page_title: National Museum of Archaeology, Malta
section_title: Bronze Age Hall (2400 – 700BC)
hierarchical_section_title: National Museum of Archaeology, Malta / Collection / Bronze Age Hall (2400 – 700BC)
caption_attribution_description: English: Dagger with a carved bone handle. Bronze Age Period. On permanent display at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, Malta.
context_page_description: The National Museum of Archaeology is a Maltese museum in Valletta, with artefacts from prehistory, Phoenician times and a notable numismatic collection. It is managed by Heritage Malta.
context_section_description: The Bronze Age Hall tells us about the culture and rituals of new peoples that moved to the Islands c. 2,400BC.
  The remains from the Bronze Age attest to a total break with the culture of the Temple Period.  The richly decorated temples which defined the previous culture, are replaced by fortified settlements, built into rocky natural defences, that bear witness to more defensive newcomers. 
  The Maltese Islands themselves do not have the metal resources by which this culture is defined. Metal ore, to make copper and bronze objects such as the knives and axe heads we see in the display, needed to be imported.  On the other hand, the whorls and loom weights are testimony to a well-developed textile industry, and may have been an important export to balance payments.
  The pottery from this period is marked by geometric lines and new pottery forms.  Ashes and burnt bones found in intact pots are evidence of cremation ceremonies, a practice which seems to have been introduced during this period. Body ornaments made of fish-bones, shell and faience, as well as daggers and axes, discovered in Bronze Age burial sites, accompanied the cremated remains.
  Of note are a new highly-stylized form of body representation which are completely different to the ones belonging to the previous Temple period. They are flattened figures with disk-like torsos, narrow heads and no arms.  The torsos are inscribed with the same geometric motifs that adorn contemporary pottery.
caption: Dagger with a carved bone handle
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