, and in the full-page feature which Alice of Greece paid a personal visit to the followed (2.9.1953), Evans rather

Knossos spirals 1600BC-Arthur Evans 1900 Tarxien spirals 3100BC· John Evans 1998

Maltese islands, and J.G. Baldacchino pompously proposed his modification of showed them round the sites, particularly Malta's prehistory. According to Evans, Mnajdra, Hagar Qim, and the antiquities who had not by that time undertaken any at the Museum of Archaeology. At this significant local excavation works, but time fresh excavations at Mnajdra by had merely catalogued a card-index at the Baldacchino had uncovered a retaining Museum of Archaeology, all previous wall and a flight of steps which provided scholars in the field of Malta's prehistoric an explanation for the split-level archaeology had been amateurs. Evans'

8 Introduction new version of the prehistory of Malta evidence, Evans declared that Dr. J. G. was divided into eight phases which Baldacchino, the Director of the Malta excluded the Palaeolithic period. Museum, had proved that the taurodont Furthermore, Evans restricted the molars were not Palaeolithic but Neolithic definition of the Maltese N eo lithic period (Evans 1954a: 56). This inaccuracy has to the later phases, when, according to persisted unchallenged to this day, him, "marked Mycenean int7uence" although further tests carried out by introduced civilization into the Maltese Oakley until 1968 further confirmed the Islands. These declarations were clearly pre-Neolithic nature of the taurodont echoing the discredited hypotheses molars. proposed by his namesake at the turn of the century. After a successful short series of talks on BBC radio in 1954, Malta's prehistory was J.D. Evans' task was twofold. If Arthur also featured on British television in the Evans' hypothesis was to be resuscitated, spring of the following year. A crew from the temples required an association with a the BBC was in Malta in March of 1955 in sepulchral function, and the logical link order to film the Maltese megaliths; the was an evolvement from tomb and temple; documentary which was produced was this would also accommodate the televised as the third program in the megalithic diffusion hypothesis of J.D. Buried Treasure series. John Evans Evans' sponsor, Glyn Daniel. Secondly, accompanied the television team, and his the Tarxien decorated temples had to be hypothesis for Malta's prehistory was synchronized with the Cretan Bronze Age, ventilated throughout the documentary. and historical records placed this around 1600BC. Basing his arguments on the According to J.D. Evans, the first analogy between the spiral patterns at inhabitants came to Malta around Tarxien and those on the shaft graves at 2500BC, and they started erecting their Mycenae, Evans hypothesized that the first temples at Mgarr on the clover leaf origin of the Maltese art at Tarxien had plan around 2100BC; this developed into a derived from Mycenean graves. According three-chamber plan, with Ggantija being to J.D. Evans, the earlier Maltese were a built at 1850BC and Tarxien at 1450BC. primitive race of farmers from Sicily, and According to J.D. Evans, Tarxien had they had reached the islands around derived its cultural influence from the 2000BC; civilization had reached the grave shafts of Mycenae, dated to 1600BC Maltese Islands from the Aegean, and it (Johnstone 1957: 40-9; Evans 1954a: 57, was at this time that the Maltese lost 58; 1954b: 129). Although Evans actually their primitive and retarded confirmed all this by excavation characteristics. (Johnstone 1957: 42-3; Evans 1959: 29; M.A.R. 1954-5: vi), this sequence and Extrapolating on Mayr's hypothesis on the chronology has since had to be drastically developmental sequence of the temples, revised.1 Evans extended this sequence backward, and proposed a cave to temple transition During this time (1955) a number of in the development of the Maltese Maltese prehistoric skulls were megalithic culture. He also gave an transferred to the vaults of the Museum of absolute date of 1600BC to the Tarxien Natural History in London; these were temple, and of 1500BC to the Tarxien mainly from Burmeghez, but also from the Cemetery. Hal Saflieni Hypogeum and Mgarr.2

Towards the end of 1953, Evans published Archaeology and scientific dating in his prehistoric sequence of the Maltese Malta Islands in the Proceedings of the Sequence is the key word in Prehistoric Society of London. Within a few months, in the Malta Year Book 1954, 1 Ggantija was the first temple to be built in 3600BC, Evans published a similar article, this and it preceded Mgarr, so that Evans' argument for time however coming out against the his temple sequence is invalid. Moreover, there are a number of significant exceptions to the sequence evidence for the palaeolithic presence in (Trump 1990: 26). Malta. Without any form of supporting 2 These were traced in 1995 by A Mifsud.

9 Facets of Maltese Prehistory archaeological practice, and its the specimen in question. After the lapse establishment is attained through of several millennia, the specimen has lost stratification. The sequence dictates the all of its carbon, as it becomes a fossil. chronology of the events which have taken place. The basic principle of stratification Ground water also contains other is the premise that, in any undisturbed elements such as fluorine and uranium deposit, what lies at the bottom has been oxide, which are as well slowly deposited before what lies above it. incorporated into the buried specimen of organic matter. However, unlike iron and Science has rendered considerable calcium salts, fluorine and uranium oxide assistance in the elucidation of proper do not replace carbon but the hydroxy­ dating of the remains contained in apatite component of the specimen. archaeological deposits. Two techniques Furthermore, the apatite bond is a of revolutionary significance were effected permanent one, so that the process is in the late forties of this century. In the irreversible. Oakley utilized this feature United States, Willard Libby pioneered in the apatite bond to separate the the estimation of residual radiocarbon in disturbed deposits from the undisturbed organic remains as an index of their ones. His classical contribution was the arl:tiquity. However, it was not until the exposure of the Piltdown forgery, which early seventies that an acceptable had fooled the archaeoldgical world for calibrated method of calculation was four decades. Oakley was able to uncovr>r available, and even then there was limit the hoax through the measurement of t1w to the span of time it could cover. Since apatite bonds of fluorine and uranium the calibration is made with tree rings, oxide in the specimens under question. the oldebt trees, which are still available, He was not merely able· to confirm the set t1wsP limib of radiocarbon, and fraud, but also managed to trace the strictly thib c.\. t •·n rls to 8,000 years before original sources of the specimens which the prebcnt t.iu.~_· Tir>ilned techniques comprised the fake assembly. One have extended th i;:; range to elephant molar had originated in Ichkeul approximately 40,000 years hefore the in Tunisia. whilst the source of the present. Beyond this range. a series of hippopotumus molar was Ghar Dalam in other dating methods is available, and Malta. these include the Potassium-Argon, Electron Spin Resonance and Uranium Another method of relative dating, which Series Disequilibria techniques. The was pioneered in the United States, was range of dating can thus be extended to the estimation of Nitrogen. Originally millions of years rather than millennia. launched by S. F. Cook and R. F. Heizer in Calibration in these ranges is impossible 1947, the technique was later (1953, 1959) at the present time, and the quoted criticized by the same workers. Oakley figures are arbitrary. himself regularly included the estimation of nitrogen in his battery of tests, but In the United Kingdom, Kenneth Page after a trial period of thirty years, he Oakley devised another method of dating, considered it unreliable in the Ghar which produced a relative chronology Dalam context (1980: 9-12, 20). rather than an absolute one. It did, however, possess one significant Whilst Libby's radiocarbon technique advantage over Libby's radiocarbon slowly overcame its teething problems in technique. The latter method required the fifties and sixties, Oakley's technique the presence of carbon, and this element was applied world-wide with remarkable is absent in fossilized specimens. success to a few thousand archaeological specimens, and the results thereof bear The process of fossilization entails the this out in two major publications (1971; replacement of the carbon-containing 1980). However, because an actual figure components in buried organic matter is more desirable to the archaeologist than (bone, tooth dentine, horn, antler) with a relative one, the natural outcome of iron and calcium salts. These elements selection was the eventual supremacy of are present in the ground water, which radiocarbon as the method of choice in percolates through the matrix containing dating archaeological specimens.

10 Introduction

Joseph A. Manche Robert V. Galea

J.B. Ward Perkins Stuart Piggott

J. G. Baldacchino JohnEvans

Members ofthe 1951 Maltese Survey of Prehistoric Remains Top Row: University of Malta Middle Row: Directors of Archaeological Survey Bottom Row: Malta Museum of Archaeology

11 Facets of Maltese Prehistory

Yet, just as in medicine the development in Malta during the Ice Age. Remains of of Magnetic Resonance Imaging has not items which were used as food were also invalidated the previous results obtained discovered, in the form of edible shells by Computerized Tomography or simple which had been fractured to extract the radiographs, so Libby's method has not flesh. These food remains were discovered refuted nor annulled the results obtained in the lower reaches of the Red Deer layer, by Oakley's methods. and as such represent human activity well before the end of the Ice Age. Moreover, The presence of Maltese humans during these food remains were associated with the Ice Age was confirmed by Oakley's the presence of tools in the same horizon. techniques. Between 1952 and 1968 a series of chemical and radiometric tests On the southern border of Sicily opposite was carried out on Maltese archaeological the Maltese islands lies the early specimens from Ghar Dalam and other Palaeolithic site of Fontana Nuova, where Maltese archaeological sites. The implements of a Mousterian technology reviewed results have clearly were identified (Bernabo Brea 1950). demonstrated that the stratification Similar tools were also identified in the deposits that contained the taurodont Maltese islands (Evans 1953: 63). The molars in Ghar Dalam were undisturbed, Maltese prehistoric tools do not represent and that the molars were only the late Ice Age technologies, but also contemporaneous with Red Deer of the Ice those which were contemporaneous with age (Mifsud & Mifsud 1997). The results Neanderthal man, approximately dating nullified the hypothesis, as proposed by to 25,000 years before the present and Evans (1954, 1959), that the taurodont earlier. Several scholars have recognized molars originally lay in the Neolithic implements of a Mousterian technology horizons, and that they had fallen down among the Maltese repertoire, and these into the Red Deer layer during excavation. are typically associated with Neanderthal man. When consulted by Evans in 1954 The human remains in the Red Deer layer (Evans 1956), the Sicilian archaeologist had also included several teeth, a host of Bernabo Brea confirmed and also hand and foot bones (phalanges), and two identified other implements, among the infantile mandibles. The absence of Maltese collection at the National

pottery in this layer further confirms the Museum, as subscribing to the Clactonian pre-N eolithic dating of these human industry. Both the Mousterian and remains at Ghar Dalam. Thus the Cladonian tool technologies were stratification and scientific tests clearly contemporaneous with Neanderthal Man. indicated and confirmed the presence of At this point in time it ought to have been humans in the Maltese Islands during the evident to any serious scholar that the Ice Age. identification of these tool technologies among the Maltese repertoire of The human remains were not, however, prehistoric implements was confirming the sole proof for the existence of humans Arthur Keith's (1918) attribution of the

12 Introduction taurodont teeth (1917) to Neanderthal Skorba, Trump was visited by Dr. Ercole man in Malta. This ought to have been Contu, Inspector of Antiquities of Sassari particularly evident at the time, when it and Nuoro, in Sardinia; Contu then had followed so closely upon Oakley's .remarked on the similarities between the confirmatory tests (June 1952). These N eo lithic constructions and the pottery of same tests had been carried out Malta and Sardinia. contemporaneously with those upon the Piltdown specimens, and Oakley was then In 1963 David Trump was succeeded as being hailed in Britain as the chief Curator by F.S. Mallia, who had received protagonist of archaeological science. his training in archaeology under John Evans m London. Mallia's main Trump and Zammit contribution to Malta's prehistory was In 1959, a young student named Colin orientated towards the Bronze Age; late in from Cambridge gazed in amazement at 1964 he actually joined a spelaeological the massive prehistoric temples and team to excavate Ghar Mirdum cave at statues of Malta; twelve years later he Dingli. Several Bronze Age artefacts were revolutionized the chronology of discovered at this site, of which the abrupt prehistoric Europe and the termination Mallia attributed to a Mediterranean- Malta emerged from catastrophic displacement of limestone insignificance into prominence (Renfrew rock. 1971, 1972). The curator at the Museum of Archaeology at the time was David In 1963 the Italian archaeological mission Trump; within a few years he re­ excavated a number of sites in Malta and organized the chronology of the Maltese Gozo. These included the Tas-Silg site in prehistoric period. Indeed, the period Marsaxlokk; the prehistoric megalithic between 1958 and 1963 marked another building here was single-apsed and floruit in Malta's archaeological Tarxien phase, and thus contradicted achievements; the tandem comprising Evans' proposed evolution from single to archaeologist David Trump and multiple apses during the Maltese museologist Charles Zammit has never Neolithic. been paralleled. In the meantime, Kenneth Oakley was in John Evans published his prehistoric Malta in November 1962, and the account of the Maltese islands in Malta in photograph below shows him during a 1959; the picture he painted then was visit to Ggantija with the Trumps. He that of a primitive colony "with a poor culture" from Sicily inhabiting the Maltese islands for the first time around 2500BC. According to Evans, the temples started to be built around 2000BC, and it was only under Minoan influence, in 1600BC (a date he regarded as absolute), that Maltese culture started to be manifest (Evans 1959: jacket, 42-3). When contested by the Sicilian archaeologist, Luigi Bernabo Brea, about the prehistoric chronology of Malta, Evans submitted the Kenneth P. Oaklev first Maltese radiocarbon date from Mgarr (BM-100); unfortunately it had been also had meetings with the Director of sampled from an incorrect stratum Museums, J.G. Baldacchino, over the (Trump 1962: 59). The excavations at issue of further scientific tests on the Skorba by Trump yielded the two missing Ghar Dalam taurodont molars. In 1964 prehistoric phases, and the radiocarbon the Museum of Archaeology issued its dates established a new chronology for the Scientific Reports, where a censored prehistory of the islands. Once calibrated, version of the chemical tests carried out these dates have since represented the by Oakley was published. Only the previously established chronology. In unreliable Nitrogen results of the first November 1961, during his excavations at four specimens were issued, with the

13 Facets of Maltese Prehistory

allegedly corrupted figure of 1.85% for islands appeared in 1971; its significant Despott's molar. The Nitrogen results of omissions included the 1964 report of the the last three specimens (the two from the Italian Archaeological Mission at Tas-Silg, Hypogeum and Baldacchino's taurodont the scientific tests carried out by Oakley molar) were not released. The crucial on the taurodont molars (Trump 1971: Fluorine, Phosphate and Fluorine: 237), and the human prehistoric skull phosphate ratio results of the first four remams at Mgarr and Hagar Qim specimens (tested in 1952) were omitted; temples. Almost immediately after its on their own strength these had already publication, calibrated radiocarbon dating settled the issue in favour of Despott's nullified Evans' chronology, and the molar being pre-Neolithic (Mifsud & following year Trump's Archaeological Mifsud 1997). Guide became the standard work of reference insofar as the prehistoric It was at this time that the first Maltese chronology was concerned. Colin accusation of distortion of archaeological Renfrew's Before Civilization established evidence by John Evans and Glyn Daniel the Maltese islands as the earliest was alleged. Brian Blouet, Professor of civilization in the Mediterranean. Geography at the University of Nebraska, was in Malta at the time, constantly Furthermore, calibrated radiocarbon involving himself in the activities of the chronology has proved that T. Zammit Maltese Museum of Archaeology, and he had been right all along. The Tarxien was implying in 1965 that Evans and temples are now dated to 3100BC Daniel had resorted to these means in (Zammit's figure was 3000BC, whilst that order to accommodate their theories of J. D. Evans was 1600BC). Moreover, (Blouet 1965: 9-10). Zammit's correct archaeological techniques also produced an accurate In 1965, Oakley carried out radiometric interpretation of the Tarxien Bronze Age, dating testsl on a series of Maltese whilst Evans' correlations of both the specimens from the Mriehel site, where Tarxien temple and the Bronze Age site George Zammit Maempel had discovered are incorrect. Neither Arthur nor John a unique layer of lava above the Evans proved to be a match for the doctor. Pleistocene horizons (Zammit Maempel

1982: 243-260). When in Malta in 1968, Estimated dates forTarxien

Oakley asked for Despott's molar to be 3500 dated by this method. He also asked for q "' 3000 casts to be taken of the taurodont molars. t 2500 Oakley took Despott's molar to the 2000 ~g Natural History Museum in London and 1500 ~ dated it. Once more it yielded the highest 1000 ] 500 value, and confirmed its antiquity, and its ".. " contemporaneity with the Red Deer of the Radiocarbon T. Zammit L. Bernabo J.O.Evans date 1971 1926 Brea 1960 1959 Ice Age. The interpretation of Malta's pre­ N eolithic history by Zammit was thus re­ confirmed by Oakley's scientific tests, and the situation ought to have then reverted The next major evolvement in Malta's to that originally outlined by Zammit and prehistory was the conference at the his contemporaries. University of Malta, on Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient The seventies marked a crucial Mediterranean; Anthony Bonanno had developmental stage in Malta's organized this in 1985. The consequences prehistory. Evans' catalogue of the of the event were manifold; the two major Prehistoric Antiquities of the Maltese developments were the excavation campaign at the Brochtorff Stone Circle and Anati's discovery of palaeolithic art

1 Between 1955 and 1975 Oakley had carried out a forms at Ghar Hasan. total of 1,200 radiometric dating tests world-wide; this method was non-destructive and measured the Between 1987 and 1994 the Brochtorff radioactivity of the daughter elements of uranium oxide (Oakley 1971, 1980). excavations yielded the remains of several

14 Introduction hundreds of prehistoric humans; new light the Ghar Dalam taurodonts (Fedele 1988: was shed on the mortuary practices of the 68). They submitted a report to the Malta prehistoric Maltese, and several Museum of Archaeology, wherein they radiocarbon dates from the site have also provided photographs and sketches of enriched the Maltese prehistoric series. the paintings (Anati 1989b).

At Ghar Hasan, a natural cavern on the Marija Gimbutas attended the 1985 southeastern aspect of Malta, the remains conference, and The Civilization of the of prehistoric rock-art forms are still to be Goddess (1991) featured her seen. These were first identified in 1989 interpretation of the Maltese temple by the team led by Emmanuel Anati, the architecture vis-a-vis the Mother Goddess Italian archaeologist and prehistoric art theme. According to Gimbutas, the form of expert. During their survey of the local the temples represents the body of the archaeological sites, they uncovered a Goddess, whilst that of the Hypogeum repertoire of cave art forms at the cave of represents her egg-shaped womb. She Ghar Hasan; they had been preserved adapted J.D. Evans' cave-tomb to temple beneath a layer of stalagmitic material. sequence in order to extend the concept of Since exposed they have been vandalized the sanctuary function backward in time severely, and survive only in the scantiest to include the rock-cut tombs themselves; amount; the best shows the only surviving the rock-cut tombs became sanctuaries in fragment of an elephantine image. The their own right (Gimbutas 1991: 174, identification of such a mammal is 262). significant for chronological purposes, for the elephant was endemic in Malta only The non-implementation of the Heritage during the Ice Age. Its representation in Act 1996 was good news for research art forms at Ghar Hasan bears witness to workers; the offending paragraphs were to the contemporaneity of this mammal with be found in 'Part X - Investigation:, Maltese humans during the pleistocene paragraphs 37 and 38. During this year period, the Ice Age in Northern Europe. Leonard Mahoney published his 5000

Reconstruction ofTarxien longitudinal section by Stierlin (1977)

Anati and his colleagues remarked on the years of Architecture in Malta, wherein his anomaly in Malta of the absence of other expertise in the architectural profession evidence of Palaeolithic man. They were was made to bear also on several issues of not acquainted with the entire prehistoric Neolithic architecture. The rock-cut tombs tool repertoire of the Maltese Islands, and had not evolved into the temples above they were in no position to question the ground; contrary to what Evans had results of the scientific tests carried out on asserted, Ceschi's roofing plans for the

15 Facets of Maltese Prehistory temples were totally sound and feasible volume covers a wide range of scholars, (Mahoney 1996: 1, 6, 10). students, and members of the third culture. It includes the professors and In 1997 Mifsud and Mifsud published the senior lecturers in archaeology at the available archaeological evidence for a University of Malta, Anthony Bonanno Magdalenian human presence in Malta; and Anthony Frendo, who are responsible evidence was also produced to support for the teaching and practical training of their allegations of distortion of data the new generations of archaeologists in insofar as the scientific tests on the Malta. Both Bonanno and Frendo have taurodont molars were concerned. This respectively held the singular post of hypothesis was contested by John Samut­ Head of the Department of Archaeology at Tagliaferro, osteopathologist at the the University since its inception in 1987. department of the Malta Museum of Two senior archaeologists from the archaeology, but supported by Charles Department of Archaeology at the Savona Ventura. University of Cambridge have also participated. David Trump has been well­ Savona Ventura and Mifsud reviewed the known in the archaeological sphere of the Ghar Dalam stratigraphy in 1998, and a Maltese islands since the late fifties, and new horizon was identified as the Simon Stoddart has featured significantly Carnivore layer. The importance of this in recent years in directing and publishing stratum lies in its being the matrix also the excavations at the Brochtorff Stone for human remains (Savona Ventura & Circle in Xaghra, Gozo. Both have Mifsud 1998). rendered sterling assistance in the building up of Malta's prehistory. The 1999 marks the centenary of the Hal archaeology group also comprises Saflieni Hypogeum; at least three Nicholas Vella and Andrew Townsend, publications on Maltese prehistory are out two recent doctoral graduates in this year. The local pharmaceutical archaeology at the University of Bristol. companies, particularly Vivian Townsend is remembered at the Commercial Company, have sponsored the Brochtorff excavations for being fortunate publication of Prehistoric Medicine in enough to pick up both the twin goddess Malta, which was published by the and the stack of figurines, the two prize present editors this year. Concurrently finds at the site. V ell a is a recently with this publication, Malta - echoes of appointed lecturer in archaeology at the Plato's Island investigates the ancient University of Malta and coordinator of the texts for the whereabouts of Plato's lost archaeology programme at the Malta island. The Temples of Malta featured at Centre for Restoration, Bighi. He has Oxford University Day School in January featured both at the Brochtorff site and at this year; attendance was maximal. In the on-going excavations at Tas-Silg, May 2000 Ancient Malta will be featured where he is site supervisor. Joseph Magro in Cambridge. Conti is another Maltese archaeologist who, on behalf of Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna, The Prehistoric Society of Malta, in is significantly and practically involved in liaison with Christopher Stringer,2 has the conservation and preservation of the recently provided another three new cultural and archaeological heritage of the radiocarbon dates to the Maltese Maltese islands. repertoire. These include the first ever dates from the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum The professional archaeologists may be and Burmeghez; another eight the main protagonists in constructing radiocarbon dates from these two sites are prehistory, but the participation of other being scheduled. disciplines is crucial. The Maltese architects of today are ideally suited to Contributors to Facets judge not merely the physical efforts of The spectrum of contributors towards this the N eo lithic master masons, but also the driving forces behind their accomplishments. Richard England claims 2 Head of Human Origins, Department of Palaeontology, at the Museum of Natural History in that he draws his own inspiration from London, where the specimens were preserved. his ancestral megalithic builders. He is

16 Introduction not only well known for his architecture, established notions of interpretation if which blends perfectly with the landscape, these are not sufficiently backed up. but also for his overt demonstrations against the destruction of our heritage, Facets 1999 such as by the quarrying processes at the Towards the end of the second Maghlaq region. millennium, the interpretation of Malta's prehistory is being subjected to a revision. Christopher Hunt and Patrick Schembri The date of the earliest occupation of the have joined forces to review the Maltese islands is still undefined; the quaternary environments and presence of pre-Neolithic man in Malta biogeography of the Maltese Islands. Hunt cannot be excluded by negative evidence is the Head of the Department of alone (Trump 1999: 33). The present head Geographical and Environmental Sciences of archaeology in Malta starts the ball at the University of Huddersfield, whilst rolling. Anthony Frendo analyses and Schembri is professor and Head of the utilizes the process of epistemology in the Department of Biology at the University elucidation of the recent controversy over of Malta. Both are already well known for the presence of Palaeolithic Man in the their international contributions in the Maltese islands. His conclusions favour field. such a presence; it is more than probable that the first Maltese inhabitants were Themistocles Zammit has shown that the hunter-gatherers, and that they preceded medical profession as well can contribute the N eolithic farmers of the sixth significantly towards Malta's prehistory, millennium BC by as many as another six and four members of the Maltese medical millennia. They gathered wild fruit and and kindred professions have participated hunted the animals of the Ice Age; these with their contributions towards this animals constituted a significant publication. Charles Savona Ventura is a component of the human environment. consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology; his contributions towards Maltese medical Grahame Clark introduced an ecological history and the natural history of the approach towards archaeological study in Maltese islands are well known. His the early 1950s; another that was more contributions as joint author with Anton directly relevant for archaeological Mifsud have in recent years included a fieldwork thus substituted the traditional review of the Ghar Dalam stratigraphy artefact-dominated culture-historical and Prehistoric Medicine in Malta. Anton approach. Clark argued that several and Simon Mifsud are both specialists in aspects of ancient society could be paediatrics, and their contributions understood by studying how human towards Malta's prehistory has been populations adapted to their mainly through their joint publication in environments. This ecological approach to 1997, Dossier Malta - evidence for the archaeological study requires the Magdalenian. Charles Galea Bonavia is a collaboration of several different dental surgeon; he has liaised with his specialists, which include, among others, medical colleagues in investigating a biologists to identify animal bones, plant practically unknown area for its remains and pollen in the archaeological palaeontological aspects; he is also an record, and geologists in order to assess expert ornithologist. However, the the ecological and climatic conditions contribution on prehistoric birds has been under which the archaeological deposits submitted by another ornithologist, J.J. were laid down. Borg, presently in charge of the nature reserve at Mellieha. Both the latter and The Pleistocene deposits, with their Charles Galea· Bonavia have recently biological remains and mode of deposition, contributed significantly towards the local are reviewed in an attempt to build up a ornithological scene at the Ta' Cenc area. biological and environmental sequence for Daniel Sciberras is a sixth form student; the period ranging from the Pleistocene to he represents the younger generation who the Holocene. Dating of these deposits has are investigating and assessing the been chiefly based on faunal associations; evidence in historical and prehistorical the importance of a clear faunal issues, and who are questioning the chronostratigraphy is thus evident.

17 Facets of Maltese Prehistory

Typographical assessment of the Bronze Age, for these ceramic remains in archaeological deposit helps establish the their proximity have also represented the climatic conditions under which that N eolithic and Punic periods. Another deposit was laid down. These efforts to point that is raised is that the glean information about the environment architectural association of some during archaeological fieldwork help build specimens with the megalithic temples up an ecological picture of prehistoric cannot be dismissed as insignificant. man's environment and his way oflife. The leap towards the supernatural The earliest mammals of the Maltese extended upward to the skies, the sun and Pleistocene period are discussed by the stars. Charles Savona Ventura deals Charles Galea Bonavia, and the area with the complex concept embracing which is investigated for such remains is mythology, religion, science, healing, the Maghlaq region on the south-east ritual and magic as practised by the coast of Malta. A comprehensive analysis prehistoric Maltese. of the Pleistocene fauna is then presented by Christopher Hunt and Patrick Pre-Neolithic man in Malta lived in caves Schembri, who have both drawn heavily and designed his images upon the cave from their recent research work to walls. These depictions have already been produce this updated and exhaustive described by Anati (1989), Mifsud & review. Prehistoric man in Malta also Mifsud (1997) and by Mifsud and Savona hunted birds on the wing in order to Ventura (1999). In the Neolithic period, maintain himself, and J.J. Borg outlines the Maltese farmers, agriculturalists, and the Maltese repertoire of quaternary the temple-builders in particular designed avifauna in a preliminary checklist. The other forms of art. Andrew Townsend does environment which is suggested by these not fall into the "trap of minimalist or birds which prevailed at this time, the descriptivist thought", but makes the Pleistocene, or Ice Age, includes both most of what is available, acknowledging woodland and marshland. These papers Zammit's methods at Tarxien as a major by Hunt and Schembri, Galea Bonavia contribution. Townsend reviews this and Borg should serve as a work of repertoire of Maltese N eolithic art in reference for both students and scholars order to elucidate its social context in investigating the Maltese pleistocene Malta. period. A proportion of these animals made it possible for the Maltese man the A thoroughly seasoned Maltese architect hunter to survive, and, as in other provides the link between the physical prehistoric sites elsewhere, the Red Deer and supernatural parameters in the featured prominently as the quarry for accomplishments of the temple builders. early man in Malta. Richard England shows that the Maltese temples not only predate Stonehenge and Once his requirements for food and similar structures by a millennium, but shelter were catered for, prehistoric man that the latter structures do not display in Malta extended his horizon to embrace their art in architecture, but in sculpture. art, architecture and the supernatural. The Maltese temples enclose space; the David Trump discusses the logistics of Stonehenge and like structures exist in temple building during the late N eolithic space. The circle and variations of the period, when the native Maltese were circle naturally resonate with humanity's already recogmzmg and solving sense of sacredness and wholeness, and in architectural problems well ahead of their his identification of the Maltese temples colleagues elsewhere. The megalithic with mandalas (from the Sanskrit for Maltese dolmens are discussed by Daniel circle) of the Middle sea, England is Sciberras; Evans, Trump and Bonanno defining them as sacred circles of stone, assume they date to the Bronze Age, enclosing sacred spaces that remind us of whereas Stoddart sees no conclusive proof the immanence of sanctity and its of their forming part of a death ritual. No potentiality in ourselves. A Mandala is a human remains, ashes or urns have ever complex circular design, intended to draw been found associated with them. Nor can the eye inward towards its centre; it the sherds date these structures to the transcends time and space, and is a

18 Introduction symbol of the interplay between time and proponents argue in an opposite direction. eternity, form and formlessness. It is If the Hypogeum was a tomb, then the designed to facilitate the integration of temples were tombs as well, and they the polarities of existence as experienced would merely fit into the European by human consciousness, and can best be sequence of megalithic chamber tombs, as seen as an exploration of the interface proposed by Daniel and Evans in the late between the finite and the infinite, the fifties.3 The contribution by Anton and personal and the transpersonal, the Simon Mifsud presents the evidence to microcosm and the macrocosm. show that the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum was not primarily and originally designed as a The same concepts of space enclosures tomb, but as a sanctuary. and design also apply to the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. The walls merge into the In more recent times, the Maltese floors, and its repertoire of art and archaeological site which has yielded the architecture was not designed for a most significant amount of prehistoric megalithic tomb; the whole labyrinth remains was that at the Gozo Stone Circle rather represents a womb, a symbol of in Xaghra, the Brochtorff Circle. The life. person responsible for its rediscovery, Joseph Attard Tabone, describes the The supernatural parameter extended history of its initial excavation, its loss also into the womb of the earth, the final and subsequent re-identification. The resting place of the dead. At the turn of processes of life, ritual and death are the century significant prehistoric burials reviewed by Simon Stoddart, one of the eo­ and deposits of prehistoric human directors of the excavation campaign remains were found respectively at which extended between 1987 and 1994. Burmeghez, limits of Mqabba, and at the Stoddart proposes newer methods beyond Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. Anton and Simon the "dry bones that form the basis of our Mifsud review these sites in an attempt to interpretation." He enhances the show that, whereas the Burmeghez site involvement of all the senses (vision, reflects a true prehistoric ritual burial touch, sound, taste), especially the oft site, the primary and original purpose of neglected audio parameters of the burial the art and architecture of the Hal ritual, and indicates the significant effects Saflieni Hypogeum was not a sepulchral of vocal resonance at Hal Saflieni in the one. Oracle chamber (See also Chalmers 1999).

The issue regarding the original function The abrupt end of the temple-builders of of the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum is a crucial Malta is still unknown. Hypotheses which one, and a controversy still exists. Was its have been suggested include disease, over­ art and architecture designed in a tomb exploitation of resources, and major context, or was it meant as a warfare. Aggression and defence in subterranean temple, or sanctuary, prehistoric Malta is a subject which has possibly associated with the rites of the been poorly dealt with so far; the absence dead? If it were possible to simply ignore of weapons in the archaeological record for the non-sepulchral paraphernalia in order the Maltese Neolithic period is assumed to to label it as a megalithic tomb, then it reflect a non-belligerent attitude of the can be related in form and time with the Maltese Neolithic folk. Joseph Magro other prehistoric rock-cut tombs of the Conti bases his study on the local Maltese islands. If, on the other hand, its repertoire of artefacts which were possibly art and architecture were designed in a utilized as weapons during the prehistoric temple context, as Zammit and Trump period in Malta, and conducts his suggest, then its architecture is also investigation on analogies with similar confirming that the temples above the implements abroad. ground were roofed as well, not with timber, but with slabs of limestone. This was shown to be so by the Mgarr model; it was actually suggested by Ceschi in 1938, 3 The caption for the photograph depicting Evans in and has been confirmed recently by the Hypogeum reads an "extraordinary underground Piovanelli and others. The tomb catacomb" (Johnstone 1957: plate 25).

19 Facets of Maltese Prehistory

Bonanno relies heavily on the original be necessary in order to permit the reader excavation reports by Themistocles to reach his own conclusions in Zammit; these had been executed along controversial interpretations of the texts the highest scientific standards prevailing in question. at the time. Bonanno makes two significant recommendations. It is time for Frendo quotes Trigger (Infra: 26), "the those artefacts which belong to the Early greatest obstacle to making progress in Bronze Age to be displayed in the right archaeology is complacency." "Deeply section, rather than in the Temple period entrenched" interpretations may have to section at the Museum of Archaeology in go. Zammit quoted in manuscript from V alletta. The extensive repertoire of Edward Clodd, The Story of Primitive photographs at the same Museum should Man, "Progress is a modern idea ... the not be allowed to remain dormant forever. Orientals hate it ... the Chinese loathe it ... Bonanno's main theme, however, is re­ a stationary state is by far the most utilization of megalithic structures. The frequent condition of man. Races are temple builders were succeeded by Bronze bound hand and foot by custom, by taboo Age people who adapted the megalithic .. . Vested interests and apathy have been structures for other purposes. Was there a the foes to advancement, so strong is the continuity of religious cult at the temples reluctance to change, so great the pain of a such as Tas-Silg, eventually with an new idea, so dominant the power of feeling assimilation of the N eolithic goddess into over reason, of that wish to believe which the Phoenician deity? Was there a ghost demands no effort, against that desire to Tarxien Cemetery phase at Tas-Silg? This know, which involves strenuous inquiry re-utilization of the temple sites by the and application" The situation which Bronze Age Maltese is analyzed by prevailed at the start of this century has Anthony Bonanno, and the sites which are persisted to its end. selected for this study are, besides Tas­ Silg, Tarxien and the Xaghra Stone Circle. And, in a related context, Oakley (1964: 94) quoted Max Planck, the Nobel prize Were the successors of the N eolithic winner for his theory of Quantum Maltese foreign invaders, or were they the Mechanics: ''A new scientific truth does not same people, as Stoddart is suggesting? triumph by convincing its opponents, but What sort of ritual continuity existed after rather because its opponents die, and a the end of the Neolithic period? At the end new generation grows up that is familiar of the Maltese prehistoric period, a carry­ with it." The first draft on The Maltese over of religious practices into the Dolmens was written as a secondary Phoenician period is assumed to have school essay, at an age when young people taken place. This interpretation is start to insert their own impressions and questioned by Nicholas Vella; super­ opinions in writing. It has been included imposition of architectural remains per se to convey some of these thoughts on constitutes no proof of such continuity in Malta's archaeological heritage among religious beliefs. Rather than simple Maltese youth today. juxtaposition in the archaeological record, formation processes are the key Richard England (1980: 45) quotes Goethe parameters for investigation in the "Daring ideas are like chessmen moved interpretation of the archaeological forward, they may be beaten, but they may evidence. The prehistoric statue at the also start a winning game." This series of Tas-Silg site is investig~ted by Vella in articles is meant to stimulate a new this context in order to show that, in generation of Maltese archaeologists to Malta, proof is lacking for such a ritual reconsider Malta's prehistoric past in the continuity from prehistory into history. light of new evidence as it emerges. This volume is being published by the These are but a few of the various facets Prehistoric Society of Malta 1999. It is of Maltese prehistory which require to be dedicated both to the father of Maltese re-addressed in the light of new research. prehistory, Sir Themistocles Zammit, and Long quotations from the original texts to the generations of the new millennium, are a feature of some of the contributions to Maria, Michaela and Abigail's unborn towards this volume; this has been felt to daughter.

20 Introduction

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Evans, J.D. 1959. Malta. Ancient Peoples and Places Mayr, A. 1908. The prehistoric remains of Malta. Series, XL London: Thames and Hudson. Mayr, A. 1920 Scoperte preistoriche in Malta. Evans, J.D. 1960. Malta and the Mediterranean. Translation from Kunschronik und Kunstmarkt (40): Antiquity 34: 218-220. 832-834. Falzon P. (ed.) Melita 1921 1: 505-507. Malta. Evans, J.D. 1961. C-14 date for the Maltese early Neolithic. Antiquity 35: 143-4. Mifsud, A. and Mifsud, S. 1997. Dossier Malta: Evidence for the Magdalenian. Malta: Proprint Ltd. Evans, J.D. 1968. Malta in Antiquity. In Rossiter, S. (ed.) Malta, pp. 9-28. London: Ernest Benn Ltd,. Mifsud A. and Savona Ventura, C. 1999. Bovine depictions in Maltese prehistoric art. BCSP 32: in Evans, J.D. 1971. The Prehistoric Antiquities of the press. Maltese Islands: a Survey. University of London: The Athlone Press. Oakley, K.P. and Hoskins, C. R. 1950. New Evidence on the Antiquity of Piltown Man. Nature Fedele, F. 1988. Malta: Origini e Sviluppo de 165: 379-82. Popolamento Preistorico. In Anati, F. and Anati, E. (eds.) Missione a Malta, pp. 51-90. Milan: Jaca Book Oakley, K.P. 1948. Fluorine and the Relative Dating spa. of Bones. Advancement of Science 16: 336-7.

Gimbutas, M. 1991. The Civilization of the Goddess. Oakley, K.P. 1955. Bulletin of the British Museum San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers. (Natural History) Geology 2: 254-265.

Gordon Childe, V. 1925. The Dawn of European Oakley, K.P. 1964. The Problem of Man's Antiquity, Civilization. An Historical Survey. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geology 9 (5). London. Gordon Childe, V. 1958. The Prehistory of European Society. Penguin, Victoria. Oakley, K.P. 1969 (3rd ed.). Frameworks for Dating Fossil Man. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Grongnet di Vasse, G. 1854. L'Atlantide. Ms. 614/5. Biblijotheka Nazzjonali, Valletta. Oakley, K.P. 1970. Analytic Methods of Dating Bones. In Brothwell, D. and Higgs, E., (eds.) 1970. Grongnet, G. 1854. Epilogo dell'Atlantide. Malta: Science in Archaeology, pp. 35-45. London: Thames F.W. Franz Tipografo. and Hudson.

Issei, A. 1866. Note sur une Caverne a Ossements de Oakley, K.P. 1971. Catalogue of Fossil Hominids. l'Ile de Matte. In Materiaux pour l'Histoire de Trustees of the British Museum. l'Homme, 2 (Sept. 1865 - Aout 1866), pp. 242-6. Oakley, K.P. 1980. Relative Dating of the Fossil Johnstone, P. 1957. Buried Treasure. London: Hominids of Europe. Bulletin of the British Phoenix House Ltd. Museum, Natural History (Geology Series).

Keith, A. 1913. Problems relating to the Teeth of the Pace, J.L. 1972. The Anatomical Features of earlier Forms of Prehistoric Men. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Man in Malta. Royal University of Malta. Royal Society of Medicine, 6 (Odontological section): 1. Randall-Maclver, D. 1935. The Prehistoric Antiquities of Malta. Antiquity 9 (34): 204-8. Keith, A. 1918. Discovery of Neanderthal Man in Malta. Nature 101: 405 et seq. Renfrew, C. 1971. Carbon 14 and the Prehistory of Europe. Scientific American 225 (4): 63-75. Keith, A. 1924. Neanderthal Man in Malta. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 56: 251-260. Renfrew, C. 1972. Malta and the calibrated radiocarbon chronology. Antiquity 46: 141-4. Keith, A. 1925. The Antiquity of Man (2 vols). London: Williams and Norgate Ltd. Renfrew, C. 1977. Ancient Europe is older than we thought. National Geographic 152 (5): 614-623. Keith, A. 1950. An Autobiography. London: Watts and Co. Renfrew, C. 1978. Before Civilization. London: Penguin Group. Mangion, J.J. 1962. Two Cases of Taurodontism in Modern Human Jaws. British Dental Journal 113 Renfrew, C. 1979. Problems of European Prehistory. (9): 309-312. Edinburgh University Press.

Mayer, F. 1864. Uber die fossilen Uberreste eines Renfrew, C. (ed.) 1983. The Megalithic Monuments of menschlichen Schiidels und Skeletes in einer Western Europe. London: Thames & Hudson. Felsenhiihle des Diissel- oder Neander-Thales. Archiv. Anatom. Physiolog., pp. 1-26. Leipzig. Renfrew, C. 1994. Towards a Cognitive Archaeology.

22 Introduction

In Renfrew, C. and Zubrow. E.B.W. (eds.) The Ward Perkins, J.B. 1942. Problems of Maltese Ancient Mind. Cambridge University Press. Prehistory. Antiquity 16 (61): 19-35.

Renfrew, C. 1997. The Three Dimensions of Human Weiner, J.S. 1980. The Piltdown Forgery. New York: History. The Third Culture. World Wide Web: Dover Publications Inc. edge.org/3•·d_culture. Weiner, J.S., Oakley, K.P. and Clark, W.L.G. 1953. Savona Ventura, C. and Mifsud, A. 1999. Prehistoric The Solution of the Piltdown Problem. Bulletin of Medicine in Malta. Malta. the British Museum (Natural History), London, (Geology) 2 (3): 141-146. Savona Ventura, C., Mifsud, A., Mifsud, I. and Sammut, M. 1999. Dating Archaeological Bone Wheeler, M. 1966. Those Two Cultures. In Alms for Specimens using natural Gamma Emitter Oblivion. An Antiquary's Scrapbooh. Weidenfeld & Radionuclides. Xjenza 4 (1): 35-39. Nicolson.

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Snow, C.P. 1959 (1'' Ed.) The Two Cultures. London. Zammit, T. 1915. Archaeology: Prehistoric Remains in Malta and Gozo, in MacMillan A., (ed.), Malta and Snow, C.P. 1963 (2"" ed.). The Two Cultures. A Gibraltar Illustrated, pp. 186-198. London: W.H. and Second Looh. London. L. Collingridge.

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Trump, D.H. 1971. Reviews. Antiquity 45: 237. Zammit, T., Peet, T.E. and Bradley, R.N. 1912. The Small Objects and the Human Shulls found in the Trump, D.H. 1972. An Archaeological Guide. Hal Saflieni prehistoric Hypogeum. Second Report. London: Faber & Faber. Malta.

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23

ARCHAEOLOGY, EPISTEMOLOGY, AND THE EARLIEST PHASE OF MALTESE PREHISTORY

Anthony J. Frendo

Introduction ~pistemology "or the theory of knowledge, The relationship between archaeology and LS that branch of philosophy concerned philosophy in general as well as that with the nature of knowledge, its between the former and epistemology in possibility, scope, and general basis'" particular has become a commonplace in (Hamlyn 1995a: 242). The three archaeological research. This paper is not aforementioned epistemological stances concerned with such vast themes in (positivism, idealism, and realism) general; it simply purports to throw some indicate that this crucial branch of light on the relationship between philosophy involves many moot questions archaeology and epistemology as and that it is very pertinent indeed to exemplified in the earliest phase of archaeology. The New Archaeology Maltese prehistory, and it aspires to do (processual archaeology) showed that "in this via the presentation and application positivist epistemology, explanation takes of the epistemology advocated by a the form of establishing regularities philosopher still virtually unknown in between different classes of observable archaeology. phenomena and trying to group these to form more general patterns" (Trigger 1998: Bruce Trigger 5). Trigger reminds us that the opposite pole of positivism, namely idealism is not The problem of the relationship between a novelty in archaeology. Indeed, it can be archaeology and epistemology in general traced back to Robin G. Collingwood who has been recently dealt with in an was both a classical archaeologist and a admirable manner by Bruce Trigger in a philosopher and whose idealist position study (1998) which is replete with useful means in practice that "archaeological bibliographic references. Trigger traces interpretation therefore consists of the four main steps in the relationship ideas that modern archaeologists have between archaeology and epistemology about the ideas that people once had, and from the 1960s up to the present moment is an activity in which a scholar seeks to revealing three main epistemological relive the past in her or his own mind" stances, namely positivism, realism, and (Trigger 1998: 3). When pushed to its idealism. In the 1960s, processual logical conclusions, idealism is seen to archaeology was positivist following a enhance subjectivism and relativism and "deductive-nomological model of it is therefore understandable that it has confirmation" (Trigger 1998: 6). Later on, led to postmodernism's influence on archaeologists adapted the former rigid archaeological research, namely that it positivist stance by advocating "a lies at the basis of post-processual statistical-relevance model of explanation" archaeology; indeed, according to the (ibid.). By 1984 some had taken a realist latter stance "there never was a single position (Trigger 1998: 7), but this did not past, only conflict and diversity in the last long since shortly thereafter up to the struggle of other people to interpret their current time many archaeologists were in worlds. As we have seen, there need be no fact practising an epistemology of single meaning applicable to the materials idealism owing to the impact of we study, indeed their historical postmodernism on the social sciences in significance may lie precisely in their general (ibid.). However, it should be ambiguity" (Barrett 1996: 577). pointed out that Trigger notes M. Bunge's position which indicates that "all The extreme poles of positivism and reasonable and productive scientists are idealism are mediated by realism, which scientific realists in practice, whatever at one and the same time supports both epistemology they advocate" (Trigger 1998: the proper role of imagination and 7, n. 31). verification not only in research in general Facets of Maltese Prehistory

but also in archaeological investigation; matters of opinion that had little lasting indeed, "the greatest obstacle to making importance" (Trigger 1998: 3). progress in archaeology is complacency. Without the ability to imagine alternative As it will be shown below, facts cannot explanations, archaeology languishes. On simply be equated with data because a the other hand, without the opportunity fact is a conclusion, namely a correct and determination to test ideas, interpretation of the data which is imagination is of little value"' (Trigger reached on the basis of the self-correcting 1998: 27). Any archaeological process of understanding. interpretation has to be backed up by evidence which can and should enable us Bernard J.F. Lonergan "to alter even deeply entrenched The epistemological position just outlined understandings" (Trigger 1998: 23). This is that of critical realism and it has been does not mean the adoption of "the formal advocated by Bernard J.F. Lonergan who, positivist definition of laws as despite his important contributions to generalizations based on observations", cognitional theory, is largely unknown because strictly speaking this would even in philosophical circles. Thus, for entail observing all the relevant cases of example, he does not feature in the Oxford all times including the future - and this is Companion to Philosophy; his name can impossible; indeed, in the real world neither be found in the entries nor in the "proof always involves some element of index of this important philosophical work faith" (Trigger 1998: 21). In fact, realism of reference (Honderich 1995). Indeed, also accepts the scientific investigation of "of all contemporary philosophers of the ''processes or phenomena" which though very first rank, Bernard Lonergan has ''presently unobservable" can be known been up to now the most neglected. In conceptually, even if this is the only what follows I shall attempt to summarise manner whereby they are known (Trigger his philosophical position, in such a way 1998: 6). that attention may be drawn to it from a wider audience than has been so far The foregoing points show clearly that forthcoming"' (Meynell 1976: 1). Besides Trigger is advocating a healthy and numerous articles, Lonergan has written balanced type of realism which can be two books with a bearing on the field of very fruitfully practised in archaeological epistemology; one of them is a research. However, a close analysis ofhis philosophical treatise on cognitional position reveals that there is one theory (Lonergan 1958), whereas the epistemological point in his realism which second deals with method in theology appears to stand in need of refinement if presenting in a summary fashion the his stance is to be fully realist and if main points of the first book and applying certain errors in archaeological them to the field of theological research interpretation are to be avoided. He (Lonergan 1972). His writings contain justly draws a distinction between important viewpoints on epistemology archaeological interpretation and which can be fruitfully applied to archaeological data, but at one point he archaeological research. seems to identify the latter with facts for when discussing the reaction of British Lonergan once wrote: "The primary need archaeologists in the 1940s and 1950s to is for the theologian to know what he is Collingwood's viewpoints he says: doing when he is doing theology" (1974c: 137-138). Mutatis mutandis, the same "Like Collingwood, they [the British can be said of the archaeologist. In order archaeologists of the 1940s and 1950s] for one to know what he is doing when he accorded ideas a major role in shaping does something three prior questions human behaviour, but unlike him, they have to be answered. The first is a drew a clear distinction between facts and question of cognitional theory asking: interpretations. They believed that "What am I doing when I am knowing?" archaeological data constituted the real The second is one of epistemology and it and cumulative core of the discipline. queries; "Why is doing that knowing?", Interpretations, on the other hand, were whereas the third belongs to the field of metaphysics and it asks: "What do I

26 Archaeology, Epistemology, and the Earliest Phase of Maltese Prehistory know when I do it?" (ibid. 138). The first matter of taking a look at what is open for two questions are linked since they both inspection rather than of inquiring really deal with the theory of knowledge intelligently and reflecting reasonably" or epistemology. The third question (ibid.). pertains to the field of metaphysics which is generally considered "the most Lonergan's three stages of human abstract and in some views 'high-falutin' cognitional activity allow him to draw a part of philosophy, having to do with the distinction between the "external sources features of ultimate reality, what really of historical interpretation" and "the exists and what it is that distinguishes sources of interpretation immanent in the that and makes it possible"' (Hamlyn historiographer himself' (1958: 565). The 1995b: 556). However, for Lonergan even former are the data which lie in the field this third question is linked with of the historian's or archaeologist's cognitional theory for the answer to it experience and which are in fact follows from the answer to the first two "spatially ordered marks on paper or questions (Lonergan 1974d: 37). parchment, papyrus or stone" (ibid.). But the latter sources are the researcher's The answer to the foregoing three own cognitional dynamic structure of questions does have a bearing on knowing which includes experience, archaeological research too, for when understanding and judgement (ibid.). they are answered "with philosophic By exercising well these cognitional generality, one is already in possession of operations, the researcher should be able a transcendental method, that is, of a to see "the range of possible meanings of method, that is as yet not specified by any documents" and "to determine which of particular field or subject but, by suitable the possible meanings are to be assigned additions and adaptations, can be to each of the documents"; only under specified to any field or subject of human such conditions is it possible for there to inquiry" (Lonergan 1974a: 203). be correct interpretation (Lonergan 1958: 578). Such a capability of the interpreter Thus, the whole basic issue in any field to see the range of possible of inquiry, including archaeology, is one interpretations of the data is called a of cognitional theory. We have to know "universal viewpoint"; this is "simply a what knowing is in order to avoid the heuristic structure that contains virtually pitfalls of false interpretation. the various ranges of possible alternatives Lonergan's epistemology indicates that of interpretations" (ibid. 564). It seems we come to know the truth in three steps that archaeological interpretation is which have been well summarised by possible because of such a universal Meynell. The first is that of experience viewpoint which enables the researcher which "only gives us uncoordinated "to transport his thinhing to the level and scraps of data"; the second is that of texture of another culture in another understanding which "grasps by 'insight' epoch" (ibid. 565). Such a viewpoint is the intelligible unity in these scraps of universal not by being abstract but by data, in the act of concocting a theory being potentially complete in virtue of which accounts for them", and finally the researcher who activates his dynamic there is that of judgement whereby "we cognitional structure until he is satisfied affirm that the theory is true" and we that the truth has been reached; indeed, verify or falsify "the judgement typically "there are no interpretations without by renewed appeal to the data" (Meynell interpreters" (ibid. 566). Thus, there is 1976: 3). All this may seem so simple an indissoluble link between subject and and obvious, and yet it is not so. Thus, object, between the researcher and the for example, "emp~nc~sm and objectivity of the truth he strives for, materialism both presuppose in different something which he achieves via the ways, that it is only experience, and not "self-correcting process of learning in the whole process of experience, which preconceptual insights accumulate understanding, and judgement, which to complement, qualify, correct one actually puts us in touch with the real another" (Lonergan 1972: 209). Indeed, world; real knowledge of the real world, an interpretation is said to be correct if for these philosophies, is fundamentally a there truly are no further relevant

27 Facets of Maltese Prehistory

questions to be asked regarding a the earliest human inhabitants on these problem at hand (ibid. 163-164, 167). islands are currently thought to have The objectivity of truth does go beyond come here around the end of the sixth the subject, but only because he is millennium BC during the Neolithic "capable of an intentional self­ period. This quasi-dogmatic stance was transcendence, of going beyond what he severely put to the test when Anton and feels, what he imagines, what he thinks, Simon Mifsud (1997c) claimed that this what seems to him, to something utterly date had to be pushed back to a much different, to what is so" (Lonergan 1974b: earlier period, namely the Palaeolithic. 70). Indeed, they say that "these last two centuries have witnessed the emergence of Thus according to Lonergan's several archaeological artefacts which epistemology, facts cannot be identified have modified the history of the Maltese with data; indeed, facts are established Islands. The prevailing political situation after the data have been correctly has on several occasions clouded these understood, namely when a correct discoveries into obscurity, specifically judgement has been reached. In this those which might trace the Maltese roots context, it is important to remember that to a barbaric non-Latin stem" (ibid. x). we have no tape-recordings or cinema stemming from antiquity; indeed, "there At the beginning of this century it was is no verifiable cinema of the past nor any common to understand the very ancient verifiable sound-trach of its speech. The human teeth and tools found on the available evidence lies in spatially Maltese islands as pertaining to ordered marhs in documents and on Palaeolithic man, a view which was held monuments, and the interpreter's until 1964 when two taurodont teeth business is not to create non-existent (formerly thought to belong to evidence but to understand the evidence Neanderthal man) were said to be (on the that exists" (Lonergan 1958: 582). Such a basis of nitrogen tests) modern. However, situation makes it even more urgent for research on the sources indicated that the scholar, including the archaeologist, some of the original results of the nitrogen to realise that "confusion about knowing tests had been tampered with, and that leads to confusion about interpreting" the fluorine and uranium oxide tests (Lonergan 1972: 154). And if confusion is (which were more suitable but never to be avoided it should be remembered published) showed that the that unless the data, such as aforementioned taurodont teeth predate archaeological remains, are to be simply the N eolithic period. This means that re-issued in exactly the same manner as early man must have come to the Maltese that in which they were retrieved, then islands in pre-Neolithic times; indeed, the they will obviously have to be mediated microliths found on these islands, and to us via the experience, intelligence, and Emanuel Anati's research on the cave art judgement of the interpreter; in fact, "the here confirm this conclusion (pers. comm. less that experience, the less cultivated Anton Mifsud; see also, Mifsud & Mifsud that intelligence, the less formed that 1997c: 43, 108-109, 146-150, 168-171, judgement"' the greater is the risk that plates 2-5 and references there). the data will be misinterpreted (ibid. 157) - a meaning will be imputed to them It is obvious that such conclusions are which is foreign to that which they once very different indeed from the common had in antiquity. opinion regarding the date of the earliest presence of man on the Maltese islands, Earliest dates for Maltese Prehistory and in fact the aforementioned research All the foregoing points on the by Mifsud and Mifsud triggered off a relationship between archaeology and debate in the local newspapers. When one epistemology, especially the main tenets looks at the different viewpoints, one of Lonergan's cognitional theory, have a cannot help concluding that problems of bearing on the problem of the dating of an epistemological nature seem to be at the earliest phase of the prehistory of the stake. Maltese islands. It is a commonplace that Hence, it is useful to see this problem in

28 Archaeology, Epistemology, and the Earliest Phase of Maltese Prehistory the light of the relationship between by Baldacchino had in fact been switched. archaeology and epistemology which was Samut-Tagliaferro criticised this stance as treated above. The aforementioned unfounded; instead, he thought that the evidence which was adduced by Mifsud contradictory results of the various and Mifsud to show that early man first scientific tests on the two molars just came to Malta during the Palaeolithic was mentioned seemed "to render a confident of a triple kind, namely dental, conclusion about them unsustainable" technological, and artistic. In what (1997b: 33). So we are confronted with a follows, the discussion will co:11centrate on choice: we either assert that the various the arguments centred on the dental scientific tests made on the two evidence, and this for two reasons; partly aforementioned molars simply cannot give owing to lack of space, and partly owing to an adequate answer, or else we opt for an the fact that in this case the technological epistemological stance which asks the and artistic evidence are strictly necessary further relevant questions speaking - circumstantial in nature. regarding a problem at hand and, in this There could always be the possibility that case try to account for the contradictory types of tools and styles of art which scientific re.sults in an adequate manner. characterise the Palaeolithic age can in It is this latter choice which the Mifsuds fact spill over into and find themselves as took in their untiring quest to unravel the residual in a later age such as the problems regarding the contradictory N eolithic. But there could be no such scientific results just mentioned. Thus, chronological ambiguity with teeth once for example, they remind us that the they have been satisfactorily dated by molar retrieved by Baldacchino had three scientific means. important characteristics as described by

The Ghar Dalam taurodonts flanking the largest Maltese modern taurodont

him, namely that it was a left lower third The dental evidence molar, that it was fossilised, and that it The first important reaction to the was a taurodont (Mifsud & Mifsud 1997 a: publication by Mifsud and Mifsud (1997c) 13). Moreover, in 1952 this molar had appeared in a review of it by Samut­ been tested by Oakley for its percentage of Tagliaferro (1997b). The main issue nitrogen and the low level of the latter focused on the dental evidence which had was in fact enough to classify this tooth been adduced by the Mifsuds. The latter 'as a Palaeolithic specimen' (Mifsud had claimed that the value of nitrogen on 1997a: 26). The percentage of nitrogen in the molar (Ghar Dalam 2) which had been question was only that of 0.44, and this found by Despott had been corrupted, result had never been communicated to whilst the molar (Ghar Dalam 3) retrieved Dr. Baldacchino (ibid.). Indeed, it was

29 Facets of Maltese Prehistory published for the first time by the Mifsuds understanding, should make us realise in 1997 (1997c: pl. 5). When Oakley was that the figure of 1.85% is indeed strange in Malta in 1968, he requested to re­ and stands in need of an explanation. examine two taurodonts from Ghar Dalam First of all, it is clear that the difference one of which was Baldacchino's molar between 1.85% and .8% is not quite so originally tested for its nitrogen content in minimal as that, for example, between 1952. Now it was found that the molar 0.79% and 0.39%. Moreover it has been was modern and that it had lost its shown that, although all the nitrogen fossilisation; the molar must have been readings had been changed for switched (Mifsud 1997a: 26). Indeed, symmetry's sake, the only one which was radiography in 1995 also indicated that "altered in a different ink is for Gh. D I 2; the tooth examined was not ancient all the other readings are unaffected. This (ibid.). Thus, the evidence marshalled by suffices to explain the apparent Mifsud indicates that the tooth examined contradiction of Gh. D I 2's nitrogen result in 1968 and 1995 is not the same as that with the fluorine, phosphate, the F I P examined originally in 1952. There is no ratio, the iron and the uranium oxide, direct evidence to affirm that an which all confirmed the antiquity of intentional switch did take place, but it is Gh.DI2"(Mifsud & Mifsud 1997a: 13). well nigh conclusive that the tooth in question is not the same. At one point in the debate on the antiquity of the two aforementioned molars from Ghar Dalam, the fossilisation of Gh. Dl3 was compared with that of Neolithic teeth from Hal Saflieni and the Burmeghez Cave with the result that the degree of fossilisation was very similar indeed; this was taken to mean that Gh. Dl3 did not date to pre-Neolithic times (Samut-Tagliaferro 1997a: 56, 57, pl. 2). Once again, however, a different conclusion could be reached if one's epistemological stance untiringly tried to The figure dictated the examine all the pertinent aspects of the fate of the Ghar Dalam (1917) data at hand and to leave no further taurodonts · Scientific Report 1964 relevant question unasked. Indeed, it was pointed out that the aforementioned Samut-Tagliaferro accepts the fact that conclusion regarding the date of Gh. Dl3 the current figure of 1.85% of nitrogen was incorrect because like had not been content for the aforementioned molar Gh. compared with like: the state of Dl2 was superimposed on the original fossilisation depends on hydrodynamics, result, namely that of 0.8%. He explains and the latter are very different at Ghar this as due to the repeated tests which Dalam from those at Hal Saflieni and must have been carried out on the tooth; Burmeghez (Mifsud & Mifsud 1997b: 48). indeed, all other teeth from Malta which had been examined for their nitrogen Taurodontism content underwent the same procedure Another important aspect regarding Gh. with the original figures being adjusted. Dl3 is that of taurodontism. Once again, However, tooth Ma.1 had a second result it is the examination of all pertinent of 0. 79% which was written above the first aspects of the data which leads to correct one, namely 0.39%. Thus, there is no conclusions. The current molar which is need to postulate any real change of the allegedly Gh. Dl3 is indeed a taurodont results registered (Samut-Tagliaferro which (as shown above) had been recently 1997a: 56). However, an epistemological dated to modern times; but, it is "of the stance which pleads for an examination of mesa-variety, which is also commonly all the evidence and asks as much further found in modern humans" (Mifsud 1997b: relevant questions as possible in the 28). On the other hand, "Keith's original above-mentioned self-correcting process of definition of taurodontism referred to the

30 Archaeology, Epistemology, and the Earliest Phase of Maltese Prehistory hyper-form, insofar as it is associated with case study. Time and time again, the Neanderthal man. The hypothesis about notion of the universal viewpoint which the switch of Baldacchino's molar with a allows one to rise above one's feelings and modern one is thus enhanced" (ibid.). restriction of time and place, the healthy Hence, the molar found by Baldacchino use of imagination which allows one to seems to be truly ancient. form hypotheses in need of verification, the taking into consideration of all Discussion possible aspects of the data at hand, the In epistemological realism the final continual asking of further relevant appeal to the data is crucial if correct questions to a problem at hand, the final judgements are to be made. The foregoing appeal to the data before a rational paragraphs show how such an appeal is judgement is made, and the fact that leading to the accumulation of evidence truth is reached in judgement and not in which points towards the pre-Neolithic understanding thereby underscoring the date of Gh. D/3. Moreover, it seems that need of reflection and verification, all there is further strong empirical evidence helped to show that at this moment in due for publication which supports this time the evidence tilts in favour of that conclusion (Mifsud & Mifsud 1997b: 49). position which claims that we do have Once this evidence is published and seen some evidence to show that man came to to be exactly what it purports to be, then Malta before the Neolithic. the matter regarding the pre-Neolithic date of Gh. D/3 would seem to be settled. I This conclusion runs counter to the contemporary common opinion regarding One's particular stance on cognitional the date of the earliest human presence theory does affect the manner in which on the Maltese islands. But a close look one conducts one's archaeological at the arguments and epistemological research. One could be unaware of one's stances actually taken in studies own cognitional activities or of what it concerning the date of two particular means to know and to reach a correct molars (Gh. D/2 and Gh. D/3) from Ghar judgement thereby establishing facts, but Dalam supports the new conclusion. despite this one still actually practices Additional evidence of a technological and some type of epistemology. And the type artistic nature could have been taken into of epistemology actually used does make a account, but in order to avoid any difference. The first part of this study has chronological ambiguity due to the shown that in fact realism is the possibility of typological continuity in healthiest and most practical different epochs, such evidence was not epistemological stance that an considered in this study. archaeologist can take; indeed, it was shown how other positions, such as Conclusion idealism or positivism, can be self­ The research on the date of the dental defeating and contradictory. Bernard evidence supports by itself the claim that Lonergan's particular type of humans came to the Maltese islands epistemological realism was closely before the Neolithic period. Lonergan's examined and shown to be very applicable epistemological tenet that the data have to archaeology. Indeed, the second part of the last say but that they do so as this study focused on the study of some of mediated via the researcher's faculties of the evidence regarding the date of the understanding and reflection (see above), earliest human inhabitants on the has been practised in the new Maltese islands. It was shown that the archaeological research undertaken by the epistemological stance actually taken Mifsuds. They have shown that "there are determined the results of the no interpretations without interpreters"' investigation. Lonergan's epistemological (Lonergan 1958: 566) and that a fact is tenets actually helped the analysis of this not the point of departure but the point of arrival of the human self-correcting process of understanding; indeed, a fact is 1 No Nitrogen tests were ever carried out on Gh.D/1, Gh.D/2 and the presently designated Gh.D/3 (Mifsud "the natural objective of human & Mifsud, The Archaeological Survey 1951, cognitional process" (ibid. 331). The forthcoming) [eds.]

31 Facets of Maltese Prehistory

epistemology they actually practised Lonergan, B. J. F. 1974c. Theology and Man's indicates virtually beyond any reasonable Future, in Ryan and Tyrrell 1974, pp. 135-148 (originally published in 1969). doubt that "during the Magdalenian, approximately 15,000 to 18,000 years ago, Lonergan, B. J. F. 1974d. Theories of Inquiry: humans roamed the Maltese islands Responses to a Symposium, in Ryan and Tyrrell together with Pleistocene Siculo-Maltese 1974, pp. 33-42 (originally published in 1967). deer and the occasional pachyderm. Meynell, H. A. 1976. An Introduction to the Malta's history is thus extended backward Philosophy of Bernard Lonergan. London and by eight millennia" (Mifsud & Mifsud Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd. 1997c: 169). Mifsud, A. 1997a. Letter to the Editor, Malta Independent, 19th January: 26. References Barrett, J.C. 1996. Post-Processual Theory. In Mifsud, A. 1997b. Letter to the Editor, Malta Brian M. Fagan (ed. In chieD, The Oxford Independent, 2nd February: 28. Companion to Archaeology, pp. 576-578. New York!Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mifsud, A., and Mifsud, S. 1997a. Bones and Molars of Contention. Malta Independent, 9th March: 13. Hamlyn, D.W. 1995a. Epistemology, history of, in, Honderich 1995, pp. 242-245. Mifsud, A., and Mifsud, S. 1997b. The Conspiracy of Silence and the Switch, Sunday Times, 6th July: 48- Hamlyn, D.W. 1995b. Metaphysics, history of, in, 49. Honderich 1995, pp. 556-559. Mifsud, A., and Mifsud, S. 1997c. Dossier Malta: Honderich, T. (ed.). 1995. The Oxford Companion to Evidence for the Magdalenian, Malta: Proprint Co. Philosophy, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Ltd. Press. Ryan, W. F. J., and Tyrrell, B. J. (ed.). A second Lonergan, B. J. F. 1958. Insight: a Study of human Collection: Papers by Bernard J.F. Lonergan, S.J. Understanding, rev. edn. London/New London: Darton, Longman & Todd. York/Toronto: Longmans Green & Co. Samut-Tagliaferro, J. 1997a. Further Reflections Lonergan, B. J. F. 1972. Method m Theology, and new Evidence on the Ghar Dalam Teeth, London: Darton, Longman & Todd. Sunday Times, 29th June: 56-57.

Lonergan, B. J. F. 1974a. Philosophy and Theology, Samut-Tagliaferro, J. 1997b. Review of Anton in Ryan and Tyrrell 1974, pp. 193-208 (originally Mifsud and Simon Mifsud, Dossier Malta: Evidence published in 1970). for the Magdalenian, Malta: Proprint Co. Ltd, 1997. Sunday Times, 23'd February: 33. Lonergan, B. J. F. 1974b. The Subject, in, Ryan and Tyrrell 1974, pp. 69-86 (lecture originally delivered Trigger, B. G. 1998. Archaeology and Epistemology: on 3'd March 1968). Dialoguing across the Darwinian Chasm. American Journal ofArchaeology 102: 1-34.

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