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Nowhere on earth did a Goddess ever reign as she did in Malta.
Architect Richard England explains the Maltese temples themselves as
the personification of the Earth Mother, with floor plans which echo
abundant maternal curves. One can easily imagine the concept of
entering the "womb" of the temple for communion with the
Goddess, and emerging "re-born" into the sunlight.
Amazingly, visitors can still walk in several of these prehistoric
temples. They are UNESCO World Heritage sites and the oldest
free-standing buildings on the planet. But what about the advanced
civilization which they represent?
Two terms seem to go hand-in-hand
when the temples of Malta are discussed. Fertility Cult is often
used to describe pre-patriarchal societies of the Neolithic period,
which in most of the world some 4,500 years ago worshipped a Goddess.
The concept is universal and shows up at one time or another in
virtually every culture on the planet. Mention the words Fertility
Cult and you really capture "civilized" people’s
attention: wild abandon and sexual frenzy, sweaty bodies and wicked
native drums. Put all that in the context of a torch-lit megalithic
temple and the active imagine could run hog wild.
Not much survived of the early
matrifocal people of Europe once they were overrun and assimilated
by aggressive tribes identified by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas in
"The Language of the Goddess" (1989, San Francisco: Harper
and Row.) With mobility of mounted horses and the authority of metal
weapons the invaders made relatively quick work of establishing a
new order in the old world. A successful takeover would have
demanded the smashing and widescale eradication of any existing
goddess spirituality. With a few exceptions myths and legends were
all that remained to carry memory of the ancient times, and over
subsequent millennia recorded history managed to distort or destroy
most of that as well. The one clear remnant that comes down to us
today is the use of such terms as Mother Nature and Mother Earth.
As hunter-gatherer humankind came out of the caves of Europe and
western Asia, people soon learned something about agriculture,
animal husbandry and the production of a continuous food supply.
They already knew that females, both in the fields and at home,
carried young within their bodies and gave birth. There was no great
mystery about it. That was just how things happened. It’s
extremely difficult to believe that they didn’t also understand a
need for the male of the species in reproduction, although some
anthropologists argue this point. At least in the Maltese Temple
Period material, there is more than a little suggestion of duality
and a healthy respect for gender differences. Gimbutas referred to
sculpture and carvings of plumply rounded devotional figures as
clearly representing, above all else, the concept of regeneration.
When early people witnessed the earth bringing forth fruits and
grains, they identified it with the same feminine characteristics of
creation and nurturing. It was, after all, the mother who fed the
young, and the earth that fed the people. In this way, the concept
of a feminine deity of fertility and abundance would have been
entirely natural.
When we talk about Neolithic Malta,
we are considering a time period long before Buddha and Mohammed,
before Jesus and Moses and even Abraham. Sometimes it’s difficult
to put aside those later influences and remain totally objective
about the existence of a civilization which is neither recorded in
the Bible nor described in the hieroglyphics of an Egyptian tomb.
How is it that the Maltese Fertility Cults have been such a secret?
It’s likely that the early people who had written language never
knew about them.
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As if by
destiny, the megalithic temples of Malta were overlooked or ignored
for many thousands of years. Abandoned for some reason at around 2500
BC, they sat in isolated silence for centuries. The roofs fell in.
Weeds grew between the stones. Through a long and complicated history
of foreign occupation and resettlement of the Maltese archipelago,
the debris of ages continued to collect in the temples.
Although there is evidence of trade
and communication with other regions, the "temple culture"
of Malta developed their unique artistic expression and iconography
along lines which are totally unlike anything seen elsewhere from the
same time period. For more than a thousand years they successfully
existed in peace and harmony with themselves and their environment.
No evidence of weapons, warfare or defensive architecture exists in
the ruins.
The debate continues over the "fertility"
and "Goddess" idols which have been discovered inside the
temples and in the prehistoric underground burial chambers. Some of
the excavated figures are clearly feminine images, skillfully
represented down to the pleats in their cloth garments, the carefully
braided hair hanging down their backs and the woven cane of their
furniture. The carved heads in another group of stylized ritual
objects strongly suggest male features with long noses and wide jaws.
The bodies of these are straight and angular, clearly clothed. Other
representational pieces are phallic in nature and leave no room for
doubt.
But most of the "cult statuettes" are a mystery; posed both
standing and comfortably seated in various positions. Although
headless, many are equipped with a socket between the shoulders and
tiny holes for manipulating a cord. Several were found with separate
heads nearby. They may have been designed to fulfill the function of
some sort of oracle. The important locations in which they were found
unmistakably point to ritual use. It has been argued that these
graceful statuettes with their corpulent nude bodies can't possibly
be female because they don't have well-defined breasts. Neither does
any of them have a penis to make it unarguably male. There can be no
denying that they are curved in the way that a woman usually curves
when she lets nature take over. One modem Maltese gentleman proposes
that the fat arms, thighs and calves on these figures are styled to
signify strength. Mr. Joseph S. Ellul, whose father was for many
years caretaker at the Hagar-Qim site, theorizes that this is the
power which would have been required to move the massive stone slabs
which make up the temples. ("Malta's Prediluvian Culture",
1988, Malta: Printwell Ltd.) The sculptures may simply be androgynous
figures of abundance. Perhaps, in a society where gender was not the
issue that we make it today, they were designed to serve equally with
the modeled head of either priest or priestess, depending on who was
officiating at the time. We may never know for sure.
One thing is certain: whether or not
they ever accommodated wild orgies, the megalithic limestone temples
of Malta were and continue to be places of immense importance in
human history. They are remarkable evidence of a people who have been
described by cultural anthropologists as among the purest and most
impressive cultures that ever existed. Personally, I have to wonder
what our world might be like if the knowledge were widespread that
once upon a time, God looked just like my mother!
(This article is contributed by The
OTS Foundation - Editor. For more interesting travel articles,
please visit InfoHub Specialty
Travel Guide)
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