Temple People: Bioarchaeology, Resilience and Culture in Prehistoric Malta
Edited by Rowan McLaughlin, Edited by Bernadette Mercieca-Spiteri, Edited by Ronika Power, Edited by Simon Stoddart, Edited by Jess E Thompson
Series: Fragility and Sustainability - Studies on Early Malta, the ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project
Temple People Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 512
ISBN: 9781913344078
Pub Date: January 2023
In stock
£65.00
Description:
The ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project (Fragility and sustainability in small island environments: adaptation, culture change and collapse in prehistory, 2013–18) led by Caroline Malone has focused on the unique Temple Culture of Neolithic Malta and its antecedents. This third volume builds on the achievements of Mortuary customs in prehistoric Malta, published by the McDonald Institute in 2009. It seeks to answer many questions posed, but left unanswered, of the more than 200,000 fragments of mainly commingled human remains from the Xagħra Brochtorff Circle on Gozo. The focus is on the interpretation of a substantial, representative subsample of the assemblage, exploring dentition, disease, diet and lifestyle, together with detailed understanding of chronology and the affinity of the ancient population associated with the ‘Temple Culture’ of prehistoric Malta. The first studies of genetic profiling of this population, as well as the results of intra-site GIS and visualization, taphonomy, health and mobility, offer important insights into this complex mortuary site and its ritual. These data and the original assemblage are conserved in the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta as a resource for future study.