Ta' Ħaġrat Temples

Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Megalithic Temples of Malta: Ġgantija, Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra, Ta' Ħaġrat, Skorba, Tarxien.


State Party = MLT
Type = Cultural
Criteria = iv
ID = 132
Region = Europe and North America
Year = 1980
Session = 4th
Extension = 1992
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/132

The Ta' Ħaġrat temple in Mġarr, Malta, is on the eastern outskirts of the village, roughly one kilometer from the Ta' Skorba temples. [citation| last = Trump, Cilia | title = Malta Prehistory and Temples |page = 154] The remains consist of a double temple, made up of two adjacent complexes, both in the shape of a trefoil. The two parts are both less regularly planned and smaller in size than many of the other neolithic temples in Malta. [citation| last = Żammit, Mayrhofer| title = The Prehistoric Temples of Malta and Gozo |page = 142] Unlike at some other megalithic temples in Malta, no blocks in the temple are decorated.

Description

The major, western, temple has a distinctive façade with a bench at its foot and a monumental doorway that bears the marks of some minor restoration. The front is slightly concave, with a gateway in the middle. [citation| last = Trump, Cilia | title = Malta Prehistory and Temples |page = 154] Two steps lead up to a corridor flanked with large headstone uprights, which were originally covered by horizontal slabs.cite web | title= Maltavoyager.com - Articles| url= http://www.niumalta.com/vladi/neo/pages/skorba_malta_temples.html |accessdate=2008-09-19] The corridor and the central court are paved, and an apse floored with torba opens on either side. [citation| last = Trump | title = Malta: An Archaeological Guide |page = 139] [citation| last = Żammit, Mayrhofer| title = The Prehistoric Temples of Malta and Gozo |page = 143] This temple is only fifteen metres long internally.

Later construction resulted in the three apses of this temple being partially walled off. Some pottery shards have been recovered from the internal packing of this wall. The most unusual find in the excavations was a small model of a temple.

The smaller temple to the north is six and a half metres long. One enters it from the eastern apse of the larger temple. The smaller temple is made of smaller stones than those used in the larger temple. [citation| last = Żammit, Mayrhofer| title = The Prehistoric Temples of Malta and Gozo |page = 142]

Sir Temi Żammit, the first to excavate the site (1925-27), declared the two temples and their pottery as being degenerate, dating them to a late period. Later excavations put the larger temple in the Ġgantija phase. The smaller and more irregular temple was dated to the Saflieni phase, with its irregularities being considered to be either archaic or provincial. [citation| last = Trump | title = Malta: An Archaeological Guide |page = 140]

The plentiful pottery found show that a village stood on site and predated the temples themselves. This early pottery is the source of the name "Mġarr phase". [citation| last = Trump, Cilia | title = Malta Prehistory and Temples |page = 155]

References

Coordinates: coor dms|35|55|13.3|N|14|22|09.1|E|type:landmark