Tarxien and the Xagħra circle : their place in Mediterranean proto-history

Abstract

This paper is inspired by the striking similarity in the stratigraphic relationship between a prehistoric archaeological site discovered and excavated almost eighty years ago on the island of Malta, the Tarxien Temples and another site currently being explored by an Anglo-Maltese team on the sister island of Gozo, the Xaghra Circle. This similarity is gradually but steadily accumulating increasing consistency as the investigation of the latter site proceeds. The relation between the two major horizons identified at the Xaghra Circle, representing two subsequent periods and cultures of Maltese prehistory and its parallel occurrence at Tarxien, has induced the author to re-examine a handful of objects recovered from Tarxien in the light of the chronological upheavals and new patterns of cultural diffusion in European and Mediterranean prehistory brought about by the radiocarbon and dendrochronology revolution (Renfrew 1972 and 1973)