MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OE NATIONS 



449 



Ha£ar Kin 



A SKETCH MAP OP MALTA, A TINY ISLAND WHICH HAS PLAYED A GREAT ROLE IN 

 WORLD HISTORY (SEE PAGES 450-454) 



established beyond doubt, however, that 

 Malta was inhabited by man before it 

 assumed its present shape. 



In many parts of the island where the 

 bare rock is exposed there can be seen 

 deep parallel lines — cart ruts — winding 

 their way quite irrespective of the pres- 

 ent centers of abode. Some of the cart 

 ruts lead direct to the cliffs, while others 

 can be traced under an arm of the sea, 

 coming up again on the opposite shore. 

 In other cases the tracks are broken by 

 a geological fault, the ruts continuing on 

 a different level. Many ruts are now 

 covered by several feet of earth, fields 

 having been formed on their sites (see 

 page 455). 



In later Stone Age times Malta pos- 

 sessed a considerable population, judging 

 from the wonderful buildings erected in 

 those days. Some have been investigated, 

 but the majority are still untouched. 



Beside the magnificent temple of Gi- 

 gantia in Gozo, Malta possesses the un- 

 rivaled erections of Hagar Kim (page 

 457) , Mnaidra (page 459) , Corradino, Hal 

 Saflieni Hypogeum (page 459), and Hal 

 Tarxien (page 469), as well as numerous 

 rough stone monuments and altars techni- 

 cally known as menhirs and dolmens. 



The extent of some of the prehistoric 

 buildings and the wonderful skill dis- 

 played in their erection show that man 

 had reached a high state of knowledge 

 even in the far-off days of B. C. 5000. 



From an examination of the skeletons 

 of the polished-stone age, it appears that 

 the early inhabitants of Malta were a 

 race of long-skulled people of lower 

 medium height, akin to the early people 

 of Egypt, who spread westward along 

 the north coast of Africa, whence some 

 went to Malta and Sicily and others to 

 Sardinia and Spain. 



There appears little doubt but that the 

 early Maltese belonged to the same stock 

 as the Iberians of Spain, the Basques of 

 the Pyrenees, the Gauls of France, and 

 the small, dark men of Cornwall, South 

 Wales, and Ireland." 



THE ARRIVAL OP THE PHOENICIANS 



The Bronze Age dwellers in Malta left 

 behind many interesting relics, a burial 

 place having been found on the site of 

 the Stone Age temple of Hal Tarxien, 

 whose ' ruined walls doubtless provided 

 good shelter for their funeral fires. Nu- 

 merous urns containing human ashes 

 were found, together with many personal 

 ornaments, the whole providing a very 

 good insight into their belief that the 

 departed were not dead, but merely re- 

 moved into another sphere, where they 

 required the same food and other neces- 

 saries as in this life. 



History proper starts in Malta with 



* See "The Races of Europe," by Edwin A. 

 Grosvenor, in the National Geographic Maga- 

 zine for December, 1918. 



