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| Ready to visit The Ta' Ħaġrat temples in L-Imġarr |
In a few days, The Grandma is going to return to Barcelona to start new projects. Her searching of Corto Maltese is arriving to the end.
Joseph de Ca'th Lon doesn't want to leave the island without visiting the Ta' Ħaġrat temples in L-Imġarr. They want to finish their visit as they started: visiting Prehistorical sites. The Ta' Ħaġrat temples in L-Imġarr, Malta is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with several other Megalithic temples. They are amongst the most ancient religious sites on Earth. The larger Ta' Ħaġrat temple dates from the Ġgantija phase (3600–3200 BCE); the smaller is dated to the Saflieni phase (3300–3000 BCE).
Joseph de Ca'th Lon doesn't want to leave the island without visiting the Ta' Ħaġrat temples in L-Imġarr. They want to finish their visit as they started: visiting Prehistorical sites. The Ta' Ħaġrat temples in L-Imġarr, Malta is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with several other Megalithic temples. They are amongst the most ancient religious sites on Earth. The larger Ta' Ħaġrat temple dates from the Ġgantija phase (3600–3200 BCE); the smaller is dated to the Saflieni phase (3300–3000 BCE).
More information: Heritage Malta
Ta' Ħaġrat is on the eastern outskirts of the village of L-Imġarr, roughly one kilometer from the Ta' Skorba temples. Characteristics of the Ta' Ħaġrat façade resemble those in the Ta' Skorba complex.
The
excavation of plentiful pottery deposits show that a village stood on
the site and predates the temples themselves. This early pottery is
dated to the L-Imġarr phase (3800-3600 BCE).
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| Joseph in the Ta' Ħaġrat temples, L-Imġarr |
Ta' Ħaġrat is built out of lower coralline limestone, the oldest exposed rock in the Maltese Islands. The complex contains two adjacent temples. The smaller temple abuts the major one on the northern side.
The two parts are less regularly planned and smaller in size than many of the other neolithic temples in Malta. Unlike other megalithic temples in Malta no decorated blocks were discovered; however a number of artifacts were found. Perhaps most intriguing is a scale model of a temple, sculpted in globigerina limestone. A sculptured temple discovered at Ta' Ħaġrat.
The model is roofed and shows the typical structure of a Maltese temple including a trilithon façade, narrow-broad walling technique and upper layers of horizontal corbelling.
More information: Malta Uncovered
The Ġgantija phase temple is typically trefoil, with a concave façade opening
onto a spacious semicircular forecourt. The façade contains a monumental
doorway in the center and a bench at its base. Two steps lead up to the
main entrance and a corridor flanked by upright megaliths of coralline limestone.
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| Joseph in the Ta' Ħaġrat temples, L-Imġarr |
The corridor leads into a central torba, a cement-like material, court, radiating three semi-circular chambers.
These were partially walled off at some time in the Saflieni phase; pottery shards were recovered from the internal packing of this wall. The apses are constructed with roughly-hewn stone walls and have a rock floor. Corbelling visible on the walls of the apses suggest that the temple was roofed. A small sculptured temple was discovered here.
These were partially walled off at some time in the Saflieni phase; pottery shards were recovered from the internal packing of this wall. The apses are constructed with roughly-hewn stone walls and have a rock floor. Corbelling visible on the walls of the apses suggest that the temple was roofed. A small sculptured temple was discovered here.
More information: Malta Tina
The site was excavated between 1923 and 1926 by Sir Temi Zammit, then Director of Museums. The site was again excavated by John Davies Evans in 1954, and British archaeologist David Trump accurately dated the complex in the 1961 excavation. The temple was included on the Antiquities List of 1925. Parts of the façade and doorway were reconstructed in 1937.
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| The Grandma & Claire arrive to the Skorba Temples |
The Skorba temples are Megalithic remains on the northern edge of Żebbiegħ, which have provided detailed and informative insight into the earliest periods of Malta's neolithic culture.
The site was only excavated in the early 1960s, rather late in comparison to other megalithic sites, some of which had been studied since the early 19th century. The site's importance has led to its listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a listing it shares with six other megalithic temples in Malta.
More information: Heritage Malta
This later excavation allowed the use of modern methods of dating and analysis. The temple itself isn't in good condition, especially in comparison to the more complete temples of Ħaġar Qim and Tarxien. The importance of this site doesn't lie in the actual remains but rather in what was garnered from their excavation.
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| Claire Fontaine in the Skorba Temples, Żebbiegħ |
The Żebbiegħ area around Skorba appears to have been inhabited very early in the Neolithic period.
When the eminent Maltese historian Sir Temi Żammit excavated the nearby temples of Ta' Ħaġrat, only a single upright slab protruded from a small mound of debris on the Skorba site.
Although it was included on the Antiquities List of 1925, archeologists ignored this mound until David Trump excavated it between 1960 and 1963.
More information: Malta Uncovered
The remains on the site are a series of megalithic uprights, one of them 3.4m high, the lowest course of the temples' foundations, paving slabs with libation holes in the entrance passage, and the torba, a cement-like material, floor of a three-apse temple. This three-apse shape is typical of the Ġgantija phase.
Unfortunately, the greater part of the first two apses and the whole of the façade have been razed to ground level.
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| Tina Picotes in the Skorba Temples, Żebbiegħ |
The north wall is in a better state of preservation. Originally, the entrance of the temple opened on a court, but in later additions during the Tarxien phase, the temple's doorway was closed off, with altars set in the corners formed by the closure.
East of this temple, a second monument was added in the Tarxien phase, with four apses and a central niche. For a period of roughly twelve centuries before the temples were built, a village already stood on the site. Its oldest extant structure is the eleven metre long straight wall to the west of the temples’ first entrance.
Deposits at its base contained material from the first known human occupation of the island, the Għar Dalam phase, including charcoal, which carbon analysis dated to 4850 BC.
East of this temple, a second monument was added in the Tarxien phase, with four apses and a central niche. For a period of roughly twelve centuries before the temples were built, a village already stood on the site. Its oldest extant structure is the eleven metre long straight wall to the west of the temples’ first entrance.
Deposits at its base contained material from the first known human occupation of the island, the Għar Dalam phase, including charcoal, which carbon analysis dated to 4850 BC.
The pottery found on the site is divided into two styles, the Grey Skorba phase distinguished by grey-colored pottery with no motifs, and the Red Skorba phase, which is exactly like the grey Skorba but colored using red ocher.
More information: UNESCO
Whenever I think of the past,
it brings back so many memories.
Steven Wright
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