Prehistoric antiquities : developments in research

Abstract

Malta's megalithic buildings and other prehistoric remains are today accepted as among the most important architectural constructions in the world. Yet for a long time they lay completely or partly hidden underneath Malta's scanty soil, ransacked for valuable building stone or broken up by the farmers who saw them only as an obstacle to ploughing their fields. The sheer enormity of the building blocks encouraged the inhabitants to imagine that only a race of giants could have quarried and moved them.