The islands were first occupied at about the end of the Sixth Millennium BC—radiocarbon dates of about 5000 BC (4190+160 bc) was recovered from material found alongside a wall at the early settlement at Skorba. Presumably the first settlers arrived even earlier. Sea voyages of considerable distance and requiring considerable skill in navigation are evident as early as the ninth millennium BC. Obsidian is a type of volcanic glass, which was highly prized for its appearance and the sharpness of blades and points made from it. Each obsidian source has its own unique composition and its products can be clearly identified in the archaeological record. Obsidian from the island of Melos in the Aegean Sea turns up on the Greek mainland around 10,000 years ago—a voyage of a hundred kilometres or so. It is no further from southern coast of Sicily to Malta, the likeliest origin of the new immigrants. The earliest pottery consists of an Impressed Ware that was virtually identical to the Stentinello variety used there. Evidently overseas contacts were maintained throughout the Neolithic—obsidian from the Lipari Islands, to the north of Sicily, and from Pantelleria, an island lying between Sicily and Tunisia, occur regularly in the archaeological record.. However, the amounts involved were quite small and contact seems to diminish with time, perhaps due to a cultural choice on the part of the inhabitants. Left largely to themselves, their culture developed along very idiosyncratic lines, culminating in the construction of megalithic temples and rock cut tombs.

Ghar Dalam

The lowest was a deposit of clay 125cm thick containing impressions of plant material but no bone. The layer above that, however, was rich in some very exotic faunal remains indeed. Most abundant were the bones of a species of dwarf hippopotamus (Hippopotamus melitensis) but there was also a pigmy elephant (Elephas falconeri, shown left) as well as both giant dormice and swans. Just how these animals got to Malta is subject to some debate. Was there a land bridge in the distant past or did the float ashore on flood debris? However they were introduced, clearly a lot of local development took place. The elephants and hippos apparently died out at some time around 180,000 BP an event marked in the cave by a pebble layer 35 cm thick. The fauna that were present in the layer above the pebbles was entirely different than previously. There was a species of small deer, derived from the Red Deer (Cervus Elephas) found on the European mainland. There were also a few

CHRONOLOGY

Unfortunately, almost all of the monuments under discussion were excavated long before the introduction of radiocarbon dating in the 1950’s, some of them as early as the beginning of the 19th century. Their relative chronology—the order in which they were built—could be established using traditional methods. These relied almost exclusively on changing styles of pottery—their form, fabric and decoration—and their stratigraphic position in well-recorded excavations. Absolute dating was pretty much a matter of guesswork until the radiocarbon revolution. Radiocarbon dates taken from more recently excavated sites with similar pottery has enabled us to pin down the chronology in more absolute terms. We now know that the Maltese Neolithic covered a period of nearly 3,000 years, from about 5200-2500 BC.

The pottery sequence was devised by John D. Evans in the 1950’s and refined by David Trump in the 1960’s. The material seems to fall into three major cycles, each marked initially by strong foreign influences but quickly settling into a strictly local development. The simplest explanation is to attribute these influences to the arrival a fresh immigrants from Sicily. Each phase is named after the site where it was first discovered or is best represented.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Ghar Dalam Grey Skorba Red Skorba Zebbug Mgarr Ggantija Saflieni Tarxien Tarxien Cemetery c. 5200-4500 BC c. 4500-4400 BC c. 4400-4100 BC c. 4100-3700 BC c. 3800-3600 BC c. 3600-3200 BC c. 3300-3000 BC c. 3150-2500 BC c. 2400-1500 BC EARLY NEOLITHIC TEMPLE PERIOD BRONZE AGE Ghar Dalam Sherd Red Skorba Bowl Tarxien: Biconical Bowl Tarxien: Pedestalled Bowl Tarxien: Amphora Tarxien Cemetery:Double Vase

Early Neolithic

The pottery of the first settlers is known as Ghar Dalam Ware, after the cave site where it was first discovered. It is characterized by impressions around the rim and neck of rather simple bowls and globular jars. This type of decoration links it directly with the Stentinello Ware of Sicily and, more generally, with the larger family of Impressed Wares found throughout the central and western Mediterranean. The connection with the homeland was soon lost, however, and the succeeding Grey Skorba Phase is dominated by rather plain vessels. This is succeeded by Red Skorba Ware, which was slipped (dunked in a thin solution of clay and water) and then burnished to a bright red sheen. The fabric is different and there is more variety in the shapes that were utilized—a type of ladle with a tall forked handle rising from the rim is fairly common. In some ways the pottery is similar to the Diana Ware found on Sicily but it may be coincidental.

Temple Period

The appearance of Zebbug Ware towards the end of the Fifth Millennium BC marks a major break with tradition and probably represent a further influx of people. There is no continuity in fabric, shape or decoration and it seems to have its roots in Sicily once again. Decoration is prolific, if somewhat sloppily applied, and includes painted designs (red on a cream coloured slip) and grooves infilled with white paste as well as incised patterns—including some anthropomorphic designs. There is continuity in many other aspects of the local culture—the architecture and sculpture, for example—suggesting the original occupants survived the process to a greater or lesser degree.

Mgarr Ware is essentially a continuation of the trends introduced in the previous phase but the pottery is much darker, having been fired in a reducing atmosphere. The difference may be purely functional—kitchenware as opposed to dinner service. In any event, the fabric of the pottery in the following Ggantija Phase is identical but the shapes are more varied and there is more decoration. The designs were generally scratched in after firing and were designed to hold a red ochre paste. It was during this period that the first temples suddenly appeared. Further developments take place in the Saflieni Phase but the great explosion of creativity comes with the Tarxien Phase, the grand finale of the temple-building period. There is an enormous range of shapes, including several new ones such as pedestalled bowls, biconical bowls and amphorae.

The end of the Temple Age, which occurred around 3500 BC, was apparently sudden and complete. The material culture is entirely new—new styles of pottery and the introduction of metal objects. Temples were no longer built (they remained in use but served an entirely different purpose) and the dead were cremated rather than buried in collective tombs. The mechanisms by which these changes occurred is unknown—invasion and bloody murder is only one of a number of options.

SETTLEMENT

Unfortunately, although formal and ceremonial sites such as temples and cemeteries have survived reasonably well in Malta, domestic settlements have proved elusive. What evidence we do have, apart from the material that has survived at Ghar Dalam, comes from temple sites. Generally speaking, this is mainly indirect evidence—household rubbish such as pottery, tools, charcoal, etc.—rather than architecture. The best evidence comes from Skorba, which indicates a considerable period of strictly domestic occupation before the construction of the temple. Excavations, conducted by David Trump from 1960-63, uncovered over 2 metres of deposit with a pottery sequence ranging from the Ghar Dalam to Ggantija phases. Radiocarbon dates indicate the site was occupied for a period of some 1,500 years.

Skorba: Ground Plan of the Temples and earlier buildings

The earliest building was a small, oval hut about 6 metres long associated with Ghar Dalam sherds—only the clay floor and partial traces of the surrounding wall have survived subsequent ploughing. Also associated with early domestic rubbish was an 11 metre long stretch of stone wall that is too big to belong to a house and may have been part of an enclosure wall (unfortunately, it runs under the later temple). Two adjacent rooms were uncovered just to the east of the temples—they were oblong (8.4 x 5.4 metres; 5.6 x 3.2 metres) and were enclosed within solid masonry. The interior was filled with grey clay—the disintegrated mud brick from the upper parts of the walls. There were cobbled spaces to the east and west but no hearths or other domestic furnishings. The presence of figurines and goat skulls suggest a shrine, ancestral to the later temples.

Skorba: Aerial of Red Skorba huts

Subsistence & Exchange

were recovered from the site—despite the fact that Malta is entirely surrounded by water. However, flotation, a technique designed to recover micro artefacts such as these, was not used in the early 1960’s. Indirect evidence that fish may have been part of the diet can be found in a relief carving found at the temple at Bugibba (right). Spindle whorls have also been recovered, so we know that yarn was spun—coarse wool was available and, perhaps, some sort of vegetable fibre such as flax (linen).

The evidence indicates an economy based on mixed farming, probably at a subsistence level, with each family supplying its own needs with a little surplus for social obligations and bartering. Each family also probably produced their own pottery and manufactured their own bone or stone tools. They were not completely cut off from the outside world, however, and a number of exotic materials found on the islands had to have been imported. These include obsidian and pumice from the Lipari Islands along with high quality flint and red ochre from Sicily. There is even the odd sherd of Sicilian pottery, probably from a container for some perishable material. The motive was more likely to have been to cement social arrangements through gift exchange rather than economic. What the Maltese gave in return is unknown.

Belief Systems

Evidence from the pre-temple period that sheds any light on belief systems is very scarce. Mention has already been made of the possible shrine at Skorba, which dates to the last half of the fourth millennium BC, with its goat horns and figurines. None of the figurines was intact but they seem to depict a female figure with swollen hips, minimal breasts and a very schematic head (right). They are apparently naked, with only what appears to be a girdle around the waist and some incised lines that probably represent necklaces—looking very much like the ‘mother-goddess’ whose image is found throughout the Mediterranean. The early farmers were very concerned with matters of fertility and fecundity (sex and reproduction) and saw the world in those terms. The figurines represent the female half of the equation with the male principle turning up in the stone phalli found elsewhere—at least, that is the case during the Temple Period.

Xaghra: Zebbug Tomb

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