Neolithic Temples Research Articles

Simulating a stone roof for the Maltese Neolithic temples: Analysing stress to understand specialisation

The Neolithic temples of Malta are large megalithic structures built between 3700 BC and 2400 BC. Around 30 temples have survived to present day, providing extensive evidence of Neolithic culture in the Maltese islands. However, while the temple walls are generally well preserved, there is a longstanding debate regarding the nature of the temples’ roofing, of which scarce indication remains. With material evidence existing both for wooden and stone roofs, new techniques are necessary to determine the overall plausibility of different roofing options. In this paper the possibility of a stone roof is tested using 3D simulation of stress within a temple model. By measuring the forces in play within the temple structure, and observing interesting architectural features in situ, the suggestion of a stone roof is reinforced. Temple walls appear to have been constructed with the direct aim of dispersing excessive weight, showing a complex understanding of architectural principles. Observations made by the study also have wider implications for the Maltese Neolithic, especially with regards to cultural transmission throughout the island and different generations.

The crux of astronomical alignment in Neolithic Malta: Using 3D simulation to produce new data

Like many prehistoric monuments, the Neolithic Temples of Malta have been the subject of astronomical studies, aimed at identifying possible alignments with cosmological events. The orientations of several sites have been suggested as evidence of an interest in the movement of the sun, moon, and stars, and of the importance of certain days such as the equinoxes and solstices. However, while individual sites may seem to align to specific events, a wider study into patterns of orientation is needed to determine whether these are the result of human action or random chance. In this paper, alignments at extant sites are investigated through 3D simulation, providing new data and statistical evidence for (and against) previously identified alignments. The methodology proposed uses Raycasting in Unity3D to identify the accuracy of orientations throughout the Maltese Neolithic (3700-2400 BC) at 23 temples sites. The orientation is analysed in relation to plausible astronomical events, as suggested by material evidence. The data produced shows possible patterns of alignment, rejecting commonly accepted targets such as the sun, in favour of a cautious acceptance of an alignment with the constellation of Crux. This shift in focus alters heliocentric interpretations of Maltese temple culture, while also supporting a wider landscape cosmology. This study demonstrates the use of 3D simulations as a tool for investigation of archaeological queries. The research not only provides a new methodology for the automatic calculation of alignment patterns, but also establishes how 3D simulation can create new data which can impact current archaeological theories.

Revisiting the 5000-Year-Old Tally at Mnajdra, Malta

The pillars at the entrance of the inner apse of one of the cluster of Neolithic temples at Mnajdra, Malta display rows of drilled holes which have been interpreted as a tally of days. Furthermore, it has been proposed that the number of holes in the rows on the east pillar coincides well with a sequence of intervals between the heliacal rising of bright stars or star groups. Is this remarkable correspondence simply a chance occurrence, or do the drilled holes represent material evidence of deliberate time reckoning by means of heliacal star risings in the Neolithic age? This question has led to the statistical investigation described in this paper, which takes into account the heliacal risings of all stars of magnitude 2.0 or brighter visible from Malta 5000 years ago as well as the Pleiades and the Hyades star clusters, which attracted the attention of other ancient cultures. The paper presents and discusses the method used and the challenges involved in the investigation. The results show that with a tolerance of ±1 day for uncertainty in the calculated heliacal rise days, the probability of achieving an exact correspondence between a random ordering of the tally and a series of star rises is 0.0014. With a wider tolerance of ±2 days the probability is 0.011. The final section discusses the significance and implications of these results.

How Landscapes Remember

This paper considers the possibility that as subject or agent, the landscape might have the potential to contain, store or transmit memories of their past, which are engaged experientially as uncanny. In a simple sense it asks why there are some landscapes – or landscape features – that are regarded as spiritually animated by different social groups, at different times. The paper focuses on the Neolithic temple site of Borġ-in-Nadur, in Southern Malta, which as well as having been a site of prehistoric ritual activity has more recently been the site of a significant devotion to the Virgin Mary, who graced the site with regular apparitions, and a focus for national and transnational Goddess pilgrimage. The paper suggests that sites such as Borġ-in-Nadur can be seen as palimpsest landscapes, in which memory is layered such that experiential engagements with them draw the past in to the present, and forwards into the future. The paper examines the intertwining of prehistoric, Catholic and Neo-pagan engagements with Borġ-in-Nadur, extending Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de memoire (sites of memory) to encompass the milieux de memoire, or memorial environments, which are themselves also context of, and for, the uncanny.

Neolithic World View Lost in Translation

This paper considers the history of interpretations of the Maltese Neolithic Temples, using the site known as the Tarxien Temples as a case study. It examines the persistence of terminology adopted by archaeologists to explain the Tarxien complex during the early and midtwentieth century, and discusses how broader social trends and perspectives on religion have determined academic and popular understandings of such sites and their cosmological aspects. The paper shows how outdated misconceptions about the Neolithic sites remain commonplace, despite the rise of more dynamic interpretations in recent years that consider the structures in more relational contexts.

Neolithic Temples of Malta: 3D analysis points to novel roof reconstruction

The Neolithic temples of Malta are among the oldest examples of prehistoric architecture, yet the construction of their roofs remains a mystery. The absence of any roofs or roofing material at the temple sites has resulted in conjecture regarding the original appearance of these megalithic structures. The most valuable indications of prehistoric Maltese roof architecture are found in the Neolithic burial complex, the Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni. Two chambers in the Hypogeum are modelled closely after the above-ground temples, with indications of a roof structural system on the ceilings. This paper uses LiDAR and photogrammetry-derived 3D models to provide a partial temple roof reconstruction that has its design entirely based on contemporaneous archaeology.Photogrammetric reconstruction of the Mnajdra and Tarxien temple complexes allowed for detailed architectural analyses including key structural features and any indications of previous roof construction that would be evident in situ. A LiDAR model of the carved chambers of the Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni was superimposed onto corresponding positions in the temple models. Merging the LiDAR imagery onto the photogrammetry temple models confirmed structural consistency between the two megalithic complexes; supporting the theory that the carved façades were a deliberate reflection of the original architecture of the Maltese temples. This evidence points to an entirely new temple roof reconstruction, founded upon the archaeology of Neolithic Malta.

A Neolithic palaeo-catena for the Xagħra Upper Coralline Limestone plateau of Gozo, Malta, and its implications for past soil development and land use

Geoarchaeological survey on the island of Gozo combined with test excavations and new chronometric dating of two Neolithic temple sites at Santa Verna and Ġgantija on the Xagħra plateau have revealed well-preserved buried soils which tell a new story of soil development and change for the early-mid-Holocene period. Micromorphological analysis has suggested that the earlier Neolithic climax soil type was a thick, well-developed, humic and clay-enriched argillic brown Mediterranean soil. With human intervention on the Xagħra Upper Coralline Limestone plateau from at least the early 4th millennium BCE, the trajectory of soil development quickly changed. Radical soil change was marked by the removal of scrub woodland, then consequent poorer organic status and soil thinning, and rubefication and calcification, no doubt exacerbated by Neolithic agricultural activities and a more general longer-term aridification trend. The beginnings of this transitional brown to red Mediterranean soil change process has been observed at Santa Verna temple by the early 4th millennium BCE, and appears to be much further advanced by the time of the latter use of Ġgantija temple in the early-mid-3rd millennium BCE. There is also evidence of attempts at amending these deteriorating soils during this period and into the 2nd millennium BCE, a practice which probably underpinned the viability of later Neolithic agricultural society in the Maltese Islands. The changes observed ultimately resulted in the creation of the thin, xeric, red Mediterranean soils on the Coralline Limestone mesa plateaux which are typical of much of Gozo and Malta today.

Water and cosmology in the prehistoric Maltese world: Fault control on the hydrogeology of Ġgantija, Gozo (Maltese Islands)

The dry limestone geology of the Maltese islands presented a challenging environment to prehistoric communities, who required reliable water sources to support agricultural subsistence. Ġgantija, one of the iconic Maltese Late Neolithic Temples on Gozo, and now a World Heritage Site, was surveyed using Ground Penetrating Radar to reveal a significant line of geological faulting running beneath the megalithic structure. The seepage of water from this fault had major implications for the siting of the monument. This seems to reflect a pattern of situating many of these key sites adjacent to ancient sources of water, as is shown by the close association of two thirds of these sites with toponym evidence for the presence of springs in the medieval period. It is possible that the prehistoric Maltese embraced this natural resource as part of the cosmology of their ritual sites.

A unity 3D script for calculating solar alignment at the neolithic temples complex at Ggantija, Gozo

Cosmological alignment plays an important role in Neolithic Maltese belief systems. Temple complexes and hypogea have indications of solar, sidereal or lunar arrangements, yet sources are often based on mathematical calculations at specific key points of the year. The data is limited by computational requirements, providing only a partial picture of this phenomenon. Through the use of a Unity3D script the temples of Ggantija, Gozo, are re-analysed, exposing additional information regarding duration, timing and reuse. The script calculates the illumination of internal spaces throughout the year, expanding the dataset and providing insight into past ritual. The contrast between dark and light is demonstrated within the context of Maltese ritual belief, using archaeological evidence from Ggantija and other temples as a basis. The results emphasise the wider uses of 3D reconstruction and scripting for the interpretation of archaeological structures.

Pollution Monitoring for Sea Salt Aerosols and Other Anionic Species at Hagar Qim Temples, Malta: A Pilot Study

The damaging effects of sea salt aerosols on Globigerina Limestone are well known, and various professionals have studied and reported on the often complex underlying deterioration mechanisms. Following a preventive conservation project, undertaken to shelter and protect the UNESCO World Heritage Neolithic temple sites of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, the Preventive Conservation Unit within the Diagnostic Science Laboratory at Heritage Malta embarked on a pilot study to identify whether sea salt aerosol deposition patterns within the site alter significantly post sheltering. The results from this short pilot study, by identifying the presence of salts using ion chromatography, have shown that there is a consistent pattern that when directly linked to the intrinsic shape of the temple interior as well as to the micro-environmental factors that are changing as a direct result to the sheltering, point to the trends of greater pollutant accumulation, particularly dust.

Julie Scott and Tom Selwyn, eds., Thinking through Tourism.

Julie Scott and Tom Selwyn, eds, Thinking through Tourism. Oxford: Berg. 2011, 261 pp. $34.95 paper (978 1 84788 530 2). This edited volume engages with debates and dilemmas in the anthropology of tourism. Most of the chapters are based on detailed field research in the ethnographic tradition, which makes for careful insights into practices and discourses. Thinking through Tourism will also be of interest to sociologists who study and teach cultural commodification and representations, identity, and resistance across sites of consumption, leisure, heritage and religious observance. Thinking through Tourism starts with foreward by Margaret Kenna, who argues there is no single way to do the anthropology of tourism. The anthropologist is positioned as tourist, researcher, and theoretician, playing different roles in the field. Kenna also argues that field research in the ethnographic tradition should offer balance of theory and empirical detail, and that authenticity, representation, and performance are key issues that studies of must address. Julie Scott and Tom Selwyn continue this discussion of core themes in the introduction, where they assert that such bubbly terms actually mean little unless carefully grounded ethnographically (p. 18). In insisting on the value of anthropological work in this area, they also seek to move the research agenda forward by suggesting that the study of today should cover new terrain such as the work of developers, entrepreneurs and managers who are key players in policy. The question is not only how to conduct research, but also if and when to intervene to shape policies. The chapters cover range of topics from countries around the globe. Hazel Andrews shows how tour operators in Mallorca create a sense of place and atmosphere (p. 33) for British tourists. This performance takes form through the food, drink, music, and leisure opportunities that Andrews argues are vehicles for the expression of self-identity by British tourists. Based on an analysis of media coverage of the deaths of two young American women travelling alone in Costa Rica, Susan Frohlick problematizes depictions of female sex as empowerment by showing how violence against those who do not follow normalized sexual and gender scripts is legitimated. Julie Harrison examines the social meanings of place for those who travel to cottages near their homes, referred to as second-home tourists. Based on historical and ethnographic analysis of country goers in the province of Ontario, Harrison shows how being real cottager--one who works and lives on the land, albeit occasionally--is considered prerequisite of being real Canadian (p. 80). Moreover, she notes how other second-home tourists are treated as outsiders if they do not perform the outdoor rituals accepted by the cottage community. There are two chapters on Malta in Thinking through Tourism. Jeremy Boissevain demonstrates how developers, entrepreneurs, and managers have transformed its landscapes with massive buildings and concrete compounds to increase on the small island. He shows how glowing ads that depict pristine beaches and oceans are at odds with its polluted landscape. Kathryn Rountree explores how Malta's Neolithic Temples have become destinations for pagan worship. Tensions have emerged between foreign pagan visitors to the temples and Maltese pagans who are contracted to enhance the authenticity of tourist experience yet poorly compensated. Shifting the focus to host-guest relations in Crete and Cyprus, Ramona Lenz explores how tourists complain about migrant workers in the service industry. Lenz explains that tourists are unsettled by migrants who work as hosts, not due to concern for their economic wellbeing, but because migrant workers disrupt the tourist sense of authenticity and quality tourism (p. …

The provenancing of ochres from the Neolithic Temple Period in Malta

Ochres have played an important role in early human societies, and recent studies have shown that these pigments are important tools in establishing trade routes between countries as particular varieties of the material were sought for use by these ancient groups. This paper explores the provenancing of the ancient ochres used during the Neolithic Temple Period on the Maltese islands. Here ICP-AES was employed to establish geochemical trends and ‘signature’ elements present in ochre that had previously been thought to have been imported from mainland Europe. When coupled with statistical tests, data was used to link the archaeological pigments to a geological source. Results revealed a strong link between the Maltese archaeological pigments and local sources, which had never been studied prior to this project. These indicated that, contrary to popular belief, the Maltese archipelago was the most likely source for Neolithic ochre.

Re-inventing Malta's neolithic temples: Contemporary interpretations and agendas

This paper explores the different ways in which Malta's neolithic temples have been interpreted, contested and appropriated by different local and foreign interest groups: those working in the tourist industry, intellectuals and Maltese nationalists, hunters, archaeologists, artists, and participants in the global Goddess movement. The different perspectives are set against "traditional" popular interpretations of the temples. A particular focus of enquiry is the Maltese response to the foreign Goddess pilgrims who have been visiting the sites in increasing numbers over the last decade: do Maltese feel their past is being appropriated, colonized, or commoditized by these visitors? The paper argues that all interpretations or "inventions" of Malta's neolithic past, whether competing or colluding, can be seen to be governed by the particular social, political, religious or economic agendas of their creators.

An Iconography of Insularity: A Cosmological Interpretation of some Images and Spaces in the Late Neolithic Temples of Malta

This paper proposes a fresh model for interpreting some of the iconography and megalithic architectural forms that emerged in Malta during the Late Neolithic. Recent studies of the relationship between the Maltese archipelago and the world beyond, and between the monumental megalithic sites and their landscape setting, will inform an interpretation of some of the iconography and architectural forms that characterize these sites. Patterns in their use of spatial order, architectural devices and carved reliefs are interpreted as elements in a programmatic recreation of an island cosmology. It is suggested that the prehistoric islanders used these images and spaces to express and mediate concerns with cosmological order.

Medical History of Malta.

The Knights of Malta, that amazing order, was founded to nurse the sick and wounded but later, as a military order, became Christendom's first line of defense against the conquering Muslims. It constitutes, without doubt, Malta's chief claim to fame. However, Malta has a history of its own that stretches back far beyond that of the Knights, who, after all, were, in a historical perspective, newcomers. While the Cathedral of the Knights, the auberges, and the ruins of the Holy Infirmary at Valletta are the chief points of interest to the visitor, yet he finds many things of antiquarian interest, such as the extensive and well-preserved ruins of a neolithic temple at Tarxien, more extensive and more imposing than the famed Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. He may also visit the Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni, an amazing complex of underground passages, halls, and large chambers, hewn by neolithic man out of

Report on the Excavation of a Neolithic Temple at Stanydale in the Parish of Sandsting, Shetland

Report on the Excavation of a Neolithic Temple at Stanydale in the Parish of Sandsting, Shetland

Research Items

A Neolithic Statuette from Malta.—Sir T. Zammit figures and describes in the Bulletin of the Malta Museum, vol. 1, No. 2, a fragment of a stone statuette found in 1929 in clearing the exterior of the apses of the Tarxien neolithic temples. What is left of the statuette shows details lacking in other statuettes from the megalithic ruins. It is 30 cm. high and has a width of 21 cm. with a flat base 10 cm. by 7.5 cm. The upper part, corresponding to the waist, has a hollow, carefully worked, which served as a mortice for the insertion of a dowel to bear the upper portion. The figure is draped with a flounced short skirt, and is sitting or leaning on a bench. A pear-shaped leg protrudes beyond the skirt. Each pair of pleats of the skirt is surmounted by a semicircular embroidered line forming a continuous decoration. The hips are prominent. The bench on which the figure sits, ends in a horizontal frame supported by standing human figures in high relief, the heads appearing as decorative knobs under the frame. They stand in typical hieratic attitude with the left forearm bent across the breast, the right arm hanging loosely by the side. The figures wear a plain tunic falling in folds to the ankles to conceal the feet. Another figure in bolder relief is seated at right angles to the three figures, its arms folded and its hands resting on the obese thighs. These carved figures are peculiar to Malta.

VI.—The Hal-Tarxien Neolithic Temple, Malta

The discovery of this important neolithic temple enriches the unique series of Maltese monuments and, besides demonstrating afresh the importance of the Maltese Islands in prehistoric times, sheds a flood of light on the other monuments so far discovered.The site on which the monument was raised is not very far from the Hal-Saflieni Hypogeum and the Cordin stations, which may well be considered to be upon the same plateau.