Temple people: bioarchaeology, resilience and culture in prehistoric Malta

Simon  Stoddart; Ronika K. Power; Jess E. Thompson; Eóin W. Parkinson; Bernardette Mercieca-Spiteri; Rowan McLaughlin; Anthony  Pace; Caroline Malone

Temple people: bioarchaeology, resilience and culture in prehistoric Malta

Simon Stoddart, Ronika K. Power, Jess E. Thompson, Eóin W. Parkinson, Bernardette Mercieca-Spiteri, Rowan McLaughlin, Anthony Pace, Caroline Malone

School of Natural and Built Environment

Research output: Book/Report › Book

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Abstract

The ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project (Fragility and sustainability in small island environments: adaptation, culture change and collapse in prehistory, 2013–18) led by Caroline Malone has focused on the unique Temple Culture of Neolithic Malta and its antecedents. This third volume builds on the achievements of Mortuary customs in prehistoric Malta, published by the McDonald Institute in 2009. It seeks to answer many questions posed, but left unanswered, of the more than 200,000 fragments of mainly commingled human remains from the Xagħra Brochtorff Circle on Gozo. The focus is on the interpretation of a substantial, representative subsample of the assemblage, exploring dentition, disease, diet and lifestyle, together with detailed understanding of chronology and the affinity of the ancient population associated with the ‘Temple Culture’ of prehistoric Malta. The first studies of genetic profiling of this population, as well as the results of intra-site GIS and visualization, taphonomy, health and mobility, offer important insights into this complex mortuary site and its ritual. These data and the original assemblage are conserved in the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta as a resource for future study.

Original language	English
Place of Publication	Cambridge
Publisher	McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
Number of pages	512
ISBN (Electronic)	9781913344085
ISBN (Print)	9781913344078
Publication status	Published - 15 Jan 2023

Publication series

Name	Fragility and Sustainability - Studies on Early Malta, the ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project
Volume	3

Name	McDonald Institute Monographs

Keywords

Bioanthropology, Malta, Prehistory, diet, disease, aDNA, nutrition, health, teeth, dentition, population, sustainatbility. burial, ritual, taphonomy, digital

Access to Document

Temple people: bioarchaeology, resilience and culture in prehistoric Malta
Copyright 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits distribution and reproduction for non-commercial purposes, provided the author and source are cited.
Final published version, 192 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

1 Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Hypogea and the clubhouse: Neolithic Malta's houses of the living and the dead.
Malone, C., McLaughlin, R., Barratt, R. & Parkinson, E. W., 2019, Houses of the dead?: Neolithic Studies Group Seminar papers 17. Barclay, A., Field, D. & Leary, J. (eds.). Oxford: Oxbow, Vol. 17. p. 15-37 23 p. (Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

Cite this

Stoddart, S., Power, R. K., Thompson, J. E., Parkinson, E. W., Mercieca-Spiteri, B., McLaughlin, R., Pace, A., & Malone, C. (2023). Temple people: bioarchaeology, resilience and culture in prehistoric Malta. (Fragility and Sustainability - Studies on Early Malta, the ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project; Vol. 3), (McDonald Institute Monographs). McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

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Stoddart, S, Power, RK, Thompson, JE, Parkinson, EW, Mercieca-Spiteri, B, McLaughlin, R, Pace, A & Malone, C 2023, Temple people: bioarchaeology, resilience and culture in prehistoric Malta. Fragility and Sustainability - Studies on Early Malta, the ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project, vol. 3, McDonald Institute Monographs, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge.

Temple people: bioarchaeology, resilience and culture in prehistoric Malta. / Stoddart, Simon ; Power, Ronika K.; Thompson, Jess E. et al.
Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2023. 512 p. (Fragility and Sustainability - Studies on Early Malta, the ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project; Vol. 3), (McDonald Institute Monographs).

Research output: Book/Report › Book

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AU - Power, Ronika K.

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AU - Parkinson, Eóin W.

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AU - McLaughlin, Rowan

AU - Pace, Anthony

AU - Malone, Caroline

PY - 2023/1/15

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AB - The ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project (Fragility and sustainability in small island environments: adaptation, culture change and collapse in prehistory, 2013–18) led by Caroline Malone has focused on the unique Temple Culture of Neolithic Malta and its antecedents. This third volume builds on the achievements of Mortuary customs in prehistoric Malta, published by the McDonald Institute in 2009. It seeks to answer many questions posed, but left unanswered, of the more than 200,000 fragments of mainly commingled human remains from the Xagħra Brochtorff Circle on Gozo. The focus is on the interpretation of a substantial, representative subsample of the assemblage, exploring dentition, disease, diet and lifestyle, together with detailed understanding of chronology and the affinity of the ancient population associated with the ‘Temple Culture’ of prehistoric Malta. The first studies of genetic profiling of this population, as well as the results of intra-site GIS and visualization, taphonomy, health and mobility, offer important insights into this complex mortuary site and its ritual. These data and the original assemblage are conserved in the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta as a resource for future study.

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M3 - Book

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T3 - Fragility and Sustainability - Studies on Early Malta, the ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project

BT - Temple people: bioarchaeology, resilience and culture in prehistoric Malta

PB - McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

CY - Cambridge

ER -

Temple people: bioarchaeology, resilience and culture in prehistoric Malta

Abstract

Publication series

Keywords

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Research output

Hypogea and the clubhouse: Neolithic Malta's houses of the living and the dead.

Cite this