Two relief-carvings of chalcolithic Malta

Abstract

The west temple of the Tarxien complex is certainly the most elaborately decorated of the Chalcolithic temples of Malta. The repertoire of stone-carved motifs is fairly extensive, among which one - carved beneath a monumental limestone statue of the 'Goddess'seems to represent the prototype of the egg-and-dart motif before it was abstracted to become, presumably through the agency of the Aegean civilizations, one of the most popular architectural decorative motifs of western art. A second carving - in an adjacent room to the west temple - represents a bull and a female animal with its young, usually taken for a 'sow with litter'. The writer suggests an interpretation connected with the calendar.