Landscape, territories, and the life-histories of monuments in Temple Period Malta

Abstract

Archaeological evidence from Malta during the Temple Period is characterized by an abundance of monumental buildings, and a dearth of domestic evidence. Earlier work has used the monuments as an indicator of social organisation and demography, exploring the possibility of predicting the nature of polities or territories on the basis of their distribution and size. That issue is revisited here, introducing two additional variables: (1) the influence of the landscape itself, and (2) the development of monuments over time. When suitability of landscape for exploitation is examined independently of monument distribution, the two are found to be closely related. The development of the monuments over time is examined next, and shows evidence of a relationship between the diverging life-histories of the monuments, and the constraints and opportunities ordained by the landscape in different parts of the archipelago.