Tarxien Temple

Plan of the Temples of Tarxien

Evolution of the Maltese sacred architecture from the rock tomb of Xemxija to the temple of Tarxien

The temples of Tarxien ( pronunciation : [ ˈtarʃiɛn ]) in Tarxien on Malta were built around 3250 BC. Until 2500 BC Built in BC. The complex from the Neolithic Age has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “ Megalithic Temples of Malta ” since 1992 and has been included in the National Inventory of the Cultural Assets of the Maltese Islands .

description

View through the Trilith portal of the southern temple , reconstructed in the 1950s.

Temple of Tarxien (interior of the middle temple, the first transverse wing from the southeast)

The colossal statue called "Magna Mater"

The temple complex of Tarxien consists of four individual, consecutive and structurally connected temples. In 1956 the entire facility was comprehensively renovated . The main entrance is a replica of the reconstruction. At the same time, many ornate blocks of stone were replaced with copies and the originals moved to the Valletta Archaeological Museum to protect them from weathering . The first temple was built around 3100 BC. It is the most ornate temple in Malta. The middle temple was built around 3000 BC. Built in BC. It is unique in that, unlike the rest of the Maltese temples, it has three symmetrical pairs of apses instead of the usual one or two pairs of apses. The eastern temple was built around 3100 BC. The structural remains of another, smaller and older temple, the time of its creation to 3250 BC. BC, can be found in the east.

The outer walls of the temples are made of hard coral limestone, which was difficult to work with. The inner walls are made up to 20 ton blocks of globigerines - limestone . Statues, reliefs, altars and shrines were also carved from this soft limestone. Of particular importance is the elaborate natural stone masonry with the relief depictions of domestic animals, which are on altars and stone slabs and are decorated with abstract spiral motifs and other patterns. An example of the craftsmanship of the builders is a relief that is located in the wall passage between the southern and central temple and depicts a bull and a sow. Many pieces of jewelry, statuettes and clay pots were also found in the temples. A connection with the nearby hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni is suspected. According to this, the Tarxien complex could have been a temple for the living and the hypogeum, in which the remains of 7000 skeletons were found, a temple and burial place for the dead.

Function and construction in the Neolithic

During the excavations it was found that the temple complex was mainly used for animal sacrifices. Tarxien provides rare insights into the way the megalithic complexes of Malta were built, as stone scrolls have been found near the southern temple. Signs of cremation in the center of the southern temple provided evidence of the facility's use as a Bronze Age burial site .

discovery

A relief depicting goats and a pig from one of the temples in Tarxien.

The large stone blocks were discovered by farmers plowing in 1914. After the also accidental discovery of the nearby hypogeum , the owner of the property suspected that the large stones chipped by the plows of the farm workers could have an archaeological significance. He got in touch with the director of the national museum, Themistocles Zammit , who started digging on a first tour of the site and discovered the center of the temple complex. Zammit found a complex that was formed by a semicircle of hewn stones of enormous size and resembling an apse . Over a period of three years, Zammit carried out an excavation project with the help of the local farmers and additional workers from the city, which had never before been carried out on this scale in Malta. By 1920, Zammit had identified and restored five distinct, interconnected temples, and amassed a remarkable collection of works of art. Among them is the famous, originally about 3 m high statue of the "Magna Mater", the representation of a mother goddess or a fertility symbol, of which only the lower half has survived. Many unique testimonies to Malta's prehistoric artistic heritage are part of this Themistocles Zammit collection.

meaning

The discovery of the temple complex contributed to the development of Malta's national identity and confirmed the existence of an ancient culture on the island. The discoveries sparked public interest in Malta's historical treasures and recognized the need to establish a management for the preservation of the art treasures and to enact laws to protect them. At the same time, the excavation methods in Zammit established a new, scientific conception of archeology.

Eponyms

The asteroid (56329) Tarxien was named after the facility in 2004.

literature

JV Casingena: The megalithic temples of Tarxien. With a brief description of the prehistoric monuments of Hagar Qim, Mnajdra, Ggantija . Masprint, Rabat 1977, 48 p. (New edition 1984 under the same title but only 40 p. And without naming the author from 1977: L. Aquilina (copyright), Santa Venera, Alpaprint 1984).
Joachim von Freeden: Malta and the architecture of its megalithic temples . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1993, ISBN 3-534-11012-9 , p. 204f: The most important cult places and temples. No. 20: Tarxien .
David H. Trump : Tarxien . In: Malta. Prehistoric times and temples . Midsea, Santa Venera 2005, ISBN 99932-7-049-0 , pp. 120f.
Themistocles Zammit : Prehistoric Malta - The Tarxien Temples and the Saflieni Hypogeum . 1994.