A phenomenological and spatial approach to Dolmen sites in Malta and Gozo

Abstract

Although most megalithic buildings in the Maltese archipelago were constructed during established chronological periods, the same cannot be said for a particular type of structure known as the dolmen. While John Evans’ work in the mid-1950s laid the groundwork for the study of these monuments, little more has since been done in the way of research. Ties with the landscape were scarcely entertained by scholars in recent years despite the paucity of material culture generated. This dissertation presents a novel approach to the landscape context of 23 dolmens identified and located from the literature together with the wider prehistoric context within which they would have existed. Through the implementation of a Geographic Information System framework and a phenomenological approach, the dolmen’s landscape will be split into three themes. Firstly, practicality in their construction, secondly an element of connectivity particularly with the seascape and thirdly, a presumed preoccupation with constructing the dolmens in a landscape that had already welcomed earlier cultures which dictated the way, where and how dolmens were created. These results help to break down old notions that the dolmens were in any way isolated and although we are forced to single them out for study, they are but one characteristic of the parent culture(s) which produced and used them.