Malta

Dawn of a Millennium

Linda C. Eneix

Originally published in "Malta This Month" January 2000

We know all about time. Time must be kept. We watch it on our walls and our desktops and our wrists. We mark its passage and attach meaning to the changing of certain numbers. Digital chronographs, pin-up calendars, alarm clocks and hourglasses . . . and the unfailing constancy of the sun.

The earliest proof of just how long people have been keeping track of time happens to exist in Malta.

On the southern coast of the island, overlooking the flat-topped islet of Filfla, nestles Mnajdra: the most intact of Malta’s awesome megalithic monuments, and perhaps the least compromised in modern times. On a good day, one can still sit on a sun-warmed stone near Mnajdra Temple with only the wind in his ears. He can smell wild thyme and gaze at the Mediterranean Sea as if nothing had changed in 5,000 years.

Indeed, some things have not.

Daybreak still does a remarkable dance within the southernmost temple of theery day since the temple was constructed around 3,600 BC. (At least it would have in the absence of accumulated debris.) Decorated stones and recessed cavities clearly mark the passing of time and changing of the seasons. In an amazing display of humankind’s oldest existing calendar, the equinoxes and the solstices play out with mystical regularity. To witness this ancient rite at Mnajdra is a deeply moving event today. One can only imagine the ancient glory of dawn's first golden beams inside a temple which was intact and roofed in darkness.

Yet there persists some controversy over whether or not this magnificent phenomenon was intentional. Mr. Paul Micallef, a Maltese cartographer who rediscovered the alignments at Mnajdra in 1979, went to great lengths to prove his theory with mathematical calculations and corroboration by Swiss scientists. Mr. Micallef used to say: "If you don’t believe me, just go there and see for yourself."

It works!

Dr. Henry Cleere of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre is well acquainted with ancient monuments all over the world, not the least of which is Stonehenge (of Summer Solstice fame.) Attending a temples conservation strategy meeting held in Malta, Dr. Cleere responded to the Mnajdra alignment issue emphatically: "Absolutely, it was intended. There is no question in my mind."

The Bulletin of the Center for Archaeoastronomy in1981 featured a detailed report written by the University of Malta’s George Agius and Dr. Frank Ventura about astronomical alignments in all Malta’s Copper Age temples. Complex issues of azimuths and declinations, refraction, parallax and a definition of the exact moment of sunrise or sunset were taken into account. The results of this study also raised new questions about the dating of the Maltese temples and the chronological sequence of their construction.

How did ancient builders lacking technical knowledge accomplish the sophisticated alignment required for Mnajdra’s solar calendar? One does not simply wiggle a megalith a bit to this side or that after the job is finished. Specialists have studied the importance of placement in ancient sites. A post-hole has been located on the Maltese cliffside which likely was a prehistoric point of reference for aligning the axis of the Mnajdra south temple before its construction. The search continues for the second post-hole, although recent research suggests it may actually lie beneath the temple walls.

We are still learning. As an exercise, a team tried to recreate the first stages for construction of a megalithic temple in Florida, USA. The equinox alignments had to be marked on that particular day when the hours of daylight and darkness were exactly equal. On the 23rd of September 1999 as the sun’s disc eased above the horizon, the first of two poles was tentatively placed at the western end of a line which would mark the central axis for the future temple. Then the eastern pole was lined up between the first one and the rising sun. Returning to the first pole to recheck the placement, it was realized that the sun was not swinging in an arc directly overhead as anticipated, but was moving slightly southerly, throwing everything off. An astrophysicist friend explained this phenomenon in technical terms.

In the field, however, questions arose. How accurate can one hope to be with human eyes and two poles? Presumably, prehistoric man in Malta had no more idea about azimuths and declinations than we did in 20th-century Florida. What if we were to discover a year from now - with a temple in place - that it doesn’t work? Should we jump ahead now and introduce technology and modern science to this project which is attempting to replicate the past?

Ultimately, the dilemma was resolved with a deep breath and a leap of faith. Where is the light cast as the sun first rises on THIS day? Where do we want it to shine inside the temple that may someday stand in THIS place?

It gives me comfort and a sense of continuity to think that ancient Maltese time-keepers were once asking the same questions.

Return to Articles Return to Introduction

Link to on-line alignment demonstrations and the spectacular temple-period photographic collection of Daniel Cilia. (You will leave this website.)