About 2 million years ago, the world climate underwent a series of cold-warm periods which gave rise to the Ice Ages. These climate fluctuations caused the periodic growth of ice sheets on land in high latitudes and mountains during the glacial periods, while the interglacial climate was similar to those prevailing today. The ice cap during the glacial periods advanced at a rate of 100 m/yr. and has been estimated to have been about 2500 m thick across Europe. The ice cap however never reached further than 400 latitude and thus the Maltese Islands were never covered with ice. The regions south to 40o latitude were affected by Pluvial periods which saw very unsettled weather with increasing rain precipitation. The Mediterreanean region may in fact have been rather arid during the glacials, increasing in humidity during the interglacial periods. The cool wetter climate of the Pluvial period allowed the southern extension of the Central European forests of pine, olive, juniper, cedar and fir. In addition the uptake of water in the increasing ice-cap resulted in a drop in the sea level, estimated at a total drop of 150 m in the Central Mediterranean during the last Ice Age. This sea level drop was sufficient to expose the submarine ridge of the Central Mediterranean thus connecting the Maltese Islands to mainland Europe. The advancing cold weather in Europe also forced the warm-loving animals to migrate southwards reaching the Maltese Islands. It is estimated that the Pleistocene period may have undergone a total of about 17 cold periods. This cycle of mainland connection of the Maltese Islands followed by a period of isolation allowed for the development of a number of endemic species which were generally characterised by dwarfism of the herbivore mammals and gigantism of rodent, reptilian and avian species. Similar species development has also been reported from other Mediterranean small islands.
Excavations of the Pleistocene deposits in Malta have suggested the presence of two phases datable to the Late Middle Pleistocene (c.130,000-180,000 years ago) and the Late Upper Pleistocene (c.23,000-10,000 years ago). During the Late Middle Pleistocene the excavated fauna clearly suggest a wetter climate than that prevalent today. There is also evidence of a small lake in the west of Malta. However the presence of Laurel suggests a Mediterranean climate characterised by a hot dry season. The animals prevalent during this period included the dwarfed endemic hippopotamus and elephant species, besides extinct species of dormice, bats and avian remains. The deposits are generally referred to as Hippopotamus or Leithia cartei layer. No human remains or artefacts have been definitely associated with this stratigraphical layer.
The mainland connection was again re-established during the last Ice Age period during Late Upper Pleistocene (23,000 - 10,000 years ago). During this phase the climate in the Central Mediterranean was cooler than that prevailing today. A large number of species have been excavated from the various Late Upper Pleistocene deposits on the Maltese Islands, the prevalent animals appear to have been stunted forms of deer (Cervus elaphus), scanty remains of small sized carnivores (Ursus, vulpes, canis), and remains of bats, voles, birds, turtles and amphibians. Deposits of this period are typically referred to as Cervus or Pitymys melitensis layer. Stratification studies of trenches dug at Ghar Dalam suggest that the Cervus layer frequently had incorporated hippopotami and elephant remains. Human remains and artefacts were also found in this stratigraphical layer.
Glacial Geographic Climate Wild Fauna Human Phase situation Culture
Inter- Islands present Apodermus or Prehistoric Neolithic glacial skeletal Holocene Rodentia: Apod.sylvaticus, art R.rattus artefacts c.10,000 Insectivora: Crocidura russula domestic y.a. Chiroptera: Rh.euryale, animals Rh.hipposideros, Myotis blythi Ungulata: Cervus elaphus Domestic animals: cow, horse, sheep/goat, cat, pigeon, Testudo
4th Connected cooler Cervus or Pitymys melitensis Palaeolith. glacial to Sicily than Chiroptera:Rh hipposideros, Magdalenian (Final present Rh.euryale, Rh. mehelyi, skeletal Wurmian) (snail Rh. blasii, Miniopterus art 23,000 - species schreibersi artefacts 10,000 typical Rodentia:Pitymys melitensis y.a. of fresh Insectivora: Crocidura sp. and Ungulata:Cervus elaphus, Post- brackish Hippopotamus sp., Bos sp., Gamblian water) Elephas sp., Equus sp. Carnivora: Ursus arctos, Vulpes sp.,Canis lupus. Avian remains: Corvus ?frugilegus, passerine birds Reptilia: Lutremys europoea. Amphibia: Bufo sp.
3th Connected wetter Hippopotamus or Leithia cartei Palaeolithic glacial to and Mousterian (Riss Sicily, cooler II) possibly than Chiroptera: Rh. hipposideros, 130000 also to present, Rh.mehelyi birzebbugensis, - Africa lake in Rh.blasii, Myotis exilis, 180,000 west M.bechsteini robustus, y.a. Malta, M.ghardalamensis, M. capaccini, flora Eptesicus praeglacialis, Kanjeran includes Pipistrellus pipistrellus, laurel Miniopterus schreibersi and pine Rodentia: Leithia cartei, L. (bat sp. melitensis, Maltamys gollcheri, species M.wiedincitensis require Insectivora: Crocidura ?russula large Ungulata:Palaeoloxodon falconeri., fresh Palaeol. mnaidriensis, water Hippopotamus pentlandi., areas, Hippo. melitensis forests Avian remains: Cygnus falconeri., with Grus sp. high Carnivora: Nesolutra euxena trees Reptilia: Geochelone robusta, and open Lacerta siculimelitensis areas) Amphibia: frog or toad sp. Discoglossus sp.
The presence of Palaeolithic man on the Maltese Islands during the late Upper Pleistocene is to be expected when one considers the Islands were connected to the mainland by a well-defined landbridge. The culture of Palaeolithic man was based on a hunter-gatherer economy, and he would have been expected to follow the southern migration of the deer herds. Palaeolithic man with his hunter-gatherer culture was unlikely to leave a major impact on his environment, in contrast to the later Neolithic man who modified the environment to suit his needs. One would expect only scraps of material evidence of the presence of Palaeolithic Man on the small area covered by the Maltese Islands Evidence of Palaeolithic man has been described from various sites in Central Europe. In Sicily there is ample evidence of Palaeolithic man and his culture.
A systematic review all the archaeological evidence of various excavators to identify evidence of artifacts and skeletal remains which could be attributed to Paleolithic man in Malta revealed a surprising number of items which together confirm the presence of Paleolithic Man on the Islands. This evidence is in the form of tool artifacts typically associated with the Magdalenian culture, food remains (edible snails) excavated from the Cervus layers at Ghar Dalam, prehistoric cave art typical of a hunter-gatherer culture, and skeletal remains dated to be contemporary to the Cervus remains.
PALAEOLITHIC ART: Prof. Emmanuel Anati of the Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici in 1990 described a number of prehistoric cave paintings discovered at Ghar Hassan. These paintings included various animal figures, an anthropo-zoological image, various hand prints and a variety of ideograms. Emmanuel Anati is a world authority in cave art and because of the importance of these finds, a curriculum vitae is in order. Prof. Anati is Professor of Palaeoethnology at Lecce University, and is also the director of the Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici at Capo di Ponte. He completed his studies in archaeology and prehistory at the University of Jerusalem, specialised in anthropology and the social sciences at the University of Harvard, Cambridge (USA), and in ethnology at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he obtained his doctorate in letters in 1960. Anati pursued his studies in the human sciences at the Universities of London and Cambridge (1960-2). He has taught and organised lectures at various universities and institutes of higher research, and these included the Universities of Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and Manchester, the National Museums of Canada and Ottawa, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and the French College in Paris. Research missions and expeditions for UNESCO and other governments have been undertaken in all five continents. In particular he has organised courses and international seminars on prehistoric and primitive art, which discipline he has promoted on a large scale world-wide. His Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici is based in the Alpine valley of Valcamonica, reputed for its rock art and included in the UNESCO list of cultural World Heritage sites. His publications on rock art and related subjects are numerous and include Har Harkom; World Rock Art; Valcamonica Rock Art; Helan Shan - the Rock Art of China; The Religion of Origins; The Roots of Culture; and Prehistoric Brescia. According to this world renowned expert in primitive art, the images identified at Ghar Hassan appertain, by way of style, analogy, graphic design and concept, to a horizon of hunter society and they definitely antedate the first Neolithic Maltese folk.
Another probably Palaeolithic painting depicting a bull was previously described from the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. It is probable that the Hypogeum was a natural cave complex which was used by palaeolitic man who during the Ice Ages depicted the bull - an animal which was apparently considered to be sacred. Later civilisations (neolithic) artificially enlarged the cave system for Death Cult practices. During the architectural modifications, Neolithic man came across the still considered sacred bull depiction. This earlier painting was respected and conserved so that the cave wall where the bull was depicted remained in its natural state and the painting was not covered with the red ochre wash which covers the rest of the cave. The bull was re-discovered in the 1950s and confirmed as being earlier than the Neolithic by British archaeologists. Ironically, a Palaeolithic painting conserved by primitive Neolithic man was erased by "civilised man" in the 1980s. Fortunately this example of cave art has been preserved in the form of photographs taken during its discovery. In addition to the Palaeolithic pattern of the Hypogeum bull as characterised by the lack of detail and the materials used (black manganese oxide), the red ochre used at the hypogeum has been found on scientific testing Russian UNESCO representatives to be identical to the world famous Lascaux Palaeolithic paintings in France.
PALAEOLITHIC ARTEFACTS: The Maltese archaeological literature has a number of instances which mention the excavation of possible stone tool artefacts in association to fossil animals datable to the Upper Late Pleistocene. The resemblance to tools were generally accepted to have been accidental in form and the excavated remains were disregarded and lost to posterity. Sir Temi Zammit, the Father of Maltese Archaeology, records that he had excavated in 1917, a number of microliths, or pigmy flints, on the plateau to the southwest of Casal Dingli, belonging to a type which was attributed to the Old Stone Age of Europe (Upper Palaeolithic, 12000 BC). Although not absolutely typical, these flints were described as being geometric in form and might have been adapted for use as harpoons or fish hooks. These microlith tools had apparently disappeared by 1971 when Prof. Evans catalogued the Malta Museum's holdings. In addition to these finds, other implements were excavated in 1917-1920 by Guiseppe Despott from the Cervus layer at Ghar Dalam dated to c.18000 years ago (J.R. Anthrop. Inst., 1918, 1923) show the presence of human artefacts in association with elephant remains but with the obvious absence of pottery sherds (pottery sherds are generally associated with a neolithic culture). Trench I excavated in 1917 at the fourth layer in association with Cervus and elephant remains yielded “shells of the Murex trunculus and Cerithium vulgaris. These apparently had been broken for the purpose of extracting the mollusk” and “At the same level with these a fossil shark’s tooth .... was found; it had the point chipped off, apparently from a continuous hammering with it”. Trench II excavated in 1917 at the second layer in association with stag and vole remains, and one of the taurodont molars yielded: two sling-stones much more roughly worked than those met with in the foregoing layer, one flint and three obsidian scrapers; and three pieces of worked chert and flint. The Middle Trench excavated during 1918-20 at the botton of the 2nd layer (about 4 feet from the surface) in association with deer, hippopotamus and vole remains yielded two very roughly made sling-stones, two microlith chert/flint knives, and a (?)flint flake. In the layer below, a lava grinder and a regularly shaped piece of globigerina showing evidence of fire were also excavated. With the skeletal and cultural evidence excavated from Ghar Dalam, one must accept that as Despott concluded “we have now a proof that elephants lived in Malta contemporarily with man”. .
SKELETAL EVIDENCE: The population of Palaeolithic man on the Maltese Islands could not have been very numerous and thus Palaeolithic human skeletal remains are scanty. Furthermore, Palaeolithic Man generally buried his dead in caves. These burial sites were possibly used by later Neolithic man in later millennia resulting in an admixture of cultures and the obvious assumption that all the skeletal remains excavated in sites such as the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum and Burmeghez Cave at Mqabba were contemporary to the Neolithic shards and artefacts found therein. The skeletal evidence, at present, is limited to remains excavated from the Ghar Dalam cave floor deposits from what is generally termed the "Cervus or Pitymys Layer" attributed to the last Ice Age circa 18000 years ago. This layer is separated from the upper "Domestic animal Layer" by a circa 2.5 cm thick calcareous sheet. Unfortunately the early excavators decribed variously the layers as they appeared in their excavations, making associations occasionally difficult. While the two taurodont teeth excavated by Rizzo and despott in 1917 are the human remains often associated with the Cervus Layer, a number of other human skeletal remains were excavated by various workers in association with stag and vole remains now attribted to the Cervus layer. These remains are enumerated below:
1. A human hand bone excavated by J.H. Cooke (1892) in Trench IV in association with Cervus remains.
2. A taurodontised human upper first molar [Ma2] excavated by C. Rizzo (1917) in Despott's Trench No.II (second layer). This same layer also yielded some phalanges and part of a skull all in association with "bones of stag and of a small rodent, probably a vole".
3. A tuarodontised first milk molar excavated by G. Despott (1917) in Trench II (third layer) in association with stag remains.
4. A tooth and some phalanges excavated by G. Despott (1918-20) in Middle Trench (second layer) in association with deer, hippopotamus and vole remains.
5. Seven teeth (two incisors, one a canine excavated from beneath a stalagmitic layer about 1/2 inch thick), a metacarpal and a phalanx excavated by G. Despott (1918-20) in Middle Thrench (third layer) in association with deer, hippopotami. and elephant remains.
6. One molar excavated by G. Despott (1918-20) in Outer Trench (second layer) in association with deer remains.
7. A tooth excavated by G. Despott (1918-20) in Outer Trench (fourth layer) in association with deer, fox, wolf, and hippopotamus.
8. Molar tooth excavated by G. Sinclair at a depth described as 2 ft lower than that of G. Despott.
9. A tooth [Ma1] excavated by G. Caton Thompson (1923) in association with hippo and deer, but this layer was described as "unstratified" and may have been disturbed.
10. Third left taurodontized molar [Ma7] excavated by J. Baldacchino (1936).
The most discussed human skeletal remains from this collection are the two taurodont teeth and another tooth were excavated by Despott in 1917-20 from the Cervus layer at Ghar Dalam. The presence of the two taurodont teeth at this level have in later years been assumed to have been the result of unsupervised excavation displacing the teeth from upper levels. However these teeth have been repeatedly scientifically dated in 1952 and 1968, and while the Museums Department had failed to publish the full results of these tests, the primary source of the tests have indicated that these teeth may have been contemporaneous with the excavated deer bones and thus datable to 18000 years ago. Similar dating results were obtained from two teeth excavated from the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum in 1952. In view of the suggested possible cultural admixture of skeletal remains in Maltese cave burial sites, it is suggested that some of the excavated material from these sites "could possibly belong to Palaeolithic man". In particular, one must consider the skulls which according to anthropologists and anatomists could have primitive features. This assumed later material should now be dated by modern techniques to settle the issue scientifically.
On the basis of the above evidence and indicators, one must conclude that there is a strong case for the presence of Palaeolithic Man in Malta during the last Ice Age. The likelihood, on the basis of the presently accepted time-scale of human evolution, is that Maltese Palaeolithic Man belonged to the species Homo sapiens sapiens, though the recent discoveries on the mainland suggest that Neanderthal Man could easily have been contemporary to the last Ice Age connection of the Maltese Islands to the mainland.
One may well question whether there was further cave art evidence of Palaeolithic man in Malta, which today has disappeared through the erosive effects of time. A number of sites which have been associated with the presence of Palaeolithic man in Malta bear names which could be linked to plestocene animals. Many of these place names such as Wied/Ghar Dalam and Ghar Hasan may date to Arabic times. Rather than referring to darkness - and it is difficult to explain a dark valley - dalam may have been derived from the archiac dulam which is the term used for elephant. Similarly rather than referring to the legendary scaren Hasan, the word may be a derivative of the archiac hisan which is the term used for horse. In addition hisan il bahar refers to the river-horse or hippopotamus. The elephant, hippopotamus and horse were in fact common animals in Malta during the Pliestocene. Could it be that these caves had previous evidence in the form of identifiable cave painting depicting these Pliestocene animals - painting which have now disappeared as a result of natural causes and a result of man's destructive forces. Efforts must be now made by the local authorities to protect these local and world heritage sites and artefacts.
SAMPLE Dating Fluorine Nitrogen Uranium P2O Iron Fe:P20
[y.a.] ratio
Shark tooth Miocene 1.83-2.51 N/A 21-98 22.8-23.8 0.9-1.1 8 - 10.5
Hippopotamus sp ?c.18000 0.1 0-0.4 4.0-9.0 34 0 0.3
Cervus sp. c.18000 0.25-0.30 0-0.48 4-12 33.5 <0.2 0.7
Equus sp. c.7000 N/A 1.01-2.64 0 N/A N/A N/A
GD/CT/1923/Ma1 c.18000* 0.2-0.3 0.39-0.79 N/A 29.5 <0.5 0.7
GD/D/1917/Ma2 [*1] 0.4 0.8-1.85[*2] 13 27.5 <0.5 1.5
GD/B/1936/Ma7 [*1] N/A 0.44 0[*3] N/A N/A N/A
Hyp/Z/Ma5 c.7000* N/A 0.83 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Hyp/Z/Ma6 c.18000* N/A 0 N/A N/A N/A N/A
FDL/ZM/1968 c.2500[*4] N/A 0.43-2.58 N/A N/A N/A N/A
REFERENCES:
Mifsud A. and Mifsud S.: Dossier Malta: Evidence for
the Magdalenian. Proprint, Malta, 1997;
N. Fenech: Cave drawings which trace the sojourn of early man. The Malta Independant, 29 December 1996, p.6-7;
C. Savona-Ventura: The Core of the Argument. The Malta Independant, 9 February 1997;
C. Savona-Ventura: Palaeolithic Man in Malta. The Sunday Times, 20 July 1997, p.18, 3 August 1997, p.17
