Dr. Smiti Nathan

Transcript

Smiti: Welcome to Curiosity Meets the Past, a podcast for curious minds who love learning about the past. My name is Dr. Smiti Nathan, and I’m an archaeologist and your host.

 In this episode, I’m speaking with Laura, also known as MegalithHunter on YouTube. Laura creates edutainment content, which focuses on ancient monuments, especially megalithic ones. She has a self-described amateur interest in archaeology, and her background includes an interdisciplinary master’s in Mediterranean studies.

This conversation takes us to the small but monument-rich islands of Malta. This is a place where massive stone structures older than Stonehenge and the ancient Egyptian pyramids still spark wonder and questions. 

Together, we explore these often underappreciated megalithic monuments. Laura walks us through their unique features, how her own curiosity led her to pursue formal study and start a YouTube channel, and the surprising amount of information that hasn’t made it into the guidebooks yet, but is freely available if you know where to look.

So if you’ve never heard of Malta’s ancient monuments before, Laura starts us off by detailing what makes them so awe-inspiring.

Laura: They’re quite different to other megalithic structures. So most people have heard of stone circles. They’ve heard of dolmans, but very few people are aware that the Maltese megalithic temples are unique in their style.

They are mostly made up of a concave façade with a trilithon entrance. So in that sense, the trilithon entrance is quite similar to other megalithic structures in Europe. And then, you enter a long corridor that’s paved and going to each side are apses, so mirrored apses. So you’ll have one on the right mirroring one on the left, and then you keep going up and you’ll have another couple of apses. The number of apses varies and they usually, um, the corridors terminate in a niche like a smaller apse with a sort of altar or sometimes just a large apse. So basically they’re absidal, megalithic monuments, and obviously no one’s really sure why they are the shape that they are. They are unique in their design. The artifacts that were found in them are, are unique. There was a unique material culture that evolved here more than 5,000 years ago. The sheer number of the temples is also quite interesting because there’s probably, I mean, we don’t know, but there could have been a hundred or so there traces of a lot have been found and I think right now, I think there’s nine or 10 that you can actually visit. But yeah, the, the fact that there would have been so many on what’s a relatively small space is also rather intriguing.

’cause you can’t imagine a, a massive population being sustained in the Neolithic on these small islands. There wouldn’t have really been the resources. So you have to ask why did they build quite so many of these temples? And the other thing worth mentioning, is that. They referred to as temples, but we don’t really know what they were for. They weren’t domestic dwellings. They weren’t burial grounds, there was some sort of rituals going on there, but we just don’t really know what the nature of them was. I remember visiting them for the first time on a holiday and just being really impressed. It’s like, why aren’t people talking more about them? Maybe they are. I just hadn’t read the right books.

Smiti: That’s fair. Sometimes we just don’t know what’s out there until we see it right in front of us. And you mentioned just how massive these structures are and what do we know about how they were built?

Laura: It’s known that the quarries were relatively close, there’s three types of limestone that the Maltese Islands are made out of: Globigerina, lower Coralline, and upper Coralline. The temples are made up of a mix of these, so globigerina a lot softer, and that’s usually used for artifacts or the, the architectural features that are referred to as altars, but we dunno if they’re really altars. Um, and then obviously there’s the rougher stone, coral, the coralline stones also used, basically they used, whatever was nearby, and all of those, of stone are easily accessible. They weren’t transporting blocks a really long way, but it’s still impressive, obviously, for that time. I haven’t really read much about construction techniques. I’m not sure there is, that much, research into that or experimental archaeology into it.But I could be wrong.

Smiti: That’s totally fine. I think for a lot of these structures, sometimes we have some clues and indications, but there are still always gaps. So I’m wondering, in your opinion, what makes Malta’s monuments different?

Laura: There’s these, statues of corpulent, people, which could be female, but it’s not really clear. Some of these statues are absolutely enormous. And then there’s also small figurines like that, and they all wear these sort of skirts and have a really similar type hair almost looks like a wig. And that is just completely unique to Malta. These, uh, figurines of corpulent people that they’ve been referred to over the years as Goddess Figurines.

Really not clear if they’re female or male.

They’re kind of  androgynous. And they’re really strange ’cause they have like these really tiny heads, in relation to the rest of the body. The ankles are kind of bent in a way that also is not very realistic. I mean, of them that they found they’re not completely intact, but they know what they look like originally were several meters tall, whether they were a priest or priestess that was being worshiped by the people there, whether they represented an elite figure, even though we don’t really think of the neolithic as having a super stratified society, who knows?

But that is unique. other stuff, you know? Okay, fine. Pottery, pottery styles, they have their own pottery styles. That’s how the different phases, of prehistory here are dated, But the figurines there and statues are really unique.

Smiti: Well, it seems that you have a deep intellectual curiosity about these monuments, and you did let us know how you first got curious about them. But I’m also wondering how your master studies lent itself to personal exploration that perhaps maybe even deepened your curiosity.

Laura: Well, I’d always had an interest in archaeology and ancient history, but also just history. You know, I like looking at castles and homes and reading about kings and queens and things, When I was looking at doing a master’s degree, I just came across it kind of by accident that there was this degree, master’s in Mediterranean studies and I thought, well, it’s not ancient history and it’s not archaeology, which is the areas even though I never worked in those areas, I kind of had in my head an idea to start to direct my studies towards that. And then with the, with the view to one day working in those areas, because it’s just really interests me. I decided it can go beyond a passion if I want it to. It doesn’t have to just be something where I read books and visit sites.

But then when I came across this master’s degree that was interdisciplinary, it really caught my eye because I kind of didn’t know where to start. and I thought, well, this is a, a good starting point for this is to do something where you touch on lots of different areas. So I looked at the geography of the Mediterranean.

We looked at, history and prehistory did obviously come into it. All the different connections. The role that the sea has played in uniting different cultures in history, how it’s influenced the trade route. So you, you look at lots of different areas, and it helps you to understand the connectivity of the Mediterranean region in the modern day as well as in pre-history. So it gave me, You know, little bit of insight into an area that I was passionate about but didn’t have any formal training in. Even though, of course, I’m not specialized, I’m not an archaeologist, I’m not an ancient historian. This is still something where I was into, it was an interdisciplinary study. But one thing that really helped me was I hadn’t studied for, well, about 20 years at the time when I did this master’s degree. So things have changed a lot and I found it actually quite, good that you could go to journals online instead of having to go into the library and look at an index. So that was great. It taught me a little bit about research because as I said, hadn’t studied for a long time, so I really needed a refresher on that. and also had to differentiate between certain sources. ’cause I realized that in a lot of popular books, written just for the general public rather than, you know, niche academic textbooks. Often, the sources are a little bit mixed. Sometimes they, reference peer-reviewed journals, sometimes books by academics, sometimes textbooks, and sometimes just really random articles or blogs. So, you know, understanding the difference between these sources was an important, learning curve for me, that really helped.

’cause when I decided to launch MegalithHunter, I wanted to use these type of sources. So. give all the information that we really do have on that particular topic that’s, you know, factual and evidence-based. And then when there are still gaps in the knowledge, we can speculate a little bit. We can look at some of the wilder ideas, but we need to understand Evidence that there is what research has already been done. But for me that was one of the key things, in my master’s degree that’s helped me with MegalithHunter.

Smiti: Gotcha. Well, thank you so much for sharing your process with us, and I’m curious, what’s been the most surprising thing you’ve learned about the megalithic structures on Malta as you’ve researched and shared information about these monuments with your audience?

Laura: Well, you know, I suppose it’s just the sheer amount of research that’s been done. So of course there was still the still mystery there. Why did the temple people, as we often refer to them, do what they did. When they decided to do it. Why was it so unique? Was it really due due to isolation? Because it does seem that the, they were seafaring, they obviously got to Malta in the first place and they did source obsidian from other islands in the Mediterranean. So there’s that. And then there’s the question of where did they disappear to?

’cause they did disappear. But actually, now there’s been huge volumes of research, Brand new excavations, several really detailed monographs, not super well-advertised. I mean the guidebooks that you buy are still kind of outdated in that sense. But a lot of this has really, set the record straight, the new dating, chronologies, lots of insight into where people actually lived at that time.

So now they have a lot more, we have a lot more idea of like the settlements. That, um, the people that built the temples lived in because they were not megalithic structures. They were, mud brick and with some stone foundations, obviously that wasn’t really where they were investing their time and energy, but understanding that there were settlements here and those people were supporting these building projects is also really interesting and there’s a lot more new work into that. And there’s also been, um, a lot of research into different, hi. So it seems that there were times that people settled left, settled left, or they might not have left completely, but the population went so low it was practically indiscernible in the archaeological record. It could be that it was, it did evolve over a long period from some of these earlier settlements. There are gaps in the record. Or maybe had to leave, come back, whatever, then, disappearing. Well, yeah, I mean they did disappear, but it does look like they just didn’t have the resources anymore. Environmentally, they’ve done a lot of work on skeletons and they can see that disease was creeping in. They’ve done research into the environment, how it looked towards the end of the temple period, and resources would dwindling.

So it is not such a mystery anymore. So there are still mysteries. And they’re still not a hundred percent sure. How can you be the experts? You know, they can only do so much, but, they have collected an overwhelming amount of evidence now, so I think, that’s something that’s not in the guidebooks really. So there’s a lot of research out there and that’s why, you know, I do talk about Malta sometimes on my channel because are really interesting research monographs that need to be aired more publicly, I think.

Smiti: Well, thank you for sharing that. And this will be aired more publicly now too. And you did mention the guidebooks being a bit outdated, so I am wondering if someone were to visit one of these sites today, what should they look for or keep in mind.

Laura: The website of Heritage Malta is pretty good. They even have, um, walkthrough of some sites like the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, so like a virtual walkthrough.

You can have a look beforehand, and, you know, updated information on each of the sites. Also the guidebooks have some, they give you a really good overview if you’ve never heard of Malta before, so that’s great. But then, you know, I always say to people, if you really want to know more, the, there’s these three monographs that were done by the FRAGSUS project, published after the, the excavations that I think what they were between 2015, 2018, something like that. And then after that, slowly, slowly, each one came out.

One was on, people. It was on some skeletal remains a famous hypogeum called Xagħra Stone Circle. The other one was called Temple Places about temple sites and settlements, and the other one was called Temple Landscapes, which was about the environment, and they’re free to download. There’s so much free information out there. So put the links out. Uh, can give them to you for the description on this as well. Um, whilst all this stuff is free, oh, I mean if you really interest you, I would check it out. Definitely.

Smiti: That’s awesome. Well, thank you for that resource, and I’m wondering why do you think these ancient monuments still capture people’s imaginations today?

Laura: I think everybody just wants to know what they were up to. What, what were these ancient people doing? When, when agriculture came about, supposedly it gave people more free time and made things a little bit easier, still not that easy. Not that easy that you are building these enormous monuments that must have taken quite some time as well. So they must have taken a lot of people, um, specific skills. Of course in those days with disease and people not living till grand old ages, you just think, wow. I mean, it must have been a intergenerational as well. So there must have been an overwhelming reason why they did it. Why, what was so important to them? And of course the, the general consensus is there was a sort of ritual element and a practical element, probably quite well combined. but still it’s, um, hard to imagine from our perspective today. So I that’s why people are fascinated by them. And I mean. When you go to the temples, there’s always like massive tour groups coming here from abroad to look at them. And yeah, everybody looks pretty impressed. I mean, they’re stunning. I mean, probably one of my favorite ones is Ġgantija in Gozo because the way that they’ve, um, created the visitor center, they created it on like a, a slight incline behind. So as you come around the corner, you see it from above and it’s just like these enormous megaliths from a distance, and then after that you’ve got them the rest of the Gozo Island and you’ve got the sea and yeah, it’s just, it’s a magnificent view.

 Smiti:  One of my biggest takeaways from this conversation is how a spark of personal curiosity grew into something bigger. Laura not only took it upon herself to do her own research, but along the way she developed the skills to do so thoughtfully and share those stories and findings with broader audiences.

If you’d like to learn more about Laura’s work, you can check out her YouTube channel MegalithHunter and follow her on Bluesky. You’ll find those links in the show notes along with a link to a full transcript of this episode.

 And if you’re curious to dig deeper and get Laura’s top three recommendations for visiting megalithic monuments in Malta. She shares that in a Patreon exclusive video.

Our Patreon is free to join and gives you access to all of our extra content if you’d like to support the podcast monetarily, that’s always appreciated too. Thanks so much for listening and cultivating your curiosity with us.

We’ll see you soon.

Credits

Laura aka MegalithHunter:: Guest

Noor Hanania: Theme Music Creator

Laura Riveiro: Podcast Cover Art Creator

Smiti Nathan: Host, Video Editor

Patreon Supporters

Thank you to our paid Patreon members for supporting the creation of this episode:

Nancy Fulton, James D., Giancarlo Annese, Thomas Martin, Stuart A. Griffin, Tagg, Ann Brookens, Diana Madden

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