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... this conference has broadened all our horizons, and brought together
many scholars who would not otherwise have met, to everyone's mutual
advantage. We are all encouraged to go forth to continue our researches
and to relate them more closely to those of our colleagues.
Organized by OTSF
and conducted in Malta.
the innovative 2003 EMPTC conference brought together
top scholars from a
variety of fields.
photo
© Daniel
Cilia
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In
the opening session, a number of distinguished speakers, from President de Marco
down, spoke on the Maltese prehistoric heritage and the problems of its
conservation. Then at the end, two specific examples of the threats, the
proposed rubbish dump in a quarry close to Mnajdra and the continuing hostility
of the hunting lobby in the islands, were vigorously debated.
Between these, and more particularly
relevant to the subject of the Conference, a stimulating and wide range
of papers were presented. Some were illustrated by a traditional set of
slides, run through a rather temperamental projector, others by several
versions of state-of-the-art video equipment, though some of these were
not without their glitches too. Though well behind the times on this
one, I personally felt that some of these latter were leaving the
archaeological content subservient to exploring the potential of the new
techniques.
While naturally concentrating on Malta,
papers included to advantage comparative material from as far afield as
the Aran Islands and Crete, Hadrian's Wall and central Mexico. An
equally wide range of topics and general themes was discussed, some old,
some new. There is insufficient space here to comment on all of them, so
the brief personal selection in no way reflects on those omitted.
The introductory paper showed that
throughout prehistory, the Maltese of the time were in constant contact
with Sicily and beyond, so their unique achievement in their temple
architecture, statuary and pottery was a matter of choice, not simply
the result of isolation. John Robb took this further by showing that
those achievements were all merely extreme versions of much wider
regional tendencies, though none the less remarkable for that.
Several speakers (Micallef, Albrecht)
discussed the astronomical significance of Mnajdra, making a convincing
case for an alignment on the equinoctial sunrise. But if this was so
important to the builders, why was it not applied in other temples?
Possible solstitial sight lines were also discussed, though rather less
convincingly, and stellar ones even less so, but all at least deserve
exploring.
Isabelle Vella-Gregory considered the
issue of gender in the temple period, lamenting the distortions of
feminism. This sparked a lively discussion on the old controversy of the
sex of the 'fat ladies', a consensus view emerging that this was
deliberately ambiguous, for whatever reason. It was even suggested that
the sockets in the necks of some figurines were to take interchangeable
heads, male or female as appropriate to immediate circumstance.
Three general themes deserving comment
emerged during the three days, though not specifically voiced until the
closing remarks.
Hardly anything can be
categorically proved, or disproved, by archaeological means, the
best that can be achieved being a balance of probabilities. This is
especially so when it comes to connections between different
cultural areas in the past. That balance can be drastically altered
by new discoveries. For example, a link between the relief spirals
in the Tarxien Temples and those on the
grave stele at Mycenae were considered highly significant, almost
axiomatic, until radiocarbon dates ruled them out completely. If
chronologically acceptable links between adjacent areas like Malta and
Sicily have a good chance of significance, those between Malta and the
Aegean for example (Blakolmer) are at best more problematic.
Secondly, although symbolism was very
widely employed, and highly important, it is always strictly culturally
determined, which makes it extremely difficult to recover from
preliterate periods with any confidence. If red ochre symbolised blood,
was it that of battle or menstruation (gender studies again), or more
generally of life, or purely cosmetic, without further meaning at all?
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Spirals can have one of innumerable meanings, or be purely decorative.
The asterisks on the Tal Qadi 'astronomical' slab are generally taken to
signify stars, as they would automatically in our society, unless in the
form d**n or f**k. We have no assurance that they have the same, or
indeed any, such meaning here. That may well be so, but only on that
balance of probabilities. For a final example, the most widely
recognized symbol worldwide is the arrow, but would a society which had
never used any weapon other than the sling, blowpipe or AK47 have the
least idea of its meaning?
Thirdly, leading on from this, we face
the constant danger of over interpretation, of reading more into the
evidence than was actually intended by those who left it. Crouched
burials are widely referred to as being in the foetal position, and
taken to symbolise a return to the womb of Mother Earth, often with the
corollary that they there await rebirth. A simpler answer is that the
motivation was strictly practical - a crouched burial requires the
digging of a much smaller grave pit. Here is surely a case for the
application of Occam's 'razor', which stated that where alternative
explanations are available, the simpler should always be preferred.
With those provisoes in mind, how did
the conference members view the road ahead? All were agreed that we need
more evidence. Particularly bewailed was the dearth, or near-absence, of
settlement sites contemporary with the temples in Malta. Their builders
and worshippers must have lived somewhere, the evidence from which would
enormously improve our chances of reconstructing life at the time. The
recent material from the Xaghra Circle (Stoddart) showed how much more
could be learnt from new excavations, though there mainly confined to
mortuary practice.
Further analyses are required too,
either by techniques already available or by new ones. Obsidian studies
(Tykot) have more to tell us. A discrepancy is becoming apparent between
the accepted chronologies of Sicily (Terranova, Cultraro, Bruno) and
Malta (Trump), which radiocarbon analyses from the former island could
soon resolve. Dr Liritzis talked of the exciting possibility of dating
temple construction directly, by TL (thermoluminescence). Dr Mifsud
offered fascinating evidence of thalassaemia from the Bur Mghez
skeletons, with implications for genetic affiliation of the Maltese
population. Indeed, molecular biology and DNA analysis could soon
produce dramatic solutions to local problems, above all the supposed
Tarxien Cemetery invasion, if applied to Maltese material. A poster on
pollen from a core at Marsa is another promising development. It showed
that there was no obvious change in vegetation during the accumulation
of 12m of deposit, though we do not yet have a date for its
commencement. Perhaps Salini, where bottom was not reached, might carry
the story back before deforestation, and tell us when, and if, that
happened.
Even without such analytical
techniques, there is plenty of scope for new insights and
interpretations, as several papers here have shown (e.g. Sagona, Bugeja,
England). One not aired at this meeting has been the study of the
Ggantija as an engineering exercise by Dr Daniel Clark. This showed that
much less input of effort was required for its construction than is
generally believed. In no way would it have put an intolerable strain on
its builders' resources.
So this conference has broadened all
our horizons, and brought together many scholars who would not otherwise
have met, to everyone's mutual advantage. We are all encouraged to go
forth to continue our researches and to relate them more closely to
those of our colleagues. I am delighted to report that it is already
apparent that Malta, Prehistory and Temples will not remain the
last word for years to come, as Prof. Bonanno generously suggested at
its launch last year. Maltese archaeology is alive and well, and
advancing on many fronts, and, with our grateful thanks to Linda Eneix,
this OTS conference is patently doing an excellent job of encouraging
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