Highlight - 4

Temple Model
Globigerina Limestone. H. 2.6, W. 4.8, D. 3.7 cm
Ta’ Ħaġrat Temple (Malta), 3600–2500 bce
Heritage Malta–National Museum of Archaeology: 12951
Courtesy of Heritage Malta, photography © Daniel Cilia

This fascinating miniature model provides critical support for the idea that some temples were roofed entirely with stone. The roof appears to be built from blocks laid parallel to one another. Scaled up to life size, with a doorway approximately 1.75 meters wide, the building would be about 10 meters long—the dimensions of one of the smaller Maltese temples. No excavated temple has a surviving roof, however, which has led to the suggestion that the roofs may have been made of perishable materials, such as wood and clay. Alternatively, temples of different sizes could have been roofed using different techniques. The model also accurately portrays the buttressing aspects of the outer wall of a full-size temple, in which the slabs were alternately placed radially and flat in the wall face.