© JOSEPH S. ELLUL 1988
Augmented with new material by the author - 2004.
Many of the Megalithic buildings have the general form of two elongated oval chambers, one behind the other, with a semi-circular recess at the back of the second oval and just in front of a central passage connecting the two oval chambers. Such temples are those at Mnajdra (both temples), Tarxien (all three temples) and Ä gantija (both temples). The much ruined, smaller but older temple at ĦaÄ¡ar Qim is also built in this shape.
Some writers have called it the shape of the trefoil of the wild clover. But that has nothing to do with the Stone-Age temples.
Those Stone-Age people built their temples to honour their gods, represented by the statuettes found inside the temples at Ħaġar Qim. If one examines minutely the shape of the outline of the statuettes that are in a squatting position (Pic.16 [and also the much more recent Inanna.jpg]), one will note that this outline has the form of an oval in the position of the fat thighs, with further up another oval formed by the outline of the fat muscles of the arms, bent and resting on the thighs, and with a central recess in place of the head in the middle at the top. This outlines the shape of these temples.
In the same manner that those among us who are followers of Jesus Christ who died on a cross, build our churches in the form of that cross, so also those temple-builders of the prediluvian era erected their temples in the form of a squatting god, [a god, that is to say, who, although all-mighty and everywhere-present, is basically peace-loving and at rest].
Although the older temple at Ħaġar Qim has this statuette form, the shape of the main temple was somewhat disrupted. The builders appear to have sacrificed an ideal shape in order to provide for an assembly of chambers all of them aligned towards some very important calendric position of one of their two most important heavenly bodies, the Sun and the Moon.
As I have said, several other temples are also not built in this perfect, double-oval, statuesque shape but, nevertheless, no matter the form of the assembly of chambers, the shape of the chambers themselves is always oval. This is mainly because such an oval shape, coupled with the huge blocks of the outside walls, formed the strongest possible form of building attainable.
To understand this, one needs to examine the plan of the temple. Look at chamber A, the right apse. It is oval in shape, so the upright slabs cannot fall inwards, as they are forming an arch; they can only fall outwards. But on the outside there is that outside wall, built of huge upright blocks - and leaning inwards. The space in between is filled with rubble stones, thus [unless, rather thoughtlessly, some inquistive researchers, possibly after reading John E. Palmer's well intentioned but over imaginative October 1981 RILKO The Hague Artists' Group article "The Sun Temple of Mnajdra"*, clear all that rubble away - and then forget to put it back afterwards, although that is what RILKO's Chairman earlier this year, without wishing in any way to interfere into something that is none of that Association's business, suggested to me as in all likelihood the best thing to do!] preventing the inside arch from falling outwards and the outside wall from falling inwards. This system results in the strongest form of building and, as one goes the rounds of the temple, one will notice several instances that reveal the ability of those ancient people as regards their building techniques.
* A copy of this article, which Joseph S. Ellul has only very recently read, currently forms part of the Creativity House archive.
As one enters the gate one sees to the right a group of middle-sized stones that form some small semi-circular areas with no signs of sacrificial fires. These are considered to have been used as dwelling-houses for the personnel of the temple. In some places there are the remains of the first rudimentary form of room or artificial cave. Four rectangular monoliths, nearly two feet thick, standing upright on a side to enclose a rectangular area about 7' × 5', and leaving a gap in one of the corners, as an entry into this space. This is certainly the first type of artificial cave that was certainly roofed. With some dry hay spread on the ground, and something to block the opening, it will have made a cosy and sheltered sleeping-place.
Passing these dwelling-houses to our right, we come to the open space between these dwelling-houses and the Temple itself.
Now we are in front of the main doorway of the temple. This temple frontage was reconstructed during the 1950's. Before that time the two top layers of stone-blocks were not on the wall. These blocks, including the huge lintel on top of the doorway, were all scattered in this courtyard. The lintel itself had been thrown some 30 feet to the East, landing on its right corner, which is seen to be splintered (Pic.9 and Pic.11).
This front of the temple had to be the temple's best wall. It is constructed in symmetrical order with its doorway in the middle. These slabs forming this front wall are all fitted perfectly upright. This is unlike the rest of the outside walls of the temple that are all leaning inwards so as to be able to resist the pressure of the filling inside the wall. Without this tilting the filling inside the walls would push the outside wall outwards. But the wall on the front had to be more elegant. It had to be upright. To prevent its being pushed out by the filling behind it, this wall has been built in the form of a horizontal arch, just like a modern river dam. Those not-so-primitive people had already discovered the importance of the arch, and its characteristics (see plan: Pic.3).
The big squared slabs at the foot of the wall really served as shoring-blocks to keep the vertical slabs forming the wall from slipping out because of the pressure of the inner filling. These shoring-blocks are very well shaped and squared. They could serve as bases for some decorations in front of the temple, or even as seats. The other shoring-blocks round the rest of the temple are not so well fitted and squared, but sufficed for their purpose. This fact also reveals those prehistoric people's great knowledge of architecture and engineering. This is not the only instance but, going round the ruins, one comes across several features that point to the great skill possessed by the prehistoric people who built these temples.
To the left of the doorway and about 14' away from the front wall there is a hole in the ground about 2' in diameter, bored conically, and bending under the surface towards the entrance, where it is almost blocked. It has the form of a strange rope-hole. I say "strange", because the bore is too large in comparison with the part where one would tie the rope. Besides, the stone is too soft to secure a rope-hole. This, in fact, was not a rope-hole, but a fire-place. If one examines it well, one sees its walls or sides are of a reddish colour, caused by fire. The top of the ventilation hole at the side of the stone was not burnt by any fire, as the ventilation kept the flames away. By tradition, we also know that a little further out from this hole there was found a stone circle with ashes in it. This indicates that the ashes from the fire-hole used to be emptied into it.
Here one must note that this stone, although reddened by the heat of the fire, does not appear to be cracked. Globigerina Limestone usually becomes cracked when exposed to the heat of a fire. But there exists a type of this limestone that does not crack when used for fire, as in a stove. Up to the early 1920's stone of this type was used to make stoves in which to burn charcoal or wood for cooking purposes. Such stoves were much used before petrol was discovered. That sort of fire-resisting stone does not, so far as is currently known, exist in Malta, and so nowadays it would have to be imported from Gozo. So, either those ancient builders brought this stone from Gozo (a journey by land in those days) or, as appears to me more likely, they knew more than we do about Maltese rock because some friendly Angels of the sort we nowadays call E.T.'s gave them some additional information.
What was the purpose of this fire-hole? At the other temples, including Mnajdra, one finds simply a rope-hole in hard stone to tie up some watchful animal, such as a dog, to scare away any potential intruders, whether animal or human. But Ħaġar Qim is different. This temple was built much earlier than the others, and it incorporates a lot of different ideas from those expressed later and elsewhere.
Before going into the entrance, just have a look at the lintel and at the long blocks lying alongside and on top of it. Most of them, including the lintel itself, which measures about 9 feet square and 18 inches thick, were scattered about in this courtyard. Almost all of these blocks had been thrown over into this yard for a distance of about 20 feet. The lintel fell on its right corner and, as one can see, splintered it in the fall.
That lintel was found resting some 30 feet to the East of the doorway, lying on some rubbish and with one of the long horizontal slabs on top of it. It happened that the upper stone had certain acoustic characteristics and was positioned so as to be almost perfectly balanced, and whenever one hit it with another stone, it rang like a bell. That peculiarity earned it the nickname of "The Bell of Ħaġar Qim" but, during works carried out in the 1950's, these various blocks were put back in their present places on top of the front wall, and "The Bell of Ħaġar Qim" was no more (Pic.8).
Before entering the temple let us have a look at the fourth square stone to the left of the entrance. One will notice that this block is about 2 feet shorter than the ones near it on both sides. Also, its top face is not flat, but is slanting outwards at about 45º. This slant is no breakage, but is the original form of the block. It was made like that with a specific purpose in mind.
In those days they had no glass with which to make a window in order to keep any rain-water out. So they made a window-sill slanting outwards, so that the water would not flow in. This gap served as a window (Pic.7) for observation from inside the high chapel, which we will visit when we are inside the temple, but we have observed this feature now, so that we shall not need to come back again from inside later.
One enters the temple by a well-shaped passage or doorway with a well smoothed threshold and sides. One looks at the lintel from underneath, to understand its size and to appreciate what sort of force had to be exerted in order to lift it up and throw it in a somersault 30 feet away towards the East.
Just beyond the entrance the flanking uprights have recesses for a crossbar to prevent entrance into the temple proper. Most probably that bar held a wooden door in place. Close examination of the highly polished pavement reveals a groove about ½" deep and 9" wide, running across the inside of the entrance. Here must have lain the base of a low stone ridge, about a foot high, as the recesses in the flanking stones indicate. There is still one such stone separating the floor of the Main Chapel, B, from that of room H.
Now we are in an oval chamber divided into three separate parts by two walls. Each of these walls consists of large thin slabs placed in line, end to end, with a tall narrow slab put crosswise between them as a support. This technique shows their highly developed sense in architecture. The middle chamber, square in form, is very well paved with two very large polished slabs. In some places these slabs were cracked when the heavy masonry above them fell down.
According to tradition the statuettes were found in this chamber during the first excavation of 1839. These Upper Coralline Limestone Statuettes, now preserved in the Valletta Museum of Archæology, are seven in number. They are all headless, but they have a recess into which a head could be fitted. These hard-stone statuettes must have been a second set that replaced an earlier one discovered during the excavations of the 1950's. These hard-stone statues were worked with flint which had been brought from outside Malta, while the earlier soft-stone statues had been sculptured with obsidian brought in those days overland (one needs to remember) from Sicily.
Close by the walls of this square chamber lie stone blocks, some of which served as supports for the uprights, but others must have been bases or altars for the statuettes. These bases or altars still bear the signs of fire from the sacrifices. Some of the altars are decorated with pit-marks, while others are much defaced by erosion that has taken place since this place was excavated. The worn-out ones have now been filled with artificial stone or with cement, but the bottom part of the block on the left still shows its original decoration. In the side-walls of this square chamber are two port-hole doorways, diagonally opposite to each other, that lead into semi-circular apses. Lots of pottery, both whole and broken, were found in these apses, which shows that they were used as store-rooms for the temple's utensils.
These port-hole doors, though equal in size, are slightly different in shape. The one on the right has plain rounded sides, showing a lot of wear at the bottom as a result of prolonged and frequent use. This chamber was used for every-day purposes.
On the other hand, the door on the left has sides in which a squared groove has been cut, into which a stone slab or, perhaps, a wooden wedge must have been fitted and secured, with a rope made of hide, to the rope-holes to either side, so that this security-slab or -wedge would not fall. This indicates that this particular chamber was not in frequent use. Perhaps it was used to store utensils that were used only on special occasions.
The doorway through which we proceed to the next chapel is also well paved, and it has a single, nicely squared block on each side. Before the original excavation, the place was buried to a depth of about 9" above these stones. The top-soil was cultivated and ploughed by the farmers, who have left scratches from their plough-shares on the top of the slabs forming the doorway.
Here we find ourselves in the Main Chapel, the longest and most important chamber of the whole building. Straight ahead is another doorway which would take us out of the temple. Let us not go out just yet, but have a good look at this derelict doorway from the inside and try to reconstruct it in our imagination. With two covering lintels, the top one projecting over the lower, it would have the appearance of the one in the picture (Pic.1 and Cover.jpg).
The doorway through which we have just passed was also constructed in symmetry to this one, and they were then joined together at the ceiling by a pair of flat arches from one side of the chapel to the other.
On each side of the doorway rises a taller slab that protrudes further out than the general line of the wall. These slabs incline out towards the top, making the gap between those opposite to each other narrower here than it is at the bottom. On top of these slabs were placed horizontal slabs that protruded further out for at least 2 feet. The remaining gap between these opposite blocks could then have been closed by a single slab on top of them both. By fitting other slabs to level up the ceiling, the space between these doorways could also have been roofed (Pic.24).
This type of roofing was described to my father by Professor Ugolini himself [in 1934 or early in 1935, when Joseph S. Ellul was about 14 years old] in token repayment for the information my father had given to him about the different characteristics of Malta's various stones, as well as other information which Ugolini could not get from anyone else. When this Professor saw how much interest this local farmer was taking in archæology and what an understanding of the subject he clearly displayed already, he invited him to accompany him inside these ruins and explained to him a lot of secrets Professor Ugolini had somehow managed to discover. These secrets were so basically and clearly correct that we have been able by building on them to arrive at further and significant discoveries.
This doorway must have been closed by some kind of door, most probably one made of wood. It was at first secured by some sort of wooden bar, for which there are recesses in the sides. This wooden bar appears later to have been replaced by hinges consisting of rope-holes to which the door itself was tied. There are two rope-holes on the left flank, one at the top and another at the bottom. These two on the left were used as hinges for the door. On the right there is only one rope-hole, which is rather low. There is no rope-hole at the top, and the one at the bottom was used to tie the door closed.
For as long as my father was taking care of the temple, the recess for the bar in the left flank of the doorway had its bottom part filled up with petrified mortar. After we left, some officious fellow, imagining that he was eliminating something dirty, scraped away this mortar with a knife. This ancient mortar showed that this hole had long ago ceased to be of any use, and it was filled in by those prediluvial people when they first started using rope-holes.
Making an about-turn, we face the doorway through which we just passed. This doorway was a perfect image of the one just described, the one which leads out of the temple.
As previously stated, the space between these doorways was joined with two flat arches. Then these arches were roofed, either with long flat slabs or else with wooden beams and smaller stone-slabs resting on them. However it was roofed, roofed it certainly was.
Turning to our left, we see in front of us the most important part of the temple. The horse-shoe wall is made up of smoothed, well-squared, close-fitting, upright slabs, on which rises the best sample of corbelling one could see anywhere. This corbelling would rise higher and narrower till it reached the level of a cavity in the highest stone of the temple, seen towering to the left. At this height, wooden beams would be placed across the remaining gap in the roof to support the stone-slabs forming the roof. (This idea was also suggested to my father by Professor Ugolini.)
Before we leave this place, I wish to note that when erecting the Tarxien Temples they made another improvement on the sort of construction methods they had employed for this building. For roofing here, they had used the method of corbelling, which means laying the stones flat, but putting the upper row a little further out than the bottom one, as you see in this apse. By the time Tarxien came to be built, those people had discovered better methods. They had learned how to build a proper dome by placing the stones in the form of an arch, the more the layers of stones ascend, the more they are slanting inwards, just as it is in our modern domes (Pic.23).
Within this semi-circle there is another circle made of vertical, thin stone-slabs. This inner circle is broken at the front and exactly opposite at the back, where one sees a hole piercing the wall in an oblique direction. This hole, mistakenly associated with "an oracle", had an altogether different purpose.
[Editor's note: Mistaken or not, the concept of an "oracle hole" is quite often mentioned by Professor Ugolini in Malta.... He states that when sick people visited a temple in hope of a cure, or when others came searching for an answer to some difficult and perplexing question of personal or social concern, they would assume a horizontal position on the temple-floor and there, thanks to the resonantly acoustic properties of such oracle holes, might, when dreaming in their sleep or in a state of trance, receive the healing- and-or illuminating response they needed. The existence of oracle holes is not, of course, restricted to Malta...]
In several pagan civilizations as well as in the Temple of Solomon, women were not allowed inside the main temple. Erich von Däniken mentions that even in Buritaca, a Lost City in the South American jungle of the Colombian Andes, there is "a large men's house to which women and children have no access." This policy of no admittance of the women into the temples proper was very common among "primitive" civilizations. [But cf. Schildmann's findings, reported elsewhere, which make one wonder whether or not it was perhaps men and boys whose access was restricted!]
Yet, although these pre-diluvian people appear not to have allowed their women and children to enter the main temple-buildings, they provided them with all the facilities required for them to hear and follow the services from the outside. Perhaps the men of those days did not want women and children to witness the killings and the shedding of animal blood. But they certainly wanted them to be able to hear the services they conducted.
So they provided an opening through which the sound could go out into another separate chapel where the women and children were assembled. At Ħaġar Qim they arranged this small hole through which the sound was transferred. But a simple hole was not enough. They also devised a wonderful acoustic method for channelling the sound into and through this hole (Pic.24).
This inner circle of upright thin slabs is an acoustic arrangement that would reflect any sounds already reflected from the dome above and then channel it throgh this ACOUSTIC HOLE and so into the women's chapel on the other side of the wall. Don't question the abilities of those people, because they could work wonders with acoustics. At the Hypogeum they were able to construct a recess in the rock that acted as a sound amplifier, without needing any valves, transistors or electricity. Because of this hollow made there in the solid rock, if a person makes any sound at all at the proper point, its focal point, this sound will almost deafen him! But one needs to find that focal point first, by trial and error. An average man today has to rise on his toes in order to reach up to that point.
So this hole is no mere "oracle hole", and no "oracle" would ever remain the personal secret of any individual listener on the other side of this wall!
At the Tarxien Temples this Acoustic Hole is no longer just a hole, but a large opening cut at the top of the first layer of vertical slabs. It is 3 metres long and 40 centimetres high. It had a column of stones in the middle, so that the covering blocks could rest mid-way on that. It is found in the right apse of the inner chapel of the third or eastern temple (Pic.25). The women's (and children's) chapel is on the outside, much ruined, but the entrance to it is a port-hole made from a monolith of which only the bottom half now remains (Pic.26).
"How do I know that there was a column in the middle of the opening?" one may ask, since it is not there now. "Just because the place where it rested got shattered, when it received the brunt of the crush during the cataclysm," would be my answer.
From this, one can see that those people used different ideas in different periods. Here, this comparatively small opening is just about half a metre above the ground. At Tarxien it is about two metres. Because here the opening is small, they had to use sound reflectors to concentrate the sound waves towards the opening, like a beam from a torch. At Tarxien, as they had positioned the opening high above eye-level, they were able to make it a much larger one, and so they didn't need to use any sound reflectors. As time progressed, they discovered simpler ideas - more efficient, and requiring less work.
We turn about, and walk down the aisle. Halfway down, on the right, we see two monolith stone table-altars (Pic.22). Their top is flat, with a slightly raised fringe all round, or almost, to keep any liquid from spilling. What could this liquid be, if not the blood of animals slain to be sacrificed? [Editor's note: Several equally plausible replies to that question (lustral water? grape-juice? milk? menstrual blood?) spring immediately to mind.] I said "almost all round", because at a point towards which the surface is inclined, there is no ridge but instead a channel through which any liquid could flow down.
Certainly any sacred blood would not have been left to spill to the ground. It will have been collected in some sort of basin, either of stone or baked clay. To begin with they had a big cup carved out of stone with a hollow top (Pic.27). This was very plainly decorated, and also cumbersome to carry and manage. It was used at the time of the old set of statuettes and it was discarded with them. When they discovered flint-tools, they sculptured a very nice column, very much decorated; it has four sides, centrally recessed, with a straight palm-branch growing out of a central sculptured flower-pot (Pic.28).
This decorated column, which is now kept in the museum in Valletta, is commonly known as the Main Altar. In my opinion it is no altar at all. It is simply a column that served as a base on which rested a receptacle for the blood. A cup had been incorporated in the design of the old column itself, but this later, more decorated column has a flat top, which implies that a detachable cup used to stand on it. This column was, therefore, the base of a chalice rather than being an actual altar.
The type of stone of which this elaborate Chalice is made is very peculiar. It is not Upper Coralline like the later statuettes, made at the same time, nor is it made out of Globigerina Limestone of the type used to fashion the earlier set of statues. The Globigerina Limestone of which it is made is of a special type that is even harder than Upper Coralline Limestone - and even more resistant to water. The "primitive" stone-workers who made it already knew that Upper Coralline Limestone is partly eroded by water.
To come back to the two table-altars. The one on the left has two holes, one on top of the other, and these have no apparent use, except to put sacrificial daggers [Editor's note: or, for example, knives for cutting the stems of recently harvested cereal crops?] in them, so as to keep them handy.
In front of these altars, in the middle of the chapel, the beaten-earth floor is still all reddish and black as a result of the many sacrificial [Editor's note: or purely practical, culinary?] fires.
Passing between these two table-altars we enter what clearly must have been the holiest part of the temple, the HOLY OF HOLIES.
Both flanking stones of the entrance are well decorated with pittings in a manner nowhere else to be seen. It is a pity that most of it has now been obliterated by erosion since the excavation. The paving-block is pierced by two holes, bent, but cylindrical in form and connected at the bottom. Everybody used to wonder what practical use these may have served, but then Professor Ugolini suggested they just stuck two elephant tusks in them for decoration. Just inside on the left is a niche, the top of which could be used either as a shelf or as a kind of altar. On the right there is a narrow space, on the right side of which is a one-stone (monolith) table-altar held steady in a recess in the wall, but with its top broken where stones from above have fallen down on it. This table-altar, too, is discoloured by the fires of sacrifices.
At the present time one also sees in this space the Chalice column (Pic.27) I described above as the forerunner of the much decorated column Chalice. This chalice used to be in another place that I will point out later (Pic.34). The rim of the cup is broken, but the central part is clearly concave.
Moving down further into this chapel, we see a kind of window, and past this window we see a niche. In this niche were found a lot of small jars, filled with ashes and bones from the sacrifices. This place must have been a burial-place for the remains of the most important sacrifices, those carried out in the Holy of Holies.
As we stand here, to our right there is another entrance to this chamber. It seems, however, that this entrance was rarely, if ever, used. It is blocked by a flat monolith slab, held in place by two pillar-stones stuck in the ground. So it will have been rather difficult to remove this slab, which is now so much eroded that a modern wall of stone bricks has been built just beyond it to fill the gap and protect it.
During an excavation conducted by Sir Temi Zammit, a flint chisel the size of half the palm of the hand was unearthed from the floor of this chapel, just outside the window, and just where we are standing now.
We leave the Holy of Holies and return to Room B, the Main Chapel, to give it another searching look before we proceed further. The corbelling stones in the distance suggest that the place had a roof. If it was not totally roofed, surely most of it must have been. How they achieved this, is both curious and very interesting.
As explained above, the semi-circular apses were roofed by the corbelling method. When they arrived at the height of the recess in the highest stone in the temple - in the outside wall of the acoustic circle, they laid a wooden beam across the remaining opening, which was then covered with thin stone slabs, similar to those of the acoustic circle, but perhaps a little thicker. But no wood was found in any of the megalithic ruins above ground. This is just because the wood had all already been carried away by a huge watery wave.
For roofing the straight walls they had a different method. This is exemplified by the two doorways just opposite each other in the Main Chapel. The figure of the roofed doorway illustrates this method well (Pic.1 and Pic.24).
Stone-blocks A are tall blocks put upright in opposite walls just facing one another. The top, protruding further out than the base, leaves a narrower gap. On top of these, blocks B are put with less than half of them projecting out. Resting on top of these, a block C would close the gap - and the arch is complete. Other stones D would make the top level and ready for further roofing. This is Professor Ugolini's opinion.
Protruding blocks (type A) or rather their lower parts (their top portions had been cut off prior to their excavation) are found in all chapels. This chapel, though the main and longest one, boasts only two pairs, and the other chapels, although smaller, also possess two, though some of these are now almost unrecognisable. There is only one surviving relic of block B, and it could be seen in Room F, to the left as one enters this from the Main Chapel.
With these arches standing, the builders had only to cover the intervening spaces, where desirable, in order to provide a roof. And certainly they didn't roof in all of the temple; they needed to have an outlet through which the sacrificial smoke could escape.
As we continue down the chapel, we see three roofed areas in the form of a dolmen. One just opposite to the two table-altars, and the other two further down the chapel and just opposite one another. Their horizontal roofing-slabs are supported by modern stone pillars, as they were broken when the roof-blocks fell on top of them during the destruction of the temple. This part of the chapel was not roofed, because of the sacrificial fires, and so they had made these recesses as a shelter from the weather.
At the end of the Main Chapel we come to a flight of three steps, two of them made of modern cut-stone, leading to another chapel at a higher level. During the excavations and works of the 1950's these modern steps were put here instead of four original ones. The second and fourth step were about 6' long and 1' wide, and the third one was 8' long and 2½' wide, while the first one was 2' long and 1' wide. It was a pleasure to look at and to climb this flight of steps, and it is a great pity that, instead of replacing them securely, as had been the original purpose in moving them, they were, on superior orders, cut up into small blocks and removed from the temple. My father felt very, very sorry, indeed, when he saw these orders being carried out.
When these steps were removed to be re-constructed, three statuettes made of Globigerina Limestone, a soft building-stone, were discovered nearby under the big slab that formed the pavement under the entrance to the high chapel (Pic.14). As explained above, these steps are three of a set of seven that were used previously in the old temple, prior to that ancient people's discovery of flint-tools. Just between the bottom step and the wall on the right, just by the wall, usually stood the column-chalice now placed inside the Holy of Holies. It used to be here, because it was found here, where those people had left it, near the place of burial of the corresponding statues (Pic.34).
The fact that these statuettes were hidden or buried under original stone blocks shows that they were placed there purposely by those Neolithic people who built the pavement and the steps. This means that the soft-stone statuettes were at some time discarded during the building of the Main Temple. It appears to be so, because THREE of them were "buried" under ONE pavement near a flight of FOUR steps inside ONE Main Chapel, while TWO others were "buried" facing the inside of ONE thick rubble wall on the outside of Room F, facing the totally destroyed western wall. More about them, when we come to them.
Ascending the two modern steps, we walk through a well shaped entrance into a chapel with one rounded side or apse, on the right, because this room is cut short on the left by the wall of the left apse of Chapel A.
Just facing our entrance is a port-hole doorway which leads to a small chamber cut at a lower level. This smaller chamber was filled with broken pottery, ashes and animal bones. It must have been a refuse-place, where they threw all the sacred remains from the temple. The floor of this chapel at a higher level had been burnt all over by various sacrificial fires. No trace of those fires is now left, because the earth has been dug up several times during different excavations. The fact that it is packed tightly with filling has enticed archæologists to try and discover what is buried inside this filling, but nothing of value has ever been found, save for a few small bits of potsherds. At the bottom of the apse stands a menhir.
There are two pairs of bases for arches situated one on each side of the doorway and of the refuse-place. They are not very high, as they were cut short by earlier farmers but, at some two feet above ground, they have small rope-holes to tie some rope across the chapel. These small rope-holes were cut in the pillar's inner corner. But the flanking slabs of the doorway possess big rope-holes cut vertically across the face of the stone. The two borings make the form of a semi-circle. It would be very difficult in modern times with all our sophisticated machinery to bore such a semi-circular hole. Everybody always used to wonder how they managed to do it. Then Professor Ugolini solved this puzzle for us. He told my father that those people took the horn of a bull and cut off enough of its pointed tip for a hole to appear in the middle. Then into this hole they stuck the pointed back part of a flint chisel. In the big hole they stuck a piece of a thick branch of any tree that would fit. In this way they could hammer and bore as much as they liked. The horn of a bull does fit exactly inside any one of these large rope-holes.
Before we leave this chamber, I wish to ask a question. Why on earth did those people take the trouble of filling up this chamber to a height of about three feet, when the ground is everywhere level? There must be a good answer, because those people were no fools. They didn't undertake hard work for nothing. They certainly had some good reason.
When one looks out through this entrance, one sees the top of a high hill, almost the highest in Malta, just to the front. On the top of that hill, just in line with the centre-line of this entrance, the Sun sets at the Summer Solstice (Pic.29). As they wanted to watch that setting through this entrance, and as in between there was the roof of Room 1, they had to make this floor that much higher in order to be able to see the Sun over the roof. So, from this entrance they could watch the setting of the Sun at the Summer Solstice, while from the back they could watch the rising of the Sun at the Winter Solstice. There was an opening at the back of the refuse-place about 6 feet from the bottom, but it was blocked during the 1960's and the outside wall reconstructed. The stone in the outside wall in the front of the temple shows that it served as a base for a window (Pic.7). Its top edge is slanting outwards at an angle of about 45º, so that with the stone on top of it, even without any projection outside the line of the wall, any rain-water would not go inside the wall. This is ample proof that there was an opening or window at the back of this chapel, from where during the Winter Solstice one could watch and see the Sun rising over the low horizon that was, at that time, not covered by the sea.
Leaving this chapel, we go down the three steps, and turn left through a narrow gap in the wall. This opening was originally closed, but it was left open by modern people because the slab that used to block it would not stay safely in place, probably being no more than a fragment of an earlier and much bigger one. So they left it out, leaving this gap though which we may pass through to the next chamber.
Around this chamber at about three feet from the ground one could count SEVEN rope-holes, but only five of these remain somewhat preserved. A sixth was at the far corner of the second stone on the right of this gap. Today only a small curve remains, but in the 1930's it was still almost whole. There was another rope-hole, now also all worn out, in a stone that was instead of the first low stone now in the wall on the right. My father remembers it, as I remember the other one just mentioned. This stone was so worn out that it was taken away, and another good one was put in its place. The other five may be seen in the rest of the wall around this chamber.
All these rope-holes suggest that this chamber was used as a stable or, better, as the place where they always kept Seven animals ready to be sacrificed in front of the Seven Statuettes. As explained above, this chamber had no direct connection with the rest of the temple, quite naturally, to avoid spreading any smell produced by the animals. As we see, the entrance to this chamber was on the outside, facing the Southwest. It has been almost completely destroyed. Only on the left side is there anything left. Any access from this chamber into the temple was through the next chamber we shall visit.
Now, let us have a look at the large blocks occupying the ground-space of this chamber. Three large blocks are lying close to the walls, and three others are grouped together in the middle. Some blocks in the middle have sides that were much eroded in the past, while at present they are not eroding. They could not have eroded while they were covered with debris. So, they must have been in the outside western wall before its destruction, and they eroded because they had eroding stone near them. They couldn't have eroded if they had been where they are now, when the place was roofed over, and bearing in mind that this room still has two pairs of bases for arches. This proves that it was roofed. Luckily, also, here is a Block B that rested on top of the pillars for the arches. It is on the left as we enter from the Main Chapel. The top stone should really project further out, but then it would be in a dangerous position without any other support.
A thing that gives rise to controversy and curiosity was discovered in this chamber in the space between the biggest stone and the South or left wall of the chamber. This object is the skull of a human being (Pic.41).
[This human skull is mentioned and pictured by the Maltese historian Dr. Cesare Vassallo in his book Dei Monumenti Antichi Del Gruppo di Malta - Cenni Storici: Periodo Fenicio ed Egizio (2nda edizione riveduta ed accresciuta, Malta, stamperia del governo, 1876);] it used to be on permanent exhibition alongside the other remains from ĦaÄ¡ar Qim in the first room of the Archæological Museum in Valletta, when it was housed at the Auberge d'Italie in Merchants Street. Yet, as far as I know and even taking into account all that my father has told me, when this skull was exhibited at the Auberge d'Italie, its lower jaw was already missing.
Photography was not yet in common use at the time of its discovery, but it happened that a very interested and meticulous painter took the trouble to make lithograph pictures of the important discoveries at Ħaġar Qim. This painter was one of two painters, the brothers Schranz, who made perfect images of their findings in such a meticulous way that one would think that they were actual photographs, something that wasn't practical at the time of their discovery, when the brothers Schranz made their pictures.
From the Schranz picture it is quite clear that when the skull was discovered it was complete with its lower jaw, [and Doctor Cesare Vassallo, too, had clearly regarded it as unusually important and significant, since in his above mentioned book (p.29) he wrote: "Non è a preterire il Teschio umano dissotterrato negli scavi di questo tempio (ĦaÄ¡ar Qim), e che si conserva di presente nel Museo della Biblioteca."] Unfortunately, however, when this skull came into Temi Zammit's hands during his organization of the Archæological Museum of Malta, its lower jaw was, as I have said, already "lost"…
The form of this skull is not a very common one, and seems to be of some very peculiar [yet clearly human] race that lived before the Flood. It is a great pity it has been now put away in some out of the way place or even, perhaps, destroyed by enemy action, which twice hit the Museum during the 1940-45 War.
The skull is of the Dolichocephalic or Long-headed type. It is not of the same type as those found at the Hypogeum [cf. T. Zammit & others, Human skulls at Ħal-Saflieni report]. Neither is it like the Borreby Skull (Pic.42) from Denmark that is said to belong to the Stone-Age. Though the negro skull is said to belong to the Dolichocephalic type, it does not resemble the Ħaġar Qim skull. [Neither, of course, does this very ancient one of a hominid, only recently found.]
Yet this Ħaġar Qim skull is very similar in its characteristics to the Proto-Semitic Head (Pic.41 A) with its elongated head, the slanting face and the receding chin. So, the Ħaġar Qim skull is a very good specimen of the Original Semitic Race, and it is a real great pity that this skull has been lost, and that the only image we now have of this special skull is that recorded for us only thanks to the meticulous painters Schranz.
The curious thing is that no other bones pertaining to the rest of the human skeleton were to be found either here or, for that matter, in any other part of Malta's above-ground Megalithic ruins. The only exception is at Mnajdra, where there was found the complete skeleton of a baby inside a small cabin with a kind of small bed of stone, supported on a stone pillar to reduce the ambient humidity (Pic.43).
How could it happen, one may ask, that while this now lost adult-skull rested here, the rest of the body went elsewhere. Only one hypothesis offers a probable explanation. This is that, during the rush of the enormous wave this particular human being, who had been standing just in front of this entrance, was smitten with terrific force and impacted against this wall, where his head was caught under or between some stones, while his body was severed by the force of the on-rushing water and carried swiftly away. The bones of the baby meanwhile sleeping at Mnajdra were not carried away, because they were in that baby's "bedroom", a kind of small stone cavern, well sheltered from the rush of water from the West (Pic.43).
We now approach the entrance to this chamber, where we see two separate, comparatively small blocks with a deep round hole dug in each. These are the first such holes we have come across, because this is the first secondary entrance we have seen. We shall encounter similar holes in front of other doors, but they are bored in the threshold block itself and are not separated and movable like these ones.
Looking observantly at these holes one will notice that besides being round, they show that there must at some time have been some sort of pole turning inside them. From other holes to be seen elsewhere we can deduce that these were used as sockets for the poles on which a door could be made to swing. One of these holes still has a bottom and holds rain-water, but the other has its bottom broken. We shall see how they worked, when we are near some better constructed doorways.
Leaving this chamber through a single-flanked doorway and turning right, we stop to examine the low outside wall of the stable from without. In one of the stones we see two pairs of feet and also a pair of extremely fat legs (Pic.12). Unfortunately, the upper part of these statuettes has been truncated by some early farmer, before this place was excavated. Between the two statues one can still see the mark of the big chisel used to cut it off. These two statues are part of the old, discarded set of seven that were buried when the new and better set was made. These statues could not be seen at all when the temple was still standing, because they faced the inside of the western wall, which was filled with rubble, as is still the case in the walls to the East that are still erect. So these statues had been buried, and were invisible.
Moving about 12 feet further to our left, we come to the outside of the wall of the next chamber, H. On a tall narrow stone one could make out with difficulty the figure of a standing animal with a much eroded round face about 10" in diameter, with a hollow in the middle for a mouth. It also conveys a vague impression of ears and horns. The belly is thin, with a hole about 1" in diameter for the umbilicus, and then, further down, a pair of straight, thin legs, like those of a goat and ending in goat-like hooves. This is a very ugly figure, and its characteristics hint at an image of Bazuzu, an ancient devil-god (Pic.13).
Some significance, clearly, must have attached to making such an image of the devil in the shape of a thin goat balancing on its hind legs in contrast to those people's extremely fat-muscled gods. This image of the devil was buried inside the filling of the rubble wall, making it impossible for it to receive any homage at all. [Editor's note: Although often regarded as an evil underworld demon, the first-millennium B.C. Assyrian and Babylonian god Pazuzu seems to have a played a beneficient rôle as a protector against pestilential winds, especially the west wind, and perhaps he was placed in this wall to strengthen it. It is noteworthy that his statue, if that is what it is, still stands!] It is a wonder how those people already knew that the devil sometimes assumes this shape. The more recent ancient Babylonians also represented Bazuzu like this. Presumably they must have seen this figure at some time. Otherwise, why would both peoples have modelled such a figure?
Before entering into Room H, let us have a look at what was once the Western Wall. The place where we are now standing was at one time inside the western wall itself, just in the place where the rubble filling had once been. But, as said above when explaining the Flood, this wall had to bear the brunt of the full force of the wave of the Flood that came from the West. That is why this wall has disappeared. The huge blocks which were always used for the outside wall were lifted up, and thrown inside the temple. Of this wall only the shoring-blocks on the ground are left to be seen. Most of the big blocks were carried away, and what was not carried away was left exposed to the wind and rain, the elements and human vandalism and wanton destruction. That is why very little is left of this wall for us to see…
One must also keep in mind that the statues we have just seen, both that of the two fat-legged gods and that of the thin goat-like figure, would not have been visible when the western wall and the temple were still standing, as these statues were placed facing the inside of the wall.
The entrance to the next chapel, like the rest of the western wall, was totally destroyed, and the passage through which we now pass was reconstructed during works carried out in the 1950's. The large blocks that once formed the doorway of this chamber are today piled up on top of each other at its other end, almost blocking the passage to the Main Chapel. Let us go to the other side to examine these blocks in detail. These huge blocks, each weighing several tons, have been thrown into their present position by the diluvial wave that came from the West during the cataclysm, and it is quite clear that none of the other elements, wind, rain or even earthquake, however strong, could fling such large blocks of stone for a distance well in excess of 20 feet (Pic.32).
Looking closely at the stones, one finds that some of them, resting on each other, are also now joined together with petrified mortar or cement. This simple fact implies quite a number of related facts. Firstly, those people had mortar with which to cover up cracks or unwanted hollows in their walls. Secondly, and more importantly, the petrification of this mortar proves that this temple was destroyed when it was completely under water, because if these stones had fallen down under dry conditions, the mortar would have crumbled to dust and would have remained dust, without its ever solidifying again. This fact is undeniable proof that Ħaġar Qim and its contemporaneous buildings were destroyed by the waters of the Great Flood. There was so much mortar that some of it, when melted, deposited itself on the sides of the stones and then petrified itself, as if forming an integral part of the stone surface. One needs to examine the stone quite carefully in order to distinguish between what is mortar and what is original stone.
When one looks at the floor where the two chapels meet, one finds that the floors, which are at the same level, are separated by a one-stone ridge, about 1' high and 9" wide. When entering Room A at the main entrance, I noted that there are clear indications that such a ridge existed at the entrance from the main doorway into Room A.
Retracing our steps across this chapel, we notice the two pairs of roofing pillars with a rope-hole in each. This feature is common to all the chambers.
At the foot of the walls of this chapel runs a row of low stones that may have served as seats. In some places these stones are missing, especially close by the southern wall, part of which is also missing. Whenever an animal was being taken from the stable to be sacrificed inside the temple, it had to pass through this chamber. The seats may indicate that while passing through this chamber the priests stopped to perform some kind of ceremony that required enough time for the participants to feel a need to sit down. Such a ceremony may have included cleaning and anointing the animal, or tying it in some way, in preparation for killing and burning it in front of the altars of the gods inside the other chapels.
The formation of the present entrance to this chapel is not the original one, which was totally destroyed. This reconstruction dates back only to the late 1950's, when various restoration works were undertaken here.
Leaving this chapel by the same entrance through which we came in, we turn right, and skirt the outer wall with its horizontal base-stone in a very advanced stage of erosion. This betrays the fact that these stones have been exposed to the weather for a much longer time, because, as the rush of the water came from the West, this western part was not silted up, and these stones were left for thousands of years to the mercy of the weather.
Also, the very existence of these shoring-blocks shows that there here used to stand large and high stone-blocks that needed to be shored up, blocks such as are found round all the remaining walls of the temple. But only this western wall was completely destroyed, because the wave came from the West.
Now we come to the seventh and last chapel of the main temple. Its entrance is elevated and formed by well set blocks that have been truncated by modern tools. In front of this gateway a pair of round holes has been dug in the solid rock to support the pivots of a door. As usual, these holes are positioned one in the centre and the other to one side. We enter this chapel, and find ourselves facing two altars, the flanks of which are well decorated with pitting. So this must have been a very important holy place.
The floor here is rough and marked by fire, showing that sacrifices were offered in front of these altars. On top of this floor there was another layer of earth, which was also burnt. This second layer, which was dug up during the 1910 excavation by Sir Temi Zammit, shows that this chapel was built before the rest of the temple. Then, when the rest of the temple was completed, this chapel was given a second layer of flooring.
Almost in the middle of the wall of the left apse, adjacent to the rest of the temple, there is a hole or opening at floor-level about 2' high and 1½' wide through which a small child could creep. This opening existed throughout the time of my father's taking care of this temple. Somebody has now taken one of the slabs that formed part of this opening, and turned it upside down.
When this chapel was built, it most probably was the first oval of a regular temple made of two oval chambers joined together by a small passage between the two altars. Then this temple unit had to have a women's chapel. This opening must have been the women's Acoustic Hole for this temple.
The truncated stone pillars on each side of the doorway and on the outwards sides of the altars formed the bases for the arches of the roof, thus showing that this chapel was roofed. Upon close inspection one finds that the door of this chapel faces directly North. As I explained at the beginning, this temple was built with the entrances arranged in accordance with some specific calendric orientations. Now the North direction is of no special importance, but the opposite bearing is the point that marks the position of the mid-day Sun. However, one cannot make a doorway marking the position of the Sun at mid-day, since the Sun is at that time high up in the sky. So, one has to observe that position through a hole in the roof. That is most probably what those people did. With a hole in the roof, they could observe the position of the Sun at mid-day and, in particular, also take note of it midday-positions on the longest and shortest days of the year. Let's not imagine that those "primitive" people couldn't do it. We have already seen that they knew a great deal about calendric orientations, so we cannot now even suspect that a simple orientation of this kind was an impossibility for them. Certainly, in comparison with the other complicated orientations they achieved, this particular arrangement will not have proved difficult at all.
We leave this chamber, and walk to the right, skirting the outside wall. After a few steps we face a large open doorway, the other end of which we have already viewed from inside the Main Chapel. So, instead of entering it, we look right to see the blocked entrance to the Holy of Holies. The threshold of this doorway also boasts a pair of cylindrical yet somewhat conical holes, one in the middle and the other on one side of the doorway.
Why they did it this way instead of putting a hole on each flank is rather curious. Perhaps they still found it difficult to fasten or lock their doors in the middle, where there would then have been nothing solid for them to fasten their doors to.
In making their doors to shut the secondary entrances of the temple, they made two holes in the lintel exactly perpendicular above the ones in the threshold. Such a lintel is to be found just lying on the floor of the first chapel of the lower temple of Mnajdra. A straight wooden trunk would be put through these holes, the bottom one serving as a pivot in which it could turn. A little fat from the animals they had killed for either food or sacrifice would be used to lubricate the joint. In conjunction with these rotating posts they constructed some kind of flap, either one made completely of wood or else a wooden frame with dried hide stretched across it (Pic.6). This doorway is the best preserved of all the secondary entrances. That is why I left their description until we reached this place. If one looks at the upright flanks of this doorway, one notices at the top a hollow recess where the lintel used to fit.
Crossing in front of the back door we continue our way, skirting the outside wall. Here we can see the type and size of stone used in constructing the surrounding outside wall. Huge stone slabs are fitted edge to edge. Consider for a moment what force it must have taken to dislodge such huge blocks and hurl them twenty feet away and more. The western wall was made of blocks such as these.
Here we are in view of the highest stone in all the ruins (Pic.10). It is 17 feet high. At its base it has a cavity which, although it looks almost natural, was placed there deliberately and for a purpose. All the other huge stones have a similar cavity, but not all of them have their bases visible; besides, this is the first instance we have met in this outside wall. We shall see several of these recesses in the surrounding wall. These cavities were cut when this block was still in its original place in the quarry. They cut that recess so that they could stick a wooden pole in it, and then they used that pole as a lever to dislodge, move and erect this stone in its final position.
But what recess are you talking about, you may ask me, because we can't see any recess at the bottom at all. That is true now, but before the 1950's this shoring-block was still some 3 feet away from its proper position and the cavity in it could then be clearly seen (Pic.10). How did this shoring-block move out about 3 feet away from the wall? If one looks at the highest stone on its right side, where it touches the other blocks, one gets an answer. There is a space of more than 9 inches between this highest stone and its right-hand neighbour. When the wave came with such tremendous speed from the West, it hit this stone with such force that it dislodged the stone with such a kick that its base threw out its shoring-block this distance of 3 feet. That force from the West was so great that, were it not for the blocks on its left touching its middle portion, this highest stone would itself have been thrown down to the ground.
At the top of this column of stone there is an artificial basin or trough about 8 inches deep and leaving a ridge about 2 inches wide all round. This trough has the characteristics of having being cut by modern tools. During the rainy season it retains the water that drops into it. It is said that during the last century, and even before that, this drinking-trough was used as a bait with which to attract and catch black crows, which were at that time very common in Malta, and which the farmers considered to be something of a pest.
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