Malta, 14: National Archaeological Museum

Saturday we were back on tour, planning to do Valleta, the Three Cities, the Grand Harbor, the National Archaeological Museum, and the Malta At War Museum. I'll do the archaeological museum first, just to keep all the archaeological stuff together. The museum deals with Phoenician, Carthaginian, Greek, and Roman stuff, too, but I'll just focus on the megalithic, the temple builders.

The archaeological museum is housed in the 1575 Auberge
de Provence, that is, the headquarters of the Knights from
Provence; the Knights were housed according to nationality
and had specific defensive responsibilities also by nationality

Thus

Photo pre-exhibit: reminder that we did only the top three or four sites and
have plenty left-over for next time; and surely more will be discovered (don't
call me Shirley)

Ditto

On to the main megalithic exhibit; some of the
oldest figurines, c. 4,000 BC

How it's done; and in English too

A tiny fist-size model of a temple: note trilithon and especially the slabbed
roofing; the fact that someone carved what is arguably a model of a temple
5,000 years ago is pretty mind-blowing

Altar

Among many examples of fine carving taken from the temples

Me standing for scale by one of the corpulent statues;
trying desperately not to look corpulent

Many firgurines

More of the corpulent ones

Dorsal view of the "Venus of Malta," showing carving
skill

Pix of many more statues, figurines; they came in all sizes

The Three Musketeers; wait, no; the Three Icthophalluses;
still processing this one...

Very abundant neolithic jewelry, personal and ceremonial items

The Sleeping Lady figurine found at the Hypogeum; muy famoso

More large scale carving from the temples; they're brought here for protection
from further erosion; often replaced on site by copies

Largest tea cup ever found

Malta, 13: 50th Wedding Anniversary

We had agreed to do no touring on our wedding anniversary day. Just relax, reflect, and enjoy a good meal. Or two. Well, we did the warm-tub thing at the spa, Vicki  had a massage and facial, and I got a haircut. The best rated restaurant in the vicinity actually was the Meridien's restaurant, Taro, and we easily found things to like on the menu. It was a great anniversary day.

June 8th, 1968, First Christian Church, NE 4th St., Miami, Florida

On every one of our 50 anniversaries, Vicki has always brought one of the
candles from our wedding as well as napkins from the reception

We were ridiculously young; by today's standards

At Taro, on Malta, 50 years later

Onion soup with smoked cheese custard

Vicki's bifstecca fiorentino

My mixed shellfish marinieres...clams, mussels, prawns and
langoustines in a shallot and herb fumet

Contemplating...

A ginger and coconut delice, with mango compote

And a little Hennessy's...

Malta, 12: Sette Giuno Fireworks

The 7th of June is a public holiday in Malta, commemorating the deaths of four rioters during demonstrations again the British in 1919. (Sort of like Ireland?) Malta is very big on fireworks, every city, town, and village having their own manufacturers, holidays, displays, etc. Late the evening of June 7th we enjoyed seeing some national fireworks over the Grand Harbor in Valletta. From our balcony. Well, one of our balconies.

Malta, 11: Hal Saflieni Hypogeum

The Hypogeum is a subterranean neolithic sanctuary/necropolis, built some 5,000 years ago, then buried and lost for the next 4,000 years until digging for a cistern broke through its ceiling in 1902. The remains of some 7,000 individuals were found in the necropolis along with a wealth of grave goods, pottery, votive figures, and such. All this would make it one of the most important of archaeological sites. But it is the Hypogeum's architecture and ornamentation that are most striking. Depending on your experience with the Neolithic--Stonehenge, Avebury, Newgrange, Carnac, etc.--it is simply amazing to descend into the three levels of the Hypogeum and see what was going on here while our other ancestors up north were merely hauling big stones around and aligning them with celestial cycles and the environment. The Maltese were doing some of the same above ground, and the Hypogeum and its finished work also shed some light on what was above.

Heritage Malta only allows 80 people per day, in groups of ten, into the carefully maintained site, under the watchful eyes of staff members and a guide. No photos are permitted. Tickets are often booked weeks in advance, but a limited number of next-day tickets, at a premium price, can be had at the national archaeological museum in Valletta and at the Gozo museum, where I got ours. I'll post just a few pix below, either off the web or pix of pix from the national museum. Wikipedia has a good article with some pix, and Heritage Malta's site includes a bit of a streaming tour. One of our best ever archaeological visits.

We were there June 7th...next available reservations, July
25th; book ahead!

Inside; much of the photography gives it all a reddish cast....the color is really
the same creamy limestone one sees everywhere in Malta, new and old and
unimaginably old

The "main" chamber; thanks, Smithsonian

Ceiling decor thereabouts

The "Holy of Holies"--here, it is thought, light from the dawn of winter solstice
illuminated the facade (through a light box, sort of like Newgrange (?); also
interesting is the carved ceiling: a depiction of the corballed roofing of the
monuments above ground, like Tarxien and Ggantija

Interior carving...this from a stone now at the national archaeological museum,
where the rest of the loot is; we'll visit on June 9th

Malta, 10: More Tarxien Temples

More of Malta's Tarxien Temples, one of the greatest of archaeological sites...see previous post for some background...

Business opportunity: dig a hole in the ground, put a barrier around it: people
will throw money into it for no apparent reason; maybe not lots of money, but
it adds up

Every night, scoop up the proceeds; but always leave a few
coins for "seed"; they also throw in credit cards, room keys,
pens and pencils, maybe even an iPhone...sky's the limit

In an earlier post I speculated about the corballing of these structures: a growing
hypothesis: they were roofed in stone slabs, corbal-style

Walkway; the holes are a mystery, one of many

Neolithic painting?

Flooring...post and lintel...

Obviously they had the post and lintel thing down good

But wait, there's more: lot's more: abstractions, spirals, animals...

And the "skirted" corpulent figure

"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a
waterfall of creative alternatives..."...Rubens? Isolde? Brynhilde? Kate Smith?
Mama Cass? Mother Earth?

The carving, such as it is, is compelling; we'll see more at Malta's national
archaeological museum in a couple days

Among the mysteries--less so on Malta, where there is
everywhere nothing but limestone slabs--is how they moved
the big rocks and set them in place; they apparently didn't
have big timbers; some theorize they used round rock
rollers like these, found at all the sights, sort of as ball
bearings

Back inside the entrance office, an orthostat from one of
the temple entries with sketches of neolithic or at the latest
Bronze Age sea-going vessels; if so, the oldest such; I
couldn't see anything, but the next shot perhaps represents
what's there...pretty compelling stuff

Even with changes in sea levels and land bridges and such, Malta would be
pretty hard to get to without a boat

Unassuming entrance to one of the world's great megalithic sites

The street decor was no less mystifying

But the Hypogeum, perhaps the toughest ticket in all the megalithic world, was
not far away