Excerpts from Tell Me About the Maltese Temples

What did the people look like? 
How did they live?

The people who developed and used the megalithic temples of Malta and Gozo were remarkably advanced for their time of 6,000 - 4,500 years ago. They did not need to worry too much about finding food, and the weather was not extreme. Life was comparatively comfortable with no wild beasts here. Without serious daily challenges of survival, the people were able to use their energies creatively. The construction of the temples alone tells us that they developed very sophisticated engineering and planning skills.

The bones recovered from the excavations at the Xaghra Circle in Gozo show that they were healthy and were about the same size as people in Malta today. The people had strong teeth.

The artifacts on display at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta tell us even more about the people if we look closely. Even though they are said to have lived in the Neolithic period or "new stone age", the garments of the Maltese temple culture were not made of cave-man animal skins. The people wore structured clothing of woven fabric. Some sculptures seem to show tailoring details like set-in necklines, waistbands and pleats. The archaeologists even found buttons!

They wore personal adornment in the form of bead and shell necklaces and headdresses.  Their hair was carefully cut and styled with braids and diadems. Furniture was intricately woven of cane or reeds, then possibly decorated with spirals like the sculptured models which have been found. Pottery was highly evolved over the centuries and decorated with pigments and mystical patterns. Even the shapes are unique to the Maltese temple period.

What happened inside the temples?

We will probably never know what ritual practices and ceremonies took place in the secret chambers, but we can make some accurate guesses based on the study of other "primitive" unmodernized farming societies. The temple was the base of authority. The temple was where troubles were taken and answers were sought. And the temple was where thanks were given. Temples were the most important structures in the community and would have been centers for food distribution, healthcare, and education, as well as for worship. From the forecourts and concave stage-like facades, we can imagine that much of the activity which involved the community took place in front of the temples: priests or priestesses stepping forth from the dark interiors to address the crowd.

Did they have human sacrifice?

No evidence of human sacrifice has ever been found in the Maltese temples. The bone fragments and other material found in the temple niches and behind altars belonged to animals like goats, sheep, cattle. Human remains of the period have been found in ritual burial context.

What are "libation holes" and what was the purpose for the other holes that are carved in the stones?

Some of the holes around the portal stones of the temples are matched in pairs and seem to have supported hinges for doors and heavy securing poles. Most of these look as if they were designed for keeping animals or people out of the temple from without - not for keeping things inside. Some holes are connected - just like a farmer might make in a stone wall today to hold a rope for tying a goat or a lamb. There are small "windows" in the walls, which are commonly called oracle holes. Some scientists think that people would have come to the temple to get questions answered or dreams interpreted by some unseen voice of authority, much as we know was the case in ancient Greece.

Were the temples used as tombs?

Unlike the great pyramids and treasure trove tombs of Egypt, the Maltese temples were life-centers. When the temple people died, burials surely had ritual attached to them, but they were done in a different place usually in communal underground cemeteries like the hypogeum.

It seems that the tombs were mostly communal: one large underground complex served for all of the surrounding population. In many cases, the skeletons were "sorted" with skulls in one place, leg bones in another. Red ochre, which is used as a sort of paint paste and likely represented blood or life, was an important element in the burial ritual. It is quite possible that, as in other parts of the world, a body was buried once to excarnate, and then reinterred at a later date.

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Revised: July 09, 2002 .

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