Malta's NeolithicTemples

Hagar Qim
Mnajdra
Tas-Silg
Ghar Dalam
Temple of Juno

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two overlapping circles forms, in the center, an almond-shaped vulva, the archetypal image of fertility and regeneration= 153= "the Magdalene"

All the Maltese Neolithic temples exhibit the same basic design. A central corridor leading through 2 or more ellipses to reach an apse at the end

Hagarqim by

"Sightlines and symmetry are still exquisitely honored; humankind’s oldest calendar still marks equinox and solstice sunrise after more than 5,000 years."

otsf.org || 2003 Conference The OTS Foundation is a North American link to the

megalithic temples of the Maltese islands. The Foundation maintains the largest collection of materials related to ancient Malta outside of the islands themselves and has served as a resource for films, television and print media in the USA and Europe. Currently, the foundation is assisting on a new IMAX film on the Maltese temples:

"This film will be like a real life DaVinci Code mystery!"
said Linda Eneix, president of The OTS Foundation more

Just a few minutes walk down below, 500 meters to the south of the Hagar Qim Temples, are the three temples of Mnajdra lying in a hollow near the steep coast.

Hagar Qim (Ħaġar Qim)"agar-eem"

Spectacular location overlooking the sea. Four buildings, Front of the temple Hagar Qim

some of them partially reconstructed. The site has evidence of use between 3600 and 2500 BC. Hagar Qim means 'praying stones' or stones at prayer'. Much of interest has been unearthed at Hagar Qim, notably a decorated pillar altar, two table-altars and some of the `fat lady' statues on display in the National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta.

This megalithic temple complex is adorned with carved animals and idols, sacrificial altars and oracular chambers, all executed with nothing more than flint and obsidian tools.

Giant limestone slabs form a series of ovals laid out in a pattern that some archaeologists have compared to Mother Goddess figurines found on the site. The huge, carefully hewn stone-slabs are perfectly symmetrical and so arranged that there is hardly room for a knife blade to pass between them.

An illustrated timeline
suggesting that the Maltese temples represent the last hurrah of a civilization that reaches back to 18,000 BC and disappears with the rise of cultures using an alphabet.

There is an altar is built on a pillar. The pillar has four sides and these four sides show a plant growing out of a flower pot. This motif is unique to the Maltese megalithic art. There are also two altars, in the shape of a mushroom. The edge is somewhat raised to prevent the running off of the blood of the sacrificed. The pillar of the altar has a loop hole where the animal that was going to be sacrificed was tethered.

The Hagar Qim temples are built on high ground with a view reaching as far as Filfla, Malta's smallest island 4.8 kilometers away. It is considered one of the best views in this island of great views. The temples were discovered in 1839 and in 1855 excavations were started under the leadership of A. Caruana.

One researcher, Gerald Formosa (Megalithic Monuments of Malta), has discovered numerous examples of the so-called Megalithic Yard of 2.72 feet. ( wiki/Megalithic_yard) This mathematical constant, is found at megalithic sites throughout the ancient European world. Here at Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, examples of the Megalithic Yard are found in the measurements of the portal stones and in triangles etched on the temple floors.

Hagar Qim offers several alignments of the summer solstice.

FOTOS: Hagar Qim by maltavista.com maltagozo.com/hagarqim.html

Hagar Qim was built with some of the largest stones of any temple on Malta; the largest is 7 meters by 3 meters (22 ft by 10 ft). The temple's weathered soft globigerina limestone walls contrasts badly the harder coralline limestone found at the Mnajdra complex just down the hill.

Temple Map by visitmalta

"the main divinity seems to have been visualized as a mother goddess of fertility. "

Hagar Qim's planetary alignment & use of the number 7 as a motif in temple design as well as a counterpoint to the female divinity theory based upon Catholic doctrine of just one male God at truegood.fsnet.co.uk /hagarq2.htm

_{© JOSEPH S. ELLUL 1988

Augmented with new

material by

the author - 2004.}

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Since 1839 when HAGAR QIM was first excavated, the farmer whose lands have surrounded the site has assumed the job of caretaker, and with it a lot of information has been passed on from father to son through four generations.

"We also identified the former roof of the temples as dome shaped with a pattern of conic drilled holes in it. This could indicate the image of a constellation, that of a zodiac." more

It is a relatively

recent discovery that some Egyptian pyramids have been found to be aligned to star constellations. more
No one has, as yet, shown an alignment pattern with the stars or a pattern in how the 40+ Maltese temples have bben sited.

Mnajdra Temples "eem-na-eed-rah"

Interesting about the Mnajdra Temple is that the temple has three apsides built in a clover-shape. This is not the only one. Ggantija in Gozo also has clover shaped temples with three apsides. Some archaeologists interpret this as the present, past and future (or birth, life and death).

Solar Alignment: The Sun's Male-energy is also given an honored place in these temples

Summer solstice (20/21 June, the longest day), the same distinctive slit-image appears - but now with the 'flag' oriented in the opposite direction - on a second large stone slab, this time weighing 1.6 tonnes standing to the rear of the west wall of the Lower Temple's southern apse.

EQUINOXES 21 March and 21 September (when night and day are of equal length) As the sun crests the horizon on the spring and autumn equinoxes, its rays exactly bisect the huge Trilithon entrance to Mnajdra's Lower Temple, projecting a spot of light into a small shrine in the deepest recesses of the megalithic complex.

Winter solstice (20/21 December, the shortest day) a very distinctive 'slit-image' - looking something like the illuminated silhouette of a poleaxe or a flag

flying on a pole - is projected by the sun's rays on to a large stone slab, estimated to weigh 2.5 tonnes, standing to there rear of the west wall of the Lower Temple's northern apse.

Source: Graham Hancock from his excellent best seller, Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization. Unlike Marija Gumbitas the best-selling author enjoys taking on orthodox archeology and maintains a large web presence including

Much has been made of the Goddess worshiping nature of these temples although it is more accurate to say the revered the cycle of life, death and rebirth. The mother earth was represented by statuettes while father sun was venerated through this temple alignment

GETTING THERE: Hagar Qim and its neighbour, the Mnajdra temple, are near the village of Qrendi, about 15km (9mi) southwest of Valletta. Buses 38 and 138 originate at the main terminus just outside the Valletta city gates and go to Hagar Qim and Mnajdra

FOTOS:
maltavista.net/en/list/photo/670.html

Summer Solistice at Mnadjra animation || movie

Foto from Anton Bugej's page via maltavista.com

Ghar Dalam {ahr DAH-lam] The Cave of Darkness - Birzebbuga

Ghar Dalam Cave & Museum, by

Ghar Dalam culture is the earliest phase of Malta culture. At the Ghar Dalam (Cave and Museum) the earliest evidence of human settlement on Malta, some 7,400 years ago was found.

This cave is a veritable depository of semi-fossilized remains and extinct species such as dwarf elephants and hippopotami which roamed the island some 250,000 years ago, ostensibly when it was still part of the Africa land mass. It is suggested that a rise in sea level stranded these large mammals on the island and that the lack of food caused the dwarf versions to evolve
The Neolithic Age 5000 to 4500 BC is represented by pottery. The cave was one of the sites used by early man who crossed to the Maltese islands from Sicily via a land bridge around 5000 BC.

Ghar Dalam is of particular interest to those studying the geological, geomorphological, speleological, palaeontological, archaeological and ecological sciences as well as a museum displayed in the Victorian style

showcaves.com/english/mt/showcaves/Dalam.html

Tas-Silg at Marsaxlokk

Phoenicians, Punics & Romans
Belief in death, afterlife & rebirth as expressed in their funeral remains

"laugh at your enemy O valiant ones, scorn, assail and crush your adversary ......disdain (him), trample (him) on the waters; .....moreover prostate (him) .....on the sea, bind (him), hang (him)".
Isis words to the newly dead to spur them to victory over any mythical adversary who might bar the way to the afterlife

It is known that the supreme deity of the Phoenicians Baal - Melkart of the Carthaginians, Hercales of the Greeks, Beelzebul of the Bible - was a god of medicine.

Ptolemy mentions a temple in the SE of Malta dedicated to Melkart. An inscribed stone found near St. Dominic's Convent in Rabat dated to the 6th century BC refers to Baal Hammon. Baal Hammon was the sky-god and god of fertility.

Tas-Silg at Marsaxlokk eventually became the Roman's temple of Juno but the site enjoyed used by all the prior civiliazations of Malta

Ishtar known to Babylonians,, Hebrews and Carthaginians was originally a goddess of fertility

OUTLINES OF MALTESE
MEDICAL HISTORY
by Savona-Ventura

Prehistoric Medicine

Ancient Medicine

Medieval Medicine

Medicine in the Modern Period

Contemporary Medicine

Astarte, known also as Ashtar, Ishtar (to the Babylonians), Ashtoreth (to the Hebrews), Tanit (to the Carthaginians) is known to have had a sanctuary at Tas-Silg at Marsaxlokk in Malta. The Astarte sanctuary can be identified with the temple of Juno mentioned by Cicero and with the temple of Hera cited by Ptolemy. In origin, Astarte symbolized the goddess of fertility whose domain embraced all nature, vegetable and animal as well as human. Afterwards she became the goddess of love in its noblest aspect as well as in its most degraded. The assimilation of this fertility deity by the Maltese was made easier by the previous concept of the Mother Goddess, the mysterious female "source of life", to whom the great Maltese Neolithic Age temples including the one at Tas-Silg were dedicated.

Bes, an African deity was a beneficent deity and his ugly appearance was meant to scare off evil spirits.He was originally the protective deity of the royal house of Egypt, but came to be a popular household deity throughout Egypt.

Other fertility-related deities are known to have been venerated by the Punic Maltese. Talismans in the form of faience amulet figurines representing Bes and Toueris have been excavated from tombs in Malta and Gozo. Bes, an African deity by origin, was a popular god known also in Egypt and western Asia. He was a frightening dwarf with bow-legs and prominent belly. Because of his ugliness, he was believed to frighten away evil spirits. He presided over childbearing and was considered as a protector of expectant mothers. He was also a marriage-god and presided over the toilet of women. Toueris was another popular Egyptian goddess of childbirth and symbolised maternity and suckling. She was represented as a female hippopotamus with pendant mammae standing upright on her back legs and holding the hieroglyphic sign of protection.

The Punic Maltese were concerned not only with birth and fertility, but also with death. They believed in an afterlife as evidenced by the care given to their tombs and the talismans associated with death. A sixth century BC bronze amulet sheath containing a small rolled-up piece of papyrus bearing a Phoenician inscription with a representation to Isis was found in a tomb at Tal-Virtu, limits of Rabat. The sheath with a cover in the form of a falcon's head representing Horus - the Egyptian solar divinity - belongs to a distinct class manufactured in rigid imitation of Egyptian prototypes and widely diffused in Phoenicia and its colonies. The inscription has been translated to read "laugh at your enemy O valiant ones, scorn, assail and crush your adversary ......disdain (him), trample (him) on the waters; .....moreover prostate (him) .....on the sea, bind (him), hang (him)". These are the words of Isis - protectress of the dead - addressed to the deceased and which ensured her assistance for an unfailing victory over a mythical adversary barring the way to the afterlife.

Prehistoric Medicine at geocities.com/hotsprings/2615/medhist/ancient.html

Who were the Phoenicians?
the Purple People

History tells us that the Canaanites, a tribe of Semitic origin, were first to inhabit the Lebanese shores. Indeed their culture is said to form the basis of the Aramaean culture of both Syria and of Israelite Palestine. The Canaanites who traded with the Greeks became know by them as Phoenicians.
Lebanon started to be called such by name sometime in the third Millennium before Christ, when reference is made to the Pharaohs of Egypt importing cedar wood from the mountains of Lebanon.
The term Phoenicia, from the Greek Phoenix, means purple-red, and refers to the purple industry (the dye extracted from the mollusc shell-fish and used to color cloth) of the early Lebanese.
The word Lebanon itself is an ancient Semitic term meaning White, and the country was so called as the Lebanese mountain summits remain snow-decked for most of the year. Seeking trading partners, the Phoenicians sailed further away from the shores of Lebanon, confident in their legendary vessels crafted in solid cedar wood.
By the end of the second century BC, they had colonized most of the Mediterranean shore, establishing trading depots and spreading the Semitic culture. The greatest of these colonies is said to have been Carthage. From the Mediteranean, the Phoenicians moved westward, eventually discovering the Atlantic Ocean.
They rounded Africa, landed in England and Ireland and built many cities in Western Europe and on the Atlantic coast of Africa. But while the Phoenicians became legendary traders - their wares included works of art, textiles, delicate glassware, precious stones and perfume - their intellectual contribution to society guaranteed their place in history.
They gave the world the twenty-two "magic signs" called the alphabet, the first developed system of modern writing and numerical figures. They also taught mankind the art of stone building and glass manufacturing.

The Phoenicians spoke the Phoenician language, later called Punic since the Roman word for purple was Puniceus. In addition to their many inscriptions, the Phoenicians, contrary to some reports, wrote many books which have not survived. Evangelical Preparation by Eusebius of Caesarea quotes extensively from Philo of Byblos and Sanchuniathon. Further, the Phoenician Punic colonies of North Africa continued to be a source of knowledge about the Phoenicians. Saint Augustine (who spoke Punic, and calls it "our language") refers to their books as containing much wisdom.Phoenicia - Wikipedia,

Temple of Juno Queen of the gods

"Later Caius Verres, the unscrupulous, greedy ruler of Sicily, set up a house here for the manufacture of cotton textiles so as to have this fine material.
Then, he came to know of the treasures in the temple of Juno, from it, he stole 400 jars of honey, large quantities of Maltese cloth, 50 cushions for sofas, many precious candlesticks, and (wrote Cicero) so many garments that Caius Verres could dress all his friends wives, for these crimes the Roman Senate accused Verres strongly but he fled into exile later, he was put to death because of some treasures that he had not given back

Juno was the equivalent of the Greeks' Hera, queen of the gods.

Every year, on the first of March, women held a festival in honor of Juno called the Matronalia. On July 7 was another festival in her honor, the Nonae Caprotinae ("The Nones of the Wild Fig"). Many people consider the month of June, which is named after the goddess who is the patroness of marriage, to be the most favorable time to marry.

Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She often appeared armed and wearing a goatskin cloak, which was the garment favoured by Roman soldiers on campaign. This warlike aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess Athena, whose goatskin was called the aegis.

Juno was called Regina ("queen"). As Juno Moneta ("she who warns"), she protected the finances of the Roman Empire. Lucina was an epithet for Juno as "she who brings children into light".

The asteroid 3 Juno bears her name.

Tas-Silg at Marsaxlokk eventually became the Roman's temple of Juno.

"On a hill, overlooking one of Malta's fine harbours, a very old and ancient temple had been dedicated to Juno, it was kept sacred by locals and foreigners, who offered thanks in it for their safe arrival, even pirates respected it, in fact, during the Punic Wars, some ships of the African King Massinissa entered our harbour and a lieutenant took away some ivory teeth of very large size to give to his King At first, Massinissa was pleased with the gift,
but when he was told that they had come from Juno's Temple, he ordered some trust-worthy men to board a quinquereme to take back those teeth, and place them again in the temple.

visit more Maltese history at http://louishenwood.com

geocities.com/Athens/Agora/5685/tomb.html
Although the Maltese late Roman and Byzantine catacombs are not extensive in their size as those of Rome and Sicily, they are noteworthy for the richness in the variety of tomb types they contain.