This informative and well put together video elegantly brings forth the essential need to expand our knowledge back further than what is commonly considered historical time in order to more fully understand the evolution of our human heritage.

For anyone unfamiliar with the Megalithic Temples unearthed in the mid 1800's on the islands of Malta & Gozo located in the Mediterranean just south of Sicily, the film will be an awakening. For those familiar with the temple period of Malta, the gorgeous footage of the islands and temple remains, the quiet reverence with which the film explores and discusses them will rejuvenate the love and devotion these temples so often evoke.

The video consists of two parts. The first is a section from the documentary series, Secrets of the Stone Age (produced by Granada Television), featuring anthropologist Richard Rudgley. In this portion Rudgley emphasizes the importance of the vast expanse of time persistently referred to as 'pre-history' by beginning in Egypt, the supposed starting point of civilization, and moving backward in time from there. His intention is to show that these so called high points of civilization arose not out of thin air or from the influence of people from other planets but rather out of the creativity and genius of generations of humans that came before them.

He takes us to Malta where humans first arrived from Sicily in 5000 BCE and where have been found the oldest standing buildings in the world. The temples (some 23 have been discovered this far) were created out of huge limestone slabs-some weighing up to fifty tons each. The temple builders, he points out, "led the Egyptians in sailing and navigation and they had agriculture too". Here thrived a civilization that created and worshipped in these temples for a period of two thousand years. Rudgley has a very quiet and unassuming presence as he leads the viewer across the island into remains, touching and viewing the gigantic stone slabs with genuine admiration and awe.

Displaying the temples in aerial view to expose their rounded shapes he says, "It isn't time that separates us from the temple builders, it's the way we look at the world...In their world no trace has been found of weapons or warfare. The key to their mindset is in the architecture. It's ruled not by straight lines, but by curves."

The second half of the video was filmed in Florida at the Ancient Island Discovery Center run by the OTS Foundation and which houses a reproduction of a temple entryway and courtyard. Linda C. Eneix, director and founder engages in a lively discussion with school age children about the previous footage as well as a display of replicas of sculptures that have been recovered from the temples. In this discussion the question of gender is raised and the subject of the absence of warfare is again brought forward.

Remarkable reconstructions of what the temples probably looked like at the time of their creation and use are shown and Ms. Eneix points out that in the architecture of these temples is found the earliest use of corbelling, forecourts, the horizontal arch and retaining walls. Later the children experiment with theories of how the megaliths were moved. The video ends with a recreation of what a temple ritual may have looked like.

___________________________________________________________________

Theresa C. Dintino has been researching and writing about Neolithic and Bronze Age women centered societies for over ten years. Her novel of Bronze Age Crete "Ode to Minoa" was published in 1999.