The temples in Malta effectively illuminated, as it were, the dark origins of astronomy and science itself, Martita Goshen, head of the dance company Turtles Inc. in New York, said.

Ms Goshen was in Malta recently to take part in the opening of the Neolithia Arts Festival which is being held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta.

Speaking to The Times, she said that a long time ago, there were men and women who created special places to give gratitude to the elements.

"We don`t need to know what they really did because the architecture even in its fragile state says it all. It creates awe, an important human trait that is being lost in this technocracy.

"The temples are echoes from an ancient skyline, a time when humans revered the land they farmed and were connected to the land and the cosmos."

She said that her connection to the temples was first history and then amazement at the science of the structures and the alignments of all these temples, adding that she thought many of these remain buried. "They seemed to create more space for us in their structures. Malta is about light and gold sun and deep blue ocean like the divine eye of god himself. "The people are tough and kind and good like other ancients. These temples give me much needed perspective and a deep connectedness to the tribes of the past. "This world in Malta could have been the beginning in a culture that shows us a world that identified the heavens as the seat of supernatural power," she said.

She said that the temple builders thought rationally and methodically about what they saw.  "This was the primacy of astronomical observation. The temples inspire me to examine the new science of archeoastronomy.  There were definitely intellectual achievements in the Maltese prehistoric peoples.  

"I am sure it is hard for some Maltese to understand what a bunch of old stones are all about and what is the fuss anyway.  After fighting for their lives in world war none of this might make sense; but in my experience, it is a magnificent part of their souls."

Copyright © 2001, George Cini. All rights reserved. 
Revised: September 07, 2002 .

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