The Megalithic Temples of Malta are several prehistoric temples, some of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, built during three distinct periods approximately between 3600 BC and 2500 BC on the island country of Malta. They had been claimed as the oldest free-standing structures on Earth until the discovery of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey. Archaeologists believe that these megalithic complexes are the result of local innovations in a process of cultural evolution. This led to the building of several temples of the Ġgantija phase (3600–3000 BC), culminating in the large Tarxien temple complex, which remained in use until 2500 BC. After this date, the temple-building culture disappeared.
The Ġgantija temples were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. In 1992, the UNESCO Committee further extended the existing listing to include five other megalithic temple sites. These are Ħaġar Qim (in Qrendi), Mnajdra (in Qrendi), Ta' Ħaġrat Temples (in Mġarr), Skorba Temples (in Żebbiegħ) and Tarxien Temples (in Tarxien). Nowadays, the sites are managed by Heritage Malta, while ownership of the surrounding lands varies from site to site. Apart from these, there are other megalithic temples in Malta which are not included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Many of the names used to refer to the different sites carry a link with the stones used for their building. The Maltese word for boulders, 'ħaġar', is common to Ta' Ħaġrat and Ħaġar Qim. While the former uses the word in conjunction with the marker of possession, the latter adds the word 'Qim', which is either a form of the Maltese word for 'worship', or an archaic form of the word meaning 'standing'.
Maltese folklore describes giants as having built the temples, which led to the name Ġgantija, meaning 'Giants' tower'. The Maltese linguist Joseph Aquilina believed that Mnajdra (Arabic: منيدرة) was the diminutive of 'mandra' (Arabic: مندرة), meaning a plot of ground planted with cultivated trees (the same usage is colloquial in Egyptian Arabic today); a less likely derivation is from the Arabic root 'manzara (Arabic: منظرة), meaning 'a place with commanding views.' The Tarxien temples owe their name to the locality where they were found (from Tirix, meaning a large stone), as were the remains excavated at Skorba.
Dates
The temples were the result of several phases of construction from 5000 to 2200 BC. There is evidence of human activity in the islands since the Early Neolithic Period (c. 5000 BC), attested by pottery shards, evidence of fires, and bones. The dating and understanding of the various phases of activity in the temples is not easy. The main problem found is that the sites themselves are evolutionary in nature, in that each successive temple brought with it further refinement to architectural development.
Furthermore, in some cases, later Bronze Age peoples built their own sites over the Neolithic temples, thus adding an element of confusion to early researchers who did not have modern dating technology. Sir Temi Żammit, an eminent Maltese archaeologist of the late nineteenth century, had dated the Neolithic temples to 2800 BC and the Tarxien Bronze Age culture to 2000 BC. These dates were considered "considerably too high" by scholars, who proposed a reduction of half a millennium each. However, radiocarbon testing favoured Żammit's dating. A theory that the temple art was connected with an Aegean-derived culture collapsed with this proof of the temples' elder origins.
The development of the chronological phases, based on recalibrated radiocarbon dating, has split the period up to the Bronze Age in Malta into a number of phases. The first evidence of human habitation in the Neolithic occurred in the Għar Dalam phase, in c. 5000 BC. The Temple period, from c. 4100 BC to roughly 2500 BC, produced the most notable monumental remains. This period is split into five phases; however, the first two of these left mostly pottery shards. The next three phases, starting from the Ġgantija phase, begins in c. 3600 BC, and the last, the Tarxien phase, ends in c. 2500 BC.
(5000-4100 BC)
Għar Dalam Phase 5000 - 4500 BC
Grey Skorba Phase 4500 - 4400 BC
Red Skorba Phase 4400 - 4100 BC
(4100–2500 BC)
Żebbuġ Phase 4100–3800 BC
Mġarr Phase 3800-3600 BC
Ġgantija Phase 3600-3000 BC
Saflieni Phase 3300-3000 BC
Tarxien Phase 3000-2500 BC
(2500–700 BC)
Tarxien Cemetery Phase 2500–1500 BC
Borġ in-Nadur Phase 1500–700 BC
Baħrija Phase 900–700 BC
The Ġgantija phase is named after the Ġgantija site in Gozo. It represents an important development in the cultural evolution of neolithic man on the islands. To this date belong the earliest datable temples and the first two, if not three, of the stages of development in their ground plan: the lobed or kidney-shaped plan found in Mġarr east, the trefoil plan evident in Skorba, Kordin and various minor sites, and the five-apsed plan Ġgantija South, Tarxien East.
The Saflieni phase constitutes a transitional phase between two major periods of development. Its name derives from the site of the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni. This period carried forward the same characteristics of the Ġgantija pottery shapes, but it also introduces new biconical bowls.
The Tarxien phase marks the peak of the temple civilisation. This phase is named after the temple-complex at Tarxien, a couple of kilometres inland from the Grand Harbour. To it belong the last two stages in the development of the temple plan. The western temple at Ġgantija represents, along with other units in Tarxien, Ħaġar Qim and L-Imnajdra, the penultimate stage in development, that is, the introduction of a shallow niche instead of an apse at the far end of the temple. The final stage is testified in only one temple, the central unit at Tarxien, with its three symmetrical pairs of apses. The Temple culture reached its climax in this period, both in terms of the craftsmanship of pottery, as well as in sculptural decoration, both free-standing and in relief.
Spiral reliefs resembling those at Tarxien once adorned the Ġgantija temples, but have faded to a level where they are only clearly recognisable in a series of drawings made by the artist Charles Frederick de Brocktorff in 1829, immediately after the temples' excavation. The Tarxien phase is characterised by a rich variety of pottery forms and decorative techniques. Most shapes tend to be angular, with almost no handles or lugs. The clay tends to be well prepared and fired very hard, while the surface of the scratched ware is also highly polished. This scratched decoration remains standard, but it becomes more elaborate and elegant, the most popular motif being a kind of volute.
Xagħra, Gozo, Malta
Founded c. 3600 BC
Mġarr, Malta
Founded c.3600 – 3200 BC
Żebbiegħ, Mġarr, Malta
Founded
c.4850 BC (earliest remains)
c.3600 BC (temple)
Qrendi, Malta
Founded c. 3700 – 3200 BC
Qrendi, Malta
Founded c.3600 – 3200 BC
Tarxien, Malta
Founded c.3250 – 2800 BC
Sannat, Gozo, Malta
Founded c. 4100 – 3000 BC
Birżebbuġa, Malta
Founded c. 2500 BC
Buġibba, St. Paul's Bay, Malta
Founded c.3150 – 2500 BC
Luqa, Malta
Founded c. 3000 – 2500 BC
Corradino, Paola, Malta
Founded c.3700 BC
Żejtun, Malta
Founded c.3600 – 3200 BC
Baħrija, Rabat, Malta
Founded c.3000 – 2500 BC
Xagħra, Gozo, Malta
Founded
c.5000 BC (earliest remains)
c.3400 BC (temple)
Victoria, Gozo, Malta
Birkirkara, Malta
Naxxar, Malta
Founded
c.4000 BC (earliest remains)
c.3300 – 3000 BC (temple)
Żejtun/Marsaxlokk, Malta
Founded c.2500 BC
Xemxija, St. Paul's Bay, Malta
Founded c.3400 BC
Marsaxlokk, Malta
Founded
c. 4000 BC (earliest remains)
c. 3600 – 3000 BC (temple)