Enigmatic structures in the Maltese landscape : the reception of the prehistoric megalithic temples in later ancient times

Abstract

In a paper presented at an interdisciplinary conference in Cambridge in 2006, I made a first attempt to investigate the reuse of Maltese megalithic structures in the Phoenician period, identifying several temple sites where major interventions appear to have occurred during the Phoenician-Punic occupation of the islands. This paper aims to provide an updated review of that research resulting from archaeological excavations conducted by the Italian Archaeological Mission on one of the sites, that of Tas-Silg, between 1996 and 2012. Those investigations revealed significant quarrying activities in an area to the north-east of the temple unit which, according to the Mission members, had been well preserved when it was incorporated into the Phoenician-Punic temple project which was further monumentalised in the late Republican period. Among other innovations, it was revealed that there were originally four distinct curvilinear megalithic structural units of which only the south-western temple unit was preserved. While the other three structures appear to have survived and served a religious role into the Middle Bronze Age, suggesting a continuity of religious use, such use was interrupted in the Phoenician-Punic period when most of their building blocks were cut into smaller elements for reuse.