This post is
going to give so basic background information on to the archaeological site
Ggantija. Ggantija is a well preserved temples is on island of Gozo in the Mediterranean
sea. It was built by the Malta, who had no written language or knowledge of any
kind of metal, had raised vast, yet where able to build sophisticated stone
structures several hundred years before the Egyptians built the pyramids.
Ggantija’s stone gray structure stands on one of Gozo's flat-topped hills above
a fertile valley. Ggantija gained its name due to folk stories. Legend speaks
of a female giant who, by day, strode the land carrying the great slabs on her
head, and built them by night. This look of this temple gave it its name
Ggantjia, the Maltese word for giantess. The Malta used Gozo’s abundance of multiple
types of limestone in nearly all of their temples. However, nowhere else did
they build a surrounding wall quite as astonishing as the one at Ggantjia. Blocks
of hard grey stone, the size of small cars are laid alternately upright and
sideways to form a first course eight meters high. Above this another layer of
smaller blocks teeter upwards for a further two meters. The two entrances of
Ggantija stand side by side on the concave façade. They are flanked by pillars
of soft, golden limestone once doubtless capped by lintels of equally
impressive dimensions. Gganjita’s threshold is made of one enormous slab of
golden stone and beside it lay round rocks which that rolled it into place from
the surrounding hillside. The interior walls were originally plastered and
painted with red ochre, the remains of which could still be seen clinging to
the stones until only a few years ago. Gganjita was the first uncovered in the
1820s. It was dug out by untrained hands, as was a common practice in archaeology
in the 1800’s. It is guessed that many of the treasures from Ggantija must have
disappeared with the rubbish. Of the few things that remained a carved snake climbing
a stone and two finely modeled stone heads give some indication of what else
might have been there. One artifact found at the site however, is difficult to
associate with the terms of the Stone Age. A piece of pottery, part of a bowl
incised all round with two lines of birds in flight. The Malta people who built
this temple were farmers. They grew barley and wheat and raised with them cattle,
goats, sheep and pigs. The Malta appear to have been a remarkably peaceful
people, yet they fear no threat from each other or from the outside world. They
lived in caves and houses made of mudbrick. Their homes were without a trace of
any kind of fortification. The only things found from this period even
resembling a weapon are two tiny arrowheads. Skeletal remains of the Malta show
they had unusually healthy with strong bones and teeth though a few of them had
bunions on their feet. One rather touching artifact found was the remains of a
small child buried with a puppy. It is unknown if whether or not the site was
meant for only privileged members of their society to be buried there, but
several skeletons seem to indicate otherwise. These men buried at Ggantija had
particularly thick, strong limbs and distinctively craggy faces suggesting they
were more common people then not.
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