The prehistoric islandscape

Abstract

The story of discovery, exploitation and settlement of small islands by humans is impossible to separate from that of the exploration, and to some extent the mastery, of the seas around them. The group of islands that form Malta was no exception. By the time the first known Neolithic inhabitants were settled in Malta, sometime around 5,000 BC, rising sea-levels had already given the Maltese archipelago a configuration not very different from the one we know today. Over the preceding 10,000 years or so, progressive warming and the consequent melting of the ice-caps had resulted in dramatic rises in sea-level, which flooded vast areas between Malta and Sicily, widening the channel between the two to almost the width we are familiar with today. Although no firm evidence has yet been found of human presence on Malta during this earlier period, it is well-attested in Sicily, and the possibility that communities that hunted, gathered, fished and foraged reached Malta during this time of rapid sea-level change remains a plausible one. Here the story is taken up from shortly before 5,000 BC, with the first firm evidence of human settlement of the Maltese islands. [extract]