Malta – Metageum Conference

Exploring The Megalithic Mind

An Interdisciplinary international conference, Caraffa Stores/Palace, Birgu (Vittoriosa), Malta, 3-11 November 2007

An Independent Researcher’s Background

As a general background and to set the pace a little, I as a prehistorian conduct surveys in the Sahara Desert, where I survey ancient settlements and hunter-gatherer-fisher-forager sites for any forms of early human activity and search for expressions of human creativity. What I mean by human creativity is the impulse and need to explore the world around them in as many mediums as possible.  This includes surveying paintings, drawings and engravings that are found in the Sahara Desert. 

As a researcher I believe that there should be no distinction made between whether an ‘energy’ is perceived as male or female.  I prefer this approach as it avoids undue leaning on gender as a means to an end; In all my research I try to avoid gender bias; arguments abound but this approach avoids massive arguments and ensures the energies that are utilized are as pure as they can be, unhindered by peripherals that have no place in research of this nature, unless of course, the researchers are concentrating their energies in formulating an insightful understanding of the Feminine in Prehistory, and Her presence is of course, extremely relevant to that formulation.

Religion is considered by many to be at the root for many of societies ills; it doesn’t really matter whether you follow Christianity, Islam or any of the others; each is on equal par with one another.  It is believed by some fundamental sections that their own particular ‘religion’ is better than someone else’s.  Of course we all know that this cannot be the truth. 

The perception that Christianity and Islam especially seem always to be pitted against each other in battle, and both religions almost seem to be a fight to the death must have come from somewhere.  Ancient religions are replaced by newer ones and it is perhaps this that explains the reasoning behind religious battles. Early Christianity fought battles with the remnants of Arabic and Moslem rule on the Islands, but the impact of Islam today is less and less in evidence; there being only one major mosque on the entire archipelago of the Maltese Islands. 

Over many centuries the Maltese Islands have progressively been occupied (but never ‘owned’) by successive cultural and/or religious influences, all of them exhibiting both good and bad characteristics and this is what gives the Maltese Islands their unique character.

The Maltese Islands have a very checkered history that stretches back into the dawn of time in prehistory.  The earliest megalithic structures in Europe and the Mediterranean are found on the Maltese Islands, together with a distinctive presence of energies that many perceive as feminine. 

A Potted History

Rushing forward from prehistory to historical times, a pause between 870 and 1090 AD finds the Maltese Islands under Arab rule, but this ended as the 11^th century dawned.  European colonists then successively inhabited the islands, Norman, German, French and Spanish after them, and all had their part to play in the character of the Maltese mentality.

In 1429 the Maltese Islands again found themselves under Muslim rule, this continued until nearly a century later when the Maltese Islands were handed over by the Spanish king Charles V to the Knights Order of St John.  If you ask a Maltese whether he thinks the Spanish king Charles V ‘owned’ the Maltese Islands he would disagree vehemently – no-one has ever owned the islands apart from the Maltese themselves, he might say, and then ramble off into the annals of recorded history shaking his head in disgust; the Maltese are very nationalistic.  He might gesticulate and even utter profanities. Most of the Maltese I met were religious, attending mass regularly; in every small town there is a church, most of which are Catholic.  The churches also occupy strategic positions, very central to the village or town community  – the influence of this particular Christian faith is very strong on the Maltese Archipelago.

Uprisings come and go and one resulted in a great siege in 1565.  In 1614 a second Turkish invasion was repelled, and the series of forts and towns that we see now were built around the coast and heavily fortified and armed, where built on a phenomenal scale that began in the 1600s. 

For a hundred years fortified structures continued to be built and maintained, as the Crusaders fought to have their version of Christianity accepted on the islands; their battles were all fought here on Maltese soils and elsewhere in the Near East.

There came a time when the crusaders became known under a slightly different name, the Order of St John of Jerusalem, when a certain person, in 1798 invaded the Maltese Islands.  When Napoleon invaded the Knights were ejected, never to return. 

Wholesale looting of Maltese churches by the French forces infuriated the Maltese who called upon the British military for assistance.  Two years later the French surrendered and the Maltese Islands were placed under British Rule; liberation can also mean occupation, and it is not known whether there was an equal spreading of those who believed they were being occupied by a foreign power or were being liberated from the oppressive rule of a dictator. 

Religious belief is a powerful motivator and today there are many situations that exist in many places in the world, and we know from one of our most recent episodes in our own history how damaging occupation can be.  It was recently stated by Unicef that over 64,000 Iraqi civilians have so far been killed, and thousands more than this have been wounded.  Occupying forces maintain they are ‘liberating’ the country in question; but often the natives, who see the ‘liberators’ initially in a good light, soon see then as the oppressors and the bringers of destruction and thus rise up against them. 

Time eventually passes and 162 years later the State of Malta was created after over a century of great challenges and hardships. Two years after this in 1964 Malta achieved Independence.  Ten years later in 1974 Malta became a Republic but remained in the Commonwealth. And in 2004 Malta secured membership of the European Union.

Contemporary Malta: Hunting: a justified killing of Protected Species?  its Relevance to Tourism

Despite attempts by the Maltese to appear amenable to the EU, the islands have a disastrous track record in Environmental Conservation and still hunt twice a year; hunters it seems, are not about to follow EU directives for stopping general wanton destruction of the island’s Natural Heritage in whatever form it takes.  Killing rare and protected species has gone on for generations, and people are beginning to ask the question why.  This is very unfortunate for these islands; and so the battles continue, albeit fought on a different front. 

The cost of living for basic foodstuffs is very reasonable and I feel, as a concerned individual, that hunting is no longer relevant.  I have spoken to people on both sides of the gate, some take exception to the EU directives, and will continue to hunt, and others have even said they will not visit as a tourist because of the hunting.  Emotions run high.

When I enquired about hunting, two examples that I was given deserve a mention; 1) the continuation of hunting was due to the fact that Maltese memories are long and they dwell upon what happened in the war-years (WW2) with regards to the shortage of food supplies, and 2) they still eat the animals they shoot.  Whilst visiting a couple of sites I saw hunters with rifles but I did not witness hunters taking home their kill, neither for the pot nor for trophy.  So it is with sad regret that my tragic conclusion to this, is that they kill because they want to, and because they can.

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