Maltese Pre History

The island of Malta has had a long history. It has the oldest stone structures, amazingly architecturally safe underground chambers, doing all this around 3000 BCE. The Temples are as mysterious as the use off a cell phone to a cat. The underground Hal Saflieni Hypogeum and Xaghra circle were obviously used as burial tombs, but how were they constructed? Lastly how did the Neolithic peoples of Malta survive on the barren rock in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea? This ancient civilization has tossed around the heads of many archeologists and scientists. Keeping them second guessing as new objects and temples are discovered out of the blue, surprising them with new statues of the Malta’s “fat lady” or new architectural strategies used to create bigger temples. The ancient peoples of Malta we probably never know what they did.

            The Temples of Malta have amazed many. The ancient peoples of Malta were creating massive stone structures centuries before the Great Pyramid of Giza. The stones weighed up to 50-60 tons sometimes even more. The temples were made of the abundant limestone that is all over Malta. The Temples were built on plans of apse systems there would be a central chamber then 2 apses leading of that. There are 4 apse temples and the largest temple at Tarxien it has 6 apses. The limestone was quarried locally because on Malta limestone is everywhere. The Hagar Qim temples were discovered recently causing new looks on what the temples might have been because the Mnajra temple’s, a little south of Hagar Qim discovered at the same time,  Main door allows the sun on the days of the Equinox  to shine right threw the door. There are signs of animal sacrifices, but no human sacrifices. This is the entire outlook we have into the rituals of the Neolithic Maltese community. The Temples were not used as burial places until they last the holiness in the Bronze Age.  Instead the ancient peoples buried there dead in underground burial places, the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum and the Xaghra Circle.

            The underground burial grounds of the ancient peoples of Malta were cut right into the limestone of the island. The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum and the Xaghra Circle are massive with carvings in the stone to imitate the temples above ground. The peoples accomplished this by cutting at the natural faults of the rock, at the same time making the cutting easier and creating a space that is architectural safe chambers. The burials of the people were even more mysterious. They would bury there dead in underground chambers in a crouching position with some objects like a miniature axe, terracotta statue, and some red ochre. Then when the flesh had decayed they would push the body aside to make room for more burials. At the Xaghra Circle a pit seems to be made for this purpose. It was full of decayed and fragmented bones. At the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum they found a clay figure dubbed the “sleeping lady.” Among other burial artifacts there.