Malta’s history stretches back into the ages as far back as 5000 BC and radiocarbon dating has proved this. Scattered all over the Maltese Islands one comes across evidence of Malta’s prehistory. The most important being a series of temples which have been termed to be the oldest free-standing stone structures exceeding even the earliest stone constructions of Egypt – the Pyramids; and older even than Stonehenge. Prehistory remains in Malta are unique and nothing is remotely comparable anywhere in the world. Prehistory is divided into three phases Neolithic (5200 – 4100 BC), Temple Period (4100 – 2500 BC), Bronze Age (2500 – 800 BC). The book Malta Before History published by Miranda Publishers and written by a number of authors gives an in-depth study of the Malta’s prehistory.
Malta Before History is an archaeological, academic and pictorial analysis of Malta’s pre-history embodied in the oldest freestanding stone buildings in the world on the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo.
Malta Before History explores the stone structures, known locally as ‘the temples’ that are older than the pyramids in Egypt, the sites of Mesopotamia and Stonehenge in England. This unique publication, with a foreword by renowned historian Lord Colin Renfrew, brings the Maltese Islands to the attention of new generations of historians and academics as well as readers and travellers who enjoy the uniqueness of history and have never before discovered Malta was the home of such superb ancient sites. To quote Lord Renfrew, ‘something exceptional took place in Malta more than 5,000 years ago and there is nowhere else in the world that can boast of great stone monuments at so early a date’. Two of the locations examined in this publication, the megalithic temples and the Saflieni Hypogeum were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 1980.
Extraordinary facts unfold about the mysterious origins of prehistoric Maltese man and how he constructed such unmatched architecture. Chapters include studies on The Building of Megalithic Malta and The Bronze Age as well as the enigma of the Cart Ruts and whether the ‘Fat Lady’ was really a god or a goddess. Equally important is a chapter showing how recent radiocarbon dating has proved that Malta’s prehistory and its standing stone monuments are much older than archaeologists had first assumed. Authors include David Trump, Anthony Pace, Anthony Bonanno, Ann Monsarrat, Daniel Clarke, Michael Hughes Clarke, Alex Torpiano, Frank Ventura, Reuben Grima and Richard England.
