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The large stone temple structures on Malta are amongst the earliest such constructions in the world, long before the pyramids were built in Egypt. This super book forms a pictorial record of all the temples on Malta, whilst also providing background information on the social and cultural history of the period. Built between c.3500 and 2500 BC, the temples reflect, and were part of, a period of great development on Malta and Gozo, especially in artistic and architectural terms. This is a clear, well illustrated account of the temple-building period, as well as of what went before and what came after.
This book synthesizes the archaeology of the Maltese archipelago from the first human colonization c. 5000 BC through the Roman period (c. 400 AD). Claudia Sagona interprets the archaeological record to explain changing social and political structures, intriguing ritual practices, and cultural contact through several millennia.
This collection of essays provides a reassessment of the multifaceted evidence which emerged from excavations carried out in 1909 and 1959 in the settlement of Bahrija, both largely unpublished until now. Bahrija is a key site for understanding the later stages of Maltese prehistory before the beginning of the Phoenician colonial period.
The indispensable account of the Ottoman Empire’s Siege of Malta from the author of Hannibal and Gibraltar. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was thought to be invincible. Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan, had expanded his empire from western Asia to southeastern Europe and North Africa. To secure control of the Mediterranean between these territories and launch an offensive into western Europe, Suleiman needed the small but strategically crucial island of Malta. But Suleiman’s attempt to take the island from the Holy Roman Empire’s Knights of St. John would emerge as one of the most famous and brutal military defeats in history. Forty-two years earlier, Suleiman had been victorious against the Knights of St. John when he drove them out of their island fortress at Rhodes. Believing he would repeat this victory, the sultan sent an armada to Malta. When they captured Fort St. Elmo, the Ottoman forces ruthlessly took no prisoners. The Roman grand master La Vallette responded by having his Ottoman captives beheaded. Then the battle for Malta began in earnest: no quarter asked, none given. Ernle Bradford’s compelling and thoroughly researched account of the Great Siege of Malta recalls not just an epic battle, but a clash of civilizations unlike anything since the time of Alexander the Great. It is “a superior, readable treatment of an important but little-discussed epic from the Renaissance past . . . An astonishing tale” (Kirkus Reviews).
This book is an account of the history of medicine in its widest sense as practiced in the Maltese islands during the Prehistoric and classical periods, when medical practice was primarily based on superstition, religion and magic. While superstition and magic prevailed in the subsequent centuries, the late Classical period saw the introduction of a philosophical type of medical thought looking at disease as a disorder in the basic humors making up the body. This concept set the stage for the eventual scientific advances initiated during the Renaissance.
While the Bronze Age is recognized as one of history's most important phases, it's been hard for historians to precisely date. The idea of the Bronze Age comes from a three-age system developed in the 19th century through which archaeologists and historians believe cultures evolve. These three ages are the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, and the concept of the system stems from the simultaneous development of museums in Europe during that time. In the Royal Museum of Nordic Antiquities in Denmark, Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, the director of the museum, began classifying objects of stone, bronze, or iron to better categorize and exhibit them. Each archaeological artifact was thus sorted according to their materials and further organized by shape and style. Through such methodology, working alongside archaeological reports, he was able to show how certain objects changed over time. Such a typology, combined with stratigraphy noted in archaeological reports, was useful to early archaeologists with no reliable method for dating artifacts. By understanding which object came before or after, early archaeologists had a relative dating system with which to assess the age of an object or culture. This kind of system was useful to the archaeologists who often encountered objects from above-ground burials that lacked stratigraphy. Of all the places in Europe that people might think would show traces of the early Bronze Age, the island of Malta is undoubtedly an unlikely location. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, almost equidistant between Europe and North Africa, Malta is known for its mild temperatures, friendly people, and nice beaches, but the small archipelago nation has a very long and unique history, having played a role in the rise and fall of several different empires. Crusader knights once made Malta their home and before them the Apostle Paul visited, bringing what was at the time the new religion of Christianity to the Maltese people. Before that, Malta was contested by the Carthaginians and Romans who viewed it as a vital logistical outpost in the middle of the Mediterranean. But Malta's history goes back even much further, which can be witnessed by the numerous Neolithic and Bronze Age era megaliths that dot the island of Malta proper as well as the island of Gozo to the north. Naturally, when European archaeologists began unearthing the megaliths of Malta in the 19th century, they did not know what to think, which led to a plethora of theories, many of them quite fantastic. At least 23 of these temples were uncovered, but because the people who built them lacked the knowledge of writing, speculation over who built them and why remained well into the 20th century (Rountree 2003, 26). Some people theorized that the Malta megaliths were built by a race of giants, while others believed that it was the center of a "Mother Earth" cult that later spread through Neolithic Europe. Early archaeologists were also perplexed about the physical origins of the Maltese megalith builders. Because Malta is such an isolated location, the builders had to have migrated there from elsewhere, but debates raged over the location. Equally confusing was when the megaliths were built. Although most legitimate historians believed from an early time that they were Neolithic structures, some argued that they were built much later and influenced by the Minoans and/or the Mycenaeans. Even as some answers have arrived, scholars still debate the purpose of the megaliths. Although there is a near consensus that they served as religious temples, the deities that were worshiped as well as the rituals carried out in the structures remain a mystery and sources of further debate. As such, the ancient monuments remain enigmatic and serve as sources of pride for the modern Maltese people and awe-inspiring to all those who visit them.