page_title: Tas-Silġ
section_title: Punic, Hellenistic and Roman temple
hierarchical_section_title: Tas-Silġ / History / Punic, Hellenistic and Roman temple
caption_attribution_description: English: Tas-Silġ Temples, Triq Xrobb l-Għaġin in Marsaxlokk, Malta
context_page_description: Tas-Silġ is a rounded hilltop on the south-east coast of the island of Malta, overlooking Marsaxlokk Bay, and close to the town of Żejtun. Tas-Silġ is a major multi-period sanctuary site with archaeological remains covering four thousand years, from the neolithic to the ninth century AD. The site includes a megalithic temple complex dating from the early third millennium BC, to a Phoenician and Punic sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Astarte. During the Roman era, the site became an international religious complex dedicated to the goddess Juno, helped by its location along major maritime trading routes, with the site being mentioned by first-century BC orator Cicero.
  The original name of the hill where the site is found is Ta' Berikka, with the name Tas-Silġ deriving from a nearby Church of Our Lady of the Snows, built in the 1800s. Excavated as part of an archaeological project in the 1960s, the site was abandoned for several decades. In 1996, the University of Malta restarted excavations, uncovering Neolithic and Late Bronze Age remains, and substantial deposits associated with ritual offerings in the Punic era.
context_section_description: After the Phoenicians took over Malta in around 700 BC, they built a Punic temple to Astarte incorporating upstanding remains of the earlier temple. A forward extension was added to the curved facade, and a monumental doorway flanked with two pilasters and topped by a huge stone slab was built. The sanctuary's importance eventually grew and a portico was added around 300 BC. Some parts of the temple, including a tower, might have been designed as a fortification to help defend it from possible invaders. 
  A threshold slab pierced by three libation holes that divided the eastern part of the temple and the western side, as well as a series of ashlar foundation walls for a platform built to the south of the main sanctuary still exist. Around this area, various remains were found including pottery, ash, animal bones, coins and shreds. Some of these shreds have votive inscriptions. It is claimed that the Cippi of Melqart might have originally been at the Tas-Silġ temple, but their origin is disputed.
  The presence of significant remains of pottery on the site found during the excavations suggests the existence of workshops nearby which produced ceramic ware intended to be used within the temple site. However, the presence of imported ware was also confirmed by the make-up of the pottery. Numerous Punic bronze coins were also found on site.
  In the Roman era, the Punic temple was converted into a sanctuary of Juno, which was the Roman equivalent to Astarte. In 70 BC, Cicero mentioned the temple in his In Verrem, in which he said that the temple was revered by everyone including pirates and Numidian princes, but the Roman Governor of Sicily had stolen some of its treasures. Some Roman material was discovered in various deposits around a well in the lower terrace of Tas-Silġ. Red Roman flooring, opus signinam, made from crushed pottery, lime and white marble tiles, still exists on site.
  Large water storage areas under Tas-Silġ were recently found and mapped, and they probably date to the Punic or Roman eras.
caption: Opus signinum with white marble cubes at Tas-Silġ.
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