The prehistory of Gozo

Abstract

It is generally agreed that the physical environment is a determinant and conditioning factor in the formation and development of cultures, and the prehistoric cultures that planted their roots on the island of Gozo were no exception, even if one of them, the temple culture, achieved heights of grandeur and magnificence that went beyond what one would normally deem possible, given the limited local resources. So much so, that for decades students of prehistoric societies and ancient civilisations could not explain the phenomenal rise of the megalithic temple culture on Gozo and Malta if not as a by-product of the richer and more sophisticated proto-urban civilisations of the Aegean and the Near East (Evans 1959; MacKie 1977). It should be said from the very start that the general background, the physical environment (geological and geomorphological) in which prehistoric man conducted his activity on Gozo, is almost identical to that prevailing in Malta (Bowen-Jones 1972; Alexander 1988). This accounts, at least in part, for the fact that there were no essential or marked differences between the cultural development of Gozo and that of its sister island (Bonanno 1990). The more noticeable difference even today is the greater abundance of spring water and, therefore, the greater fertility of the smaller island, due to a more extensive preservation of the upper porous crust of coralline limestone and its underlying blue clay layer than in the larger island (Zammit Maempel 1977; Alexander 1988).