Research on prehistoric and Roman Gozo : past, present and future

Abstract

There is no doubt that the most important and impressive of the archaeological monuments that mark the Maltese landscape are the megalithic temples. Gozo's Ggantija temples at Xaghra outdo all the others, even their counterparts in Malta. I n spite of this,we Maltese and Gozitans have for generations grown with these constructions at our doorstep and were not always appreciative of their value. I, for one, do not remember being particularly moved by their size and sophistication on my occasional encounter with them as a child. It is normally the foreigner who 'discovers' them for us. Nevertheless, for centuries the gigantic dimensions of the stone blocks used in these wonderful constructions struck the imagination of the uncultured local population who conjured up stories of giants (sometimes even of a single female giant) going about raising these stones according to some uncanny design (Mifsud-Chircop 1990: 166-7, with previous bibliography; Veen 1994). This is not to say that the more educated Maltese were insensitive to these unusual structures. Two Maltese writers, Gian Francesco Abela, the Chancellor of the Order of the Knights ofSt John (1647), and Marc Antonio Haxiaq (1610), a medical doctor of the same Order, were already writing about them in the beginning of the 17th century and attributing them to the Phoenicians, the earliest dominators of the islands in Maltese history.