page_title: Culture of Malta
section_title: The culture of prehistoric Malta
hierarchical_section_title: Culture of Malta / The culture of prehistoric Malta
caption_attribution_description: Català: Detall del temple megalític de Mnajdra (Malta) English: The megalithic temple of Mnajdra, detail (Malta) Español: Detalle del templo megalítico de Mnajdra (Malta) Deutsch: Megalithischer Tempel von Mnajdra, Detail (Malta) Čeština: Megalitický chrám Mnajdra, detajlní záběr (Malta)
context_page_description: The culture of Malta reflects various societies that have come into contact with the Maltese Islands throughout the centuries, including neighbouring Mediterranean cultures, and the cultures of the nations that ruled Malta for long periods of time prior to its independence in 1964.
context_section_description: The earliest inhabitants of the Maltese Islands are believed to have been Sicani from nearby Sicily who arrived on the island sometime before 5000 BC. They grew cereals and raised domestic livestock and, in keeping with many other ancient Mediterranean cultures, formed a fertility cult represented in Malta by statuettes of unusually large proportions. Pottery from the earliest period of Maltese civilization (known as the Għar Dalam phase) is similar to examples found in Agrigento, Sicily. These people were either supplanted by, or gave rise to a culture of megalithic temple builders, whose surviving monuments on Malta and Gozo are considered the oldest standing stone structures in the world. The temples date from 4000–2500 BC and typically consist of a complex trefoil design.
  Little is known about the temple builders of Malta and Gozo; however there is some evidence that their rituals included animal sacrifice. This culture disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC and was replaced by a new influx of Bronze Age immigrants, a culture that is known to have cremated its dead and introduced smaller megalithic structures called dolmens to Malta, probably imported by Sicilian population because of the similarity of Maltese dolmens with similar constructions found in the largest island of the Mediterranean sea.
caption: The temple complex of Mnajdra (4th mi-3200 BC)
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