A Neolithic World View Lost in Translation: The Case of the Tarxien Temples

Abstract

This paper considers the history of interpretations of the Maltese Neolithic Temples, using the site known as the Tarxien Temples as a case study. It examines the persistence of terminology adopted by archaeologists to explain the Tarxien complex during the early and midtwentieth century, and discusses how broader social trends and perspectives on religion have determined academic and popular understandings of such sites and their cosmological aspects. The paper shows how outdated misconceptions about the Neolithic sites remain commonplace, despite the rise of more dynamic interpretations in recent years that consider the structures in more relational contexts.