Viewscapes and cosmology in the prehistoric temples of Malta

Abstract

The first known Maltese Neolithic islanders arrived from Sicily by around 6,000 BCE. In the early fifth millennium, there could have been a decline in human presence on the archipelago. A new influx of colonization from Sicily appears to have happened around 3,800 BCE, accompanied by the emergence of an original megalithic temple architecture, not known to exist anywhere else in the contemporary world. This was the start of the unique Maltese Temple Period lasting about 1,500 years, before its sudden decline around 2,400 BCE. The present thesis examines some aspects of the worldviews of this extraordinary culture. More specifically, it investigates the following question: what do viewscapes and visual relationships tell us about the cosmology of the prehistoric temple builders in Malta? This is explored through three subsidiary research questions, namely: 1) whether the builders of the megalithic temples purposely located them to be conspicuous in the landscape and have intervisibility to other temples?, 2) whether there were any preferences for open or restricted vistas and visual relationships with specific topographic features or celestial bodies on the apparent horizon?, and 3) whether temples were orientated in such a way that specific celestial objects could be seen rising or setting through their entrance frames? Each of these subsidiary questions requires a different, though complementary, methodology. Firstly, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) were deployed to perform viewshed, cumulative viewshed, total viewshed, and line-of-sight analysis, taking into consideration human acuity with respect to target’s distance and visible height. Secondly, 360° panoramas of the apparent horizon around the temples were virtually reconstructed from a Digital Elevation Model, ground-truthed through field measurements, and used to assess preferences for specific vistas as well as visual relationships to topographic features and the rising and setting of celestial objects. Thirdly, theodolite measurements of the orientation and entrance frame of the temples, in combination with astronomical software, are used to assess and identify celestial objects rising or setting in alignment with the temples’ entrances. At each step, statistical testing was conducted to assess the significance and potential intentionality of identified patterns. Based on the evidence obtained, new and interpretative empirical models are presented. It is demonstrated that temples had a high level of visibility and intervisibility, and that their locations were not chosen at random. Furthermore, it is determined that the majority of the temples were placed in the more inherently visible part of the landscape, with an open vista towards the southern horizon, and a restricted view to the north. Finally, it was found that Maltese temple entrances were preferentially aligned for observations of two bright stars, Gacrux and Avior. Integrating all the different research areas in this study, it is shown that the design, location, and orientation of temples was informed by an interest in these visual relationships. It is argued that these considerations of the viewscape were connected to a holistic cosmology, embedded in a correlation between the nested scales of the inner structure of the temples, temple locations in the landscape, and their relationships with the celestial sphere.