{"it":{"id":"MAL-TEM","kind":"site","sub":"Europe and the Mediterranean","name":"Megalithic Temples of Malta (Ġgantija etc.)","place":"Malta","lat":36.047,"lon":14.269,"date":"c. 3600-2500 BCE","mat":"Coralline & globigerina limestone","nfacts":31,"tags":["Europe","Megaliths","Temples"],"sum":"On Malta and Gozo, Neolithic farmers built free-standing stone temples in three phases, from about 3600 BCE (UNESCO). Until Göbekli Tepe was dated, they were often called the oldest free-standing buildings on Earth.\n\nThey were raised from local limestone, and the culture lasted until about 2500 BCE.","why":"Malta's temples are among the oldest monumental buildings by farmers anywhere, and they grew from a tradition found nowhere else.","src":[268,542],"nsrc":11,"yt":"What makes a temple-building culture disappear?","rel":["GOB-TEP","NEW-NEW"],"hook":"Malta's first Ġgantija temple went up about 3600 BCE. A giantess built it, Gozo's folklore says."},"S":{"268":["Wikipedia: Megalithic Temples of Malta","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta"],"542":["UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Megalithic Temples of Malta","https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/132/"]},"rec":{"id":"MAL-TEM","alias":[],"ms":[{"f":"Maltese temples","a":"dating (as stated)","v":"radiocarbon favoured Żammit's dating","u":"","o":"REF18 However, radiocarbon testing favoured Żammit's dating.","unc":"","by":"per cited source","yr":"","m":"documentary: auto-extracted sentence","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta&oldid=1374148370","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1374148370 (tertiary)","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"W8 review: INTERPRETATION, no value","id":"M1648"},{"f":"Maltese temple plan","a":"overall length (minimum, Mnajdra east)","v":"6.5","u":"m","o":"REF35 With the standard temple plan, found in some thirty temples across the islands, there is a certain amount of variation both in the number of apses, and in the overall length—ranging from 6.5m in the Mnajdra east temple to 23m in the six-apsed Tarxien central temple.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta&oldid=1374148370","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1374148370 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"W8 review:","id":"M1649"},{"f":"Maltese temple plan","a":"overall length (maximum)","v":"23","u":"m","o":"REF35 With the standard temple plan, found in some thirty temples across the islands, there is a certain amount of variation both in the number of apses, and in the overall length—ranging from 6.5m in the Mnajdra east temple to 23m in the six-apsed Tarxien central temple.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta&oldid=1374148370","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1374148370 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"W8 review:","id":"M1650"},{"f":"Maltese temples (charcoal)","a":"dating (radiocarbon, as stated)","v":"4850 BC","u":"","o":"REF55 The charcoal fragments were then radiocarbon dated, and their age analysis stood at 4850 BC.","unc":"","by":"per cited source","yr":"","m":"documentary: auto-extracted sentence","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta&oldid=1374148370","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1374148370 (tertiary)","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"W8 review: context unspecified; no lab id","id":"M1651"},{"f":"Mnajdra","a":"distance from Ħaġar Qim","v":"500","u":"m","o":"L-Imnajdra temples lies in a hollow 500 metres from Ħaġar Qim.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta&oldid=1374148370","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1374148370 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"W8 review:","id":"M1652"},{"f":"Tarxien","a":"distance from Ħal-Saflieni","v":"400","u":"m","o":"The Tarxien temple complex is found some 400 metres to the east of the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta&oldid=1374148370","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1374148370 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"W8 review:","id":"M1653"},{"f":"Mnajdra I (Early Tarxien)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"92.7","u":"deg","o":"92.7 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt 3.7 deg, lat 35.8, declination -0.1 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2567"},{"f":"Ggantija I (Ggantija)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"125.5","u":"deg","o":"125.5 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt 1.0 deg, lat 36.1, declination -27.6 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2568"},{"f":"Hagar Qim I (Ggantija)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"129.0","u":"deg","o":"129.0 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt -0.4 deg, lat 35.8, declination -31.4 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2569"},{"f":"Ta' Hagrat (Ggantija)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"131.0","u":"deg","o":"131.0 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt 3.4 deg, lat 35.9, declination -29.9 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2570"},{"f":"Ggantija II (Ggantija)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"134.5","u":"deg","o":"134.5 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt 1.0 deg, lat 36.1, declination -34.1 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2571"},{"f":"Skorba I (Ggantija)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"138.0c","u":"deg","o":"138.0c deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt 2.3 deg, lat 35.9, declination -35.5 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2572"},{"f":"Mnajdra II (Tarxien)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"138.5","u":"deg","o":"138.5 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt -0.3 deg, lat 35.8, declination -38.1 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2573"},{"f":"Kordin (Ggantija)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"149.6","u":"deg","o":"149.6 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt 0.7 deg, lat 35.9, declination -44.1 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2574"},{"f":"Skorba II (Ggantija)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"168.5","u":"deg","o":"168.5 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt 2.5 deg, lat 35.9, declination -50.4 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2575"},{"f":"Tarxien IV (Ggantija)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"168.5","u":"deg","o":"168.5 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt 0.6 deg, lat 35.9, declination -52.4 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2576"},{"f":"Hagar Qim II (Tarxien)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"186.0","u":"deg","o":"186.0 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt -0.4 deg, lat 35.8, declination -54.8 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2577"},{"f":"Bugibba (Tarxien)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"193.5","u":"deg","o":"193.5 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt 1.3 deg, lat 36.0, declination -51.0 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2578"},{"f":"Tarxien III (Early Tarxien)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"198.0","u":"deg","o":"198.0 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt 0.7 deg, lat 35.9, declination -50.2 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2579"},{"f":"Tarxien I (Early Tarxien)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"201.0","u":"deg","o":"201.0 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt 0.7 deg, lat 35.9, declination -48.9 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2580"},{"f":"Mnajdra III (Ggantija)","a":"orientation (principal axis azimuth)","v":"204.0","u":"deg","o":"204.0 deg","unc":"","by":"Hoskin (with Ventura, Foderà Serio)","yr":"1990s","m":"magnetic compass corrected for variation; clinometer for altitude","c":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","pg":"","url":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"horizon alt -0.3 deg, lat 35.8, declination -48.6 deg (Ruggles program). Ventura & Hoskin: SE-SSW range except Mnajdra S facing E","id":"M2581"},{"f":"Globigerina Limestone (Lower)","a":"calcite content","v":">92","u":"%","o":"","unc":"","by":"Cassar & Vannucci 2003 (Malta Archaeological Review 5)","yr":"2003","m":"petrographic and chemical lab analysis","c":"Cassar & Vannucci 2003 (Malta Archaeological Review 5)","pg":"abstract","url":"https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/8046","b":"S","bb":"one lab team; full text restricted","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"accessories: quartz, feldspar, apatite, glauconite, clays (Globigerina); quartz, K-feldspar, clays (Coralline)","id":"M2609"},{"f":"Globigerina Limestone (Lower)","a":"porosity","v":">32","u":"%","o":"","unc":"","by":"Cassar & Vannucci 2003 (Malta Archaeological Review 5)","yr":"2003","m":"petrographic and chemical lab analysis","c":"Cassar & Vannucci 2003 (Malta Archaeological Review 5)","pg":"abstract","url":"https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/8046","b":"S","bb":"one lab team; full text restricted","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"accessories: quartz, feldspar, apatite, glauconite, clays (Globigerina); quartz, K-feldspar, clays (Coralline)","id":"M2610"},{"f":"Coralline Limestone","a":"calcite content","v":">95","u":"%","o":"","unc":"","by":"Cassar & Vannucci 2003 (Malta Archaeological Review 5)","yr":"2003","m":"petrographic and chemical lab analysis","c":"Cassar & Vannucci 2003 (Malta Archaeological Review 5)","pg":"abstract","url":"https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/8046","b":"S","bb":"one lab team; full text restricted","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"accessories: quartz, feldspar, apatite, glauconite, clays (Globigerina); quartz, K-feldspar, clays (Coralline)","id":"M2611"},{"f":"Coralline Limestone","a":"porosity","v":"15-18","u":"%","o":"","unc":"","by":"Cassar & Vannucci 2003 (Malta Archaeological Review 5)","yr":"2003","m":"petrographic and chemical lab analysis","c":"Cassar & Vannucci 2003 (Malta Archaeological Review 5)","pg":"abstract","url":"https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/8046","b":"S","bb":"one lab team; full text restricted","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"accessories: quartz, feldspar, apatite, glauconite, clays (Globigerina); quartz, K-feldspar, clays (Coralline)","id":"M2612"},{"f":"Hagar Qim and Tarxien","a":"construction stone","v":"entirely Globigerina Limestone","u":"material","o":"","unc":"","by":"Cassar (Heritage Malta), \"Malta's prehistoric temples\" (STONE)","yr":"","m":"field/lab study 1985-1992","c":"Cassar (Heritage Malta), \"Malta's prehistoric temples\" (STONE)","pg":"p.3","url":"https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/12218/1/Maltas%20prehistoric%20temples.pdf","b":"S","bb":"same author group as Cassar & Vannucci","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"Ggantija: mostly Coralline, very little Globigerina; Mnajdra: Coralline outer walls, Globigerina inner","id":"M2613"},{"f":"Ġgantija boundary wall megaliths","a":"length (largest, minimum)","v":">5","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Heritage Malta","yr":"2008","m":"as stated","c":"Heritage Malta","pg":"","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20080602171321/http:/www.heritagemalta.org/ggantija.html ; https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/ggantija-temples","b":"S","bb":"Heritage Malta text; Google Arts page is a Heritage Malta partner page (same lineage)","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"\"some of the megaliths exceeding five metres in length\"","id":"M2614"},{"f":"Ġgantija boundary wall megaliths","a":"mass (largest, minimum)","v":">50","u":"t","o":"","unc":"","by":"Heritage Malta","yr":"2008","m":"as stated","c":"Heritage Malta","pg":"","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20080602171321/http:/www.heritagemalta.org/ggantija.html ; https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/ggantija-temples","b":"S","bb":"Heritage Malta text; same lineage as Google Arts","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"\"weighing over fifty tons\"; stated, not weighed","id":"M2615"},{"f":"Ġgantija largest megalith (north temple outer wall)","a":"dimensions","v":"6 x 4","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Lonely Planet","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"Lonely Planet","pg":"","url":"https://www.lonelyplanet.com/points-of-interest/ggantija-temples/1136293","b":"S","bb":"travel guide; no primary cited","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"kept separate from 5.7 x 3.8 m / ~50 t (odysseyadventures, not re-fetched) - they disagree","id":"M2616"},{"f":"Ġgantija largest megalith","a":"mass","v":"~57","u":"t","o":"","unc":"","by":"Lonely Planet","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"Lonely Planet","pg":"","url":"https://www.lonelyplanet.com/points-of-interest/ggantija-temples/1136293","b":"S","bb":"travel guide","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"consistent with Heritage Malta \">50 t\"","id":"M2617"},{"f":"Ġgantija surviving walls (facade, inner left apse)","a":"height","v":"~7","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Malta Parliament P.L. 2190 consultant structural report","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"Malta Parliament P.L. 2190 consultant structural report","pg":"","url":"https://www.parlament.mt/media/75923/02190a.pdf","b":"S","bb":"engineering consultant report tabled in parliament","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"\"of the order of 7m high\"","id":"M2618"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"The external walls were usually built of coralline limestone, which is harder than the globigerina limestone used in the internal sections of the temples.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta&oldid=1374148370"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"The external walls were usually built of coralline limestone, which is harder than the globigerina limestone used in the internal sections of the temples.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta&oldid=1374148370"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"The external walls were usually built of coralline limestone, which is harder than the globigerina limestone used in the internal sections of the temples.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta&oldid=1374148370"}],"eng":[],"ori":[{"k":"solar","v":"Mnajdra lower temple equinox/solstice light effects","by":"local studies (via Wikipedia)","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta","n":"","t":"INTERPRETATION"},{"k":"Azimuth","v":"Ġgantija South: 129.47°, declination -30.99°","by":"Silva & Lomsdalen 2025, Archaeol Anthropol Sci 17:96, doi:10.1007/s12520-025-02208-4, Table 2 (azimuth = midpoint of min-max)","b":"S","url":"https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/40855/17/s12520-025-02208-4.pdf ; https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-025-02208-4","n":"Authors: Ġgantija-phase clustering at δ −33.7..−28.1 (Hadar/Gacrux) and −49..−47.5 (Avior); stellar/navigation and seasonal-light interpretation"},{"k":"Azimuth","v":"Ġgantija North: 132.12°, declination -32.91°","by":"Silva & Lomsdalen 2025, Archaeol Anthropol Sci 17:96, doi:10.1007/s12520-025-02208-4, Table 2 (azimuth = midpoint of min-max)","b":"S","url":"https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/40855/17/s12520-025-02208-4.pdf ; https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-025-02208-4","n":"Authors: Ġgantija-phase clustering at δ −33.7..−28.1 (Hadar/Gacrux) and −49..−47.5 (Avior); stellar/navigation and seasonal-light interpretation"}],"gaps":[{"a":"stone_count","r":"not found in free sources reached"},{"a":"slope_face_angle","r":"no published face/slope angle in sources reached (often n/a for non-pyramidal sites)"},{"a":"wall_batter","r":"no published batter survey in free sources"},{"a":"corner_precision","r":"no published precision survey in free sources"},{"a":"levelness","r":"no published levelling survey in free sources"},{"a":"quarry_source","r":"not found in free sources reached"},{"a":"mortar","r":"dry-stone construction or no binder analysis in free sources"},{"a":"tool_marks","r":"no tool-mark study in free sources reached"},{"a":"coords_elevation","r":"no elevation row yet"},{"a":"volume_labor","r":"no volume/labour estimate in sources opened"},{"a":"construction_phases","r":"no phase sequence in sources opened"},{"a":"hydrology_acoustics","r":"no published hydrology/acoustic measurement in sources opened"},{"a":"magnetic_radiation","r":"no published magnetic/radiation survey found (searched site name + magnetometry/radiation; Wikipedia, Google Scholar snippets)"},{"a":"metals_clamps","r":"no metal/clamp evidence reported in sources opened"},{"a":"excavation_history","r":"no excavation history row yet"},{"a":"artifacts_found","r":"no finds row yet"}],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA036","a":"built by giants","who":"Gozitan folklore (Sansuna); Hancock, Underworld (2002) [not opened]","main":"Neolithic builders, ~3600 BC+","ms":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%A0gantija","st":"contradicted","n":"14C and local limestone","nl":23}],"ac":[{"v":"temples built by giants (Ġgantija = \"place of giants\")","who":"Gozitan folklore (Sansuna); Hancock, Underworld (2002) [not opened]","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%A0gantija","b":"I","ce":"radiocarbon ~3600 BC; globigerina/coralline limestone local"}],"me":[{"v":"Neolithic farming communities","ev":"Wikipedia; Heritage Malta","s":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%A0gantija"}],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"sub":[],"site":{"age":"c. 3600-2500 BCE","dm":"Radiocarbon","lab":"mentions lab dating of associated material (not the stone itself)","weak":"date applies to the sampled organic/associated material, not the stone; association with construction is assumed","unesco":"","dens":"STUB"},"co":{"lat":"36.0473","lon":"14.269","src":"Wikidata P625 only + curated wave0 value agrees","agree":"agree (wave7 hand-review: OSM feature 'Ġgantija')","b":"V","note":"hand-reviewed: Wikidata vs OSM tourism/attraction delta 0.0001 deg (~0.01 km)","osm":"https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/29546608"},"src":[{"id":"S0335","t":"no inline ref in article","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta&oldid=1374148370"},{"id":"S0010","t":"Hoskin, Corpus Mensurarum ch.3 Table 3.1; JHA 23 (1992)","u":"http://www.shpltd.co.uk/Corpus%20Mensurarum.pdf"},{"id":null,"t":"Cassar & Vannucci 2003 (Malta Archaeological Review 5)","u":"https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/8046"},{"id":null,"t":"Cassar (Heritage Malta), \"Malta's prehistoric temples\" (STONE)","u":"https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/12218/1/Maltas%20prehistoric%20temples.pdf"},{"id":null,"t":"Heritage Malta","u":"https://web.archive.org/web/20080602171321/http:/www.heritagemalta.org/ggantija.html ; https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/ggantija-temples"},{"id":null,"t":"Lonely Planet","u":"https://www.lonelyplanet.com/points-of-interest/ggantija-temples/1136293"},{"id":null,"t":"Malta Parliament P.L. 2190 consultant structural report","u":"https://www.parlament.mt/media/75923/02190a.pdf"},{"id":"S0533","t":"local studies (via Wikipedia)","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta"},{"id":null,"t":"Silva & Lomsdalen 2025, Archaeol Anthropol Sci 17:96, doi:10.1007/s12520-025-02208-4, Table 2 (azimuth = midpoint of min-max)","u":"https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/40855/17/s12520-025-02208-4.pdf ; https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-025-02208-4"},{"id":"S0413","t":"","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%A0gantija"},{"id":"S2543","t":"UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Megalithic Temples of Malta","u":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/132/"},{"id":"VMAL-TEM-12","t":"Heritage Malta: A giant anniversary for UNESCO-listed temples","u":"https://heritagemalta.mt/news/a-giant-anniversary-for-unesco-listed-temples/"},{"id":"VMAL-TEM-13","t":"UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Göbekli Tepe","u":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1572/"},{"id":null,"t":"UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum” (list no. 130).","u":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/130/"},{"id":null,"t":"Heritage Malta, “Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum” (national heritage agency site page, consulted 31 Oct 2026).","u":"https://heritagemalta.mt/explore/hal-saflieni-hypogeum/"},{"id":null,"t":"Heritage Malta, “Ġgantija Archaeological Park” (consulted 31 Oct 2026).","u":"https://heritagemalta.mt/explore/ggantija-temples/"},{"id":null,"t":"Heritage Malta, “Ħal Tarxien Prehistoric Complex” (consulted 31 Oct 2026).","u":"https://heritagemalta.mt/explore/tarxien-temples/"},{"id":null,"t":"Heritage Malta, “Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra Archaeological Park” (consulted 31 Oct 2026).","u":"https://heritagemalta.mt/explore/hagar-qim-and-mnajdra-archaeological-park/"},{"id":null,"t":"Ariano, B. et al. 2022. Ancient Maltese genomes and the genetic geography of Neolithic Europe. Current Biology 32: 2668–2680. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.069 (PMC9245899).","u":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9245899/"},{"id":null,"t":"Schneider, U. Cart-Ruts: A Global Archaeological Mystery. Graham Hancock official website.","u":"https://grahamhancock.com/schneideru1/"},{"id":null,"t":"Reedijk, L. 2019. Sirius and the Maltese Temples: A Tale of Two Revelations. Graham Hancock official website, 6 Feb 2019, with reader comments.","u":"https://grahamhancock.com/reedijkl1/"},{"id":null,"t":"Hancock, G. 2002. Online Introduction to Underworld. Graham Hancock official website, 11 Feb 2002.","u":"https://grahamhancock.com/archive-underworld1/"},{"id":null,"t":"Wikipedia, “Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum” (consulted 31 Oct 2026). Used last, only where the sources above do not carry the point.","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%A6al_Saflieni_Hypogeum"}],"sum":"In 2022 a team of geneticists read the DNA of Neolithic farmers buried on Gozo, the smaller of the two main Maltese islands, and found something remarkable. Their genomes carried long stretches of identical DNA, the mark of a small community marrying within itself for generations. The researchers estimated an effective population of \"only hundreds\" and called it \"a striking illustration of maritime isolation.\" These were the people, or the descendants of the people, who raised some of the oldest free-standing stone buildings on Earth.\n\nThat is the puzzle of Malta in one sentence. A community small enough to know one another by name built about thirty stone temples across two islands, kept building them for more than a thousand years, and then stopped.\n\nThe Megalithic Temples of Malta are a family of prehistoric buildings scattered across Malta and Gozo, a pair of islands in the middle of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily. They went up in three phases, roughly between 3600 and 2500 BC, which makes the oldest of them older than Stonehenge. UNESCO listed the two temples of Ġgantija on Gozo as a World Heritage Site in 1980, then added five more in 1992: Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra, Ta' Ħaġrat, Skorba and Tarxien. It calls three of them \"unique architectural masterpieces, given the limited resources available to their builders.\" Until Göbekli Tepe in Turkey was dated, the Maltese temples were often called the oldest free-standing structures in the world.\n\nThey share a plan. An oval forecourt leads to a facade of huge slabs set on end. The doorway is two uprights with a massive lintel laid across the top. Inside, a paved passage opens onto pairs of rounded rooms that archaeologists call apses, like the lobes of a clover. A temple might have three, four, five or six of them. The smallest, the eastern temple at Mnajdra, is about 6.5 metres long, roughly the length of a small bus; the central temple at Tarxien runs to 23 metres.\n\nThe builders understood their stone. Malta has two main kinds of limestone. Coralline limestone is hard, more than 95 percent calcite, with only 15 to 18 percent of its volume taken up by pores. Globigerina limestone is softer and far more porous, with pore space above 32 percent, which makes it easy to carve and quick to weather. So the outer walls, which faced rain and wind, were usually made of the hard coralline, and the soft globigerina was kept for doorways, altars and the decorated slabs inside. One Heritage Malta account says Ħaġar Qim and Tarxien break the rule and are built entirely of globigerina. The carving shows spirals, trees, plants and animals; at Tarxien there are goats, bulls, pigs and a ram, and two bulls and a sow walk across one wall in low relief. Traces of plaster still cling between the blocks at Ġgantija, and two fragments carry red ochre, a sign that the inside walls were once painted.\n\nHeritage Malta reports that the largest megaliths in Ġgantija's boundary wall are more than 5 metres long and weigh more than 50 tonnes. One figure for the biggest block in the outer wall of the north temple gives about 6 by 4 metres and some 57 tonnes, around the weight of eight or nine large elephants. The people who cut the nearby Hypogeum worked with tools of antler, flint, chert and obsidian, and on the genetic evidence there was no great reservoir of labour to call on.\n\nThe record of how these buildings were rediscovered is also a record of how much has been lost. At Ġgantija the site was cleared of debris in 1827, and the soil and remains were thrown away without proper examination. Other temples were dug and then buried again, some were destroyed, and a few, such as Ta' Marżiena, have never been excavated at all. Even the dates were once a fight. Sir Temi Żammit, the leading Maltese archaeologist of his day, dated the temples to 2800 BC, and other scholars called his dates \"considerably too high.\" Radiocarbon later showed that Żammit had not gone too far at all. That finding sank an older theory that the temple art had come from an Aegean culture, because the Maltese buildings turned out to be older than the supposed source.\n\nThe mainstream account is coherent, and it is told well. Farmers reached the islands in the Neolithic and their first settlements date to the sixth millennium BC. At Skorba a village stood for roughly twelve centuries before any temple was built, and charcoal from its earliest layer was radiocarbon dated to 4850 BC. Cut off by the sea, the population stayed small. Archaeologists see the temples as homegrown, growing out of \"local innovations in a process of cultural evolution.\" Heritage Malta adds that the tradition does not seem to have been influenced by anything beyond the islands. Its curator Daphne Sant Caruana points out that the temples were once roofed, so the interiors would have felt nothing like the open ruins of today, and she describes them as ritual places, perhaps for rites tied to farming and the seasons.\n\nRead for motive, the story becomes sharper. A community of a few hundred people that spends generations dragging 50-tonne blocks is not building shelter. It is building belonging. Every family that hauled a slab owned a piece of the result, and whoever decided where the next apse would go held a kind of authority that no field or flock could give. Thirty temples on two small islands may suggest rival centres, neighbours answering one another in stone. The harder question is where the knowledge came from, so early and with nothing nearby to copy.\n\nThis is where the record stops fitting neatly. If the tradition really owed nothing to the outside world, then a tiny, inbred island population invented monumental architecture on its own, perfected a single plan, chose its stone with the eye of a geologist, and carried it through three phases over a millennium. Then, around 2500 BC, after the last great complex at Tarxien, the temple-building culture disappeared. None of the sources explains why. Nobody is sure how the temples were roofed, either. Heritage Malta points to corbelling at Tarxien and Ħaġar Qim, courses of stone each stepping inward from the one below, and the corbelled ceiling carved into the underground Hypogeum nearby has been taken as a hint of what the lost roofs looked like.\n\nOther writers push the clock further back. The Italian archaeologist Luigi Maria Ugolini, who died in 1936, proposed about 8000 BC for the oldest layer at Tarxien. The writer Graham Hancock, in his online introduction to Underworld in 2002, set out \"a challenge to the orthodox chronology of Malta's megalithic sites.\" His argument is the sea: until the end of the Ice Age, he writes, Malta \"was joined to Sicily by a landbridge 60 miles long,\" and between 17,000 and 7,000 years ago rising seas flooded about 25 million square kilometres of land worldwide. To his credit, he also concedes that ignoring the official carbon dates in his earlier work \"was a mistake.\" The carbon dates come from organic material found with the buildings, not from the stone, and that gap between what is dated and what was built is where the argument lives.\n\nThe orientations add one more thread. In the survey by Hoskin, with Ventura and Foderà Serio, the main axes of fifteen temples run from about 93 degrees, almost due east, to about 204 degrees, a little west of south. Not one of the fifteen faces north. A shared plan with a shared preference for the southeastern sky, built by a few hundred farmers on a speck of rock, is not chaos. It is a rule that someone taught.\n\nWho taught it? If the islanders learned everything they knew from one another, the Maltese temples are the most astonishing act of isolated invention in prehistory. If they did not, then somewhere in the drowned country between Malta and Sicily, or somewhere no one has yet looked, the first lesson was given. Which of those two possibilities would be the harder one to believe?","qs":["Malta's first temple went up about 3600 BCE. Why don't more people know an island built them?","What was it like inside a roofed temple?","Does it matter that Göbekli Tepe was built by hunter-gatherers?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Ggantija_Temples%2C_Xaghra%2C_Gozo.jpg/1280px-Ggantija_Temples%2C_Xaghra%2C_Gozo.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ggantija_Temples,_Xaghra,_Gozo.jpg","title":"Ggantija Temples, Xaghra, Gozo.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"BoneA","cap":"This media is about Maltese cultural property with inventory number 00001."},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Borg_in_Nadur.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Borg_in_Nadur.jpg","title":"Borg in Nadur.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Alecastorina93","cap":"Malta"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Bugibba_hotel_Dolmen_Malta_7.jpg/1280px-Bugibba_hotel_Dolmen_Malta_7.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bugibba_hotel_Dolmen_Malta_7.jpg","title":"Bugibba hotel Dolmen Malta 7.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Karelj","cap":"Dolmen in Hotel Dolmen Resort, Bugibba, Malta"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Malta_-_Naxxar_-_Triq_l-Imdawra_-_Tal-Qadi_Temple_09_ies.jpg/1280px-Malta_-_Naxxar_-_Triq_l-Imdawra_-_Tal-Qadi_Temple_09_ies.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malta_-_Naxxar_-_Triq_l-Imdawra_-_Tal-Qadi_Temple_09_ies.jpg","title":"Malta - Naxxar - Triq l-Imdawra - Tal-Qadi Temple 09 ies.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Frank Vincentz","cap":"Tal-Qadi Temple at Triq l-Imdawra in Naxxar, Malta"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Malta_-_St._Paul%27s_Bay_-_Xemxija_Heritage_Trail_-_Xemxija_Temple_2_01_ies.jpg/1280px-Malta_-_St._Paul%27s_Bay_-_Xemxija_Heritage_Trail_-_Xemxija_Temple_2_01_ies.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malta_-_St._Paul%27s_Bay_-_Xemxija_Heritage_Trail_-_Xemxija_Temple_2_01_ies.jpg","title":"Malta - St. Paul's Bay - Xemxija Heritage Trail - Xemxija Temple 2 01 ies.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Frank Vincentz","cap":"Remains of Xemxija Temple II nowadays used as gate stones in a dry stone wall, Xemxija Heritage Trail in St. Paul's Bay, Malta"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"4850 BC","h":"Radiocarbon date of charcoal found at the site, long before the temples","s":[23]},{"v":"3600 BC","h":"Its earliest temple rose c. 3600–3200 BC, older than the Great Pyramid","s":[23]},{"v":"c. 3600-2500 BCE","h":"Dated to","s":[23]}],"hs":{"23":["Wikipedia: Megalithic Temples of Malta (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/MAL-TEM.webp","w":1280,"h":853,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Ggantija_Temples%2C_Xaghra%2C_Gozo.jpg/1280px-Ggantija_Temples%2C_Xaghra%2C_Gozo.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}